Helen Keller, Out of the Dark: Essays, Lectures, and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision (1913), p. 118

The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labour. Surely we must free men and women together before we can free women. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands -- the ownership and control of their lives and livelihood -- are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind are ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease. How can women hope to help themselves while we and our brothers are helpless against the powerful organizations which modern parties represent and which contrive to rule the people? They rule the people because they own the means of physical life, land, and tools, and the nourishers of intellectual life, the press, the church, and the school.

— Helen Keller on Feminism

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The country is governed for the richest, for the corporations, the bankers, the land speculators, and for the exploiters of labour. Surely we must free men and women together before we can free women. The majority of mankind are working people. So long as their fair demands -- the ownership and control of their lives and livelihood -- are set at naught, we can have neither men's rights nor women's rights. The majority of mankind are ground down by industrial oppression in order that the small remnant may live in ease. How can women hope to help themselves while we and our brothers are helpless against the powerful organizations which modern parties represent and which contrive to rule the people? They rule the people because they own the means of physical life, land, and tools, and the nourishers of intellectual life, the press, the church, and the school." in the context of "Helen Keller, Out of the Dark: Essays, Lectures, and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision (1913), p. 118" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Feminism" (K) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 01, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Helen Keller

About Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American writer and social activist; an illness (possibly scarlet fever or meningitis) at the age of 19 months left her deaf and blind.