While her brother is dreaming of becoming president, doctor or astronaut, the little girl is told that she wantsto be a secretary or a nurse - or an astronaut`s wife.
At school: Girls are expected to be quiet and well behaved while boys are expected to play rough and wild. Boys are expected to ask questions and be logical - girls to be diligent and good at details. Teachers, like parents, think it`s important for boys to go to college to get a good job - but all a girl has to learn is how to be some man`s good secretary until she`s some man`s good wife. And the danger that she might not be a wife is the worst threat of all, held over her to make her behave.
To get a man she has to be both sexy and sexless - because a man is supposed to be experienced whe he marries, but a girl is supposed to be a virgin. If we`re natural about sex, we are used by men and disgraced by society and made to feel ashamed and guilty ourselves. But if we are not natural about it, we are put down for that too, called uptight and frigid - and in fact do become afraid of our sexual feelings. "
From "Sisterhood is Powerful"
