There is a growing strength in women but it’s in the forehead, not the forearm.

Sills contrasts physical power (“forearm”) with intellectual and strategic power (“forehead”), suggesting that women’s increasing influence in modern society is rooted in education, competence, and mental resilience rather than brute strength. The line plays on an older stereotype that measured strength primarily in bodily terms, reframing “strength” as the capacity to think, lead, and endure. Coming from a celebrated opera star who also became a prominent arts administrator and public figure, the remark aligns with a late-20th-century emphasis on women’s professional authority and decision-making power—strength expressed through judgment, discipline, and intellect.