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As for the deep cultural structures that legitimize the exclusion of women, it is very likely that these gradual changes will last too long, at least for me. We need to reflect on what power is, what it is for and how it is calibrated, or in other words, if we do not perceive that women are totally within power structures, then what we need to redefine is power, not women.

— Mary Beard Women & Power: a Manifesto (2017)

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More quotes by Mary Beard

This is a dangerous myth if we think we are better historians than our predecessors.

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2017)

It’s not easy to make women fit into a structure that is initially encoded as masculine: what needs to be done is to change the structure.

Women & Power: a Manifesto (2017)

Greek men didn't all look like this. And indeed, this guy, his musculature is actually physically impossible. What these are are images of a kind of perfect version of Greek masculinity.

Shock of the Nude (2020)

It’s a "high-end" power in the traditional sense and linked to the image of the "glass ceiling", which not only places women out of power, but imagines pioneers as successful superwomen who only a few vestiges of male prejudice prevented them from reaching the top.

Women & Power: a Manifesto (2017)

Roman society incorporated those who were mostly excluded in the ancient world, most obviously, women... They didn't have any formal political rights in Rome

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Mary Beard (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.