We've begun to raise daughters more like sons... but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.

Steinem contrasts two directions of gender change: encouraging girls to adopt traits culturally coded as “masculine” (ambition, assertiveness, independence) has become relatively acceptable, while encouraging boys to adopt traits coded as “feminine” (empathy, tenderness, care work, emotional openness) still meets resistance. The quote argues that equality is incomplete if it only expands women’s roles into the public sphere while leaving men’s roles—and the social value of caregiving and vulnerability—unchanged. Its significance lies in reframing feminism as a project that liberates everyone from restrictive gender scripts, and in highlighting how devaluing the “feminine” harms boys and men as well as girls and women.