Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others--first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for it is supposed to be carried out as if women did not have needs of their own, as if one could serve others without simultaneously attending to one's own interests and desires. Carried to its "perfection," it produces the martyr syndrome or the smothering wife and mother.


Toward a New Psychology of Women (ed. Beacon Press, 2012) - ISBN: 9780807029114

Jean Baker Miller Quotes

Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others--first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for...

Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others--first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for...

Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others--first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for...

Women are taught that their main goal in life is to serve others--first men, and later, children. This prescription leads to enormous problems, for...