Cathédrale Sainte-Croix d’Orléans
“Si je n’y suis [en la grâce de Dieu], Dieu m’y mette; et, si j’y suis, Dieu m’y tienne! Je serais le plus dolente de monde si je savais ne pas être en la grâce de Dieu”
— Jeanne d’Arc
Once upon a time—say, ten or even five years ago—a Liberated Woman was somebody who had sex before marriage and a job afterward. Once upon the same time, a Liberated Zone was any foreign place lucky enough to have an American army in it. Both ideas seem antiquated now, and for pretty much the same reason: Liberation isn’t exposure to the American values of Mom-and-apple-pie anymore (not even if Mom is allowed to work in an office and vote once in a while); it’s the escape from them.
Gloria Steinem (1934– )
American feminist icon, journalist and women’s rights advocate
“After Black Power–Women’s Liberation”—New York Magazine (4 April 1969)


