Well, you know, I was raised by a 1970s feminist. My mom had a consciousness-raising group. I used to sit at the top of the stairs and listen to them.

Waldman frames her outlook as something absorbed early and informally, not adopted later as an abstract ideology. By invoking a “1970s feminist” mother and a consciousness-raising group—an emblematic practice of second-wave feminism—she suggests that feminist ideas were part of the household’s ambient soundscape, literally overheard from the stairs. The image underscores how political consciousness can be transmitted through everyday domestic life and conversation, and it implies a formative education in women’s shared experience, critique of gender roles, and the legitimacy of speaking openly about private life. The quote also functions as a credentialing anecdote: her later positions are presented as rooted in lived upbringing rather than trend or performance.