"Often, the disparities in the ways men and women are treated are subtle; there are not these clear barriers that you have to break down"
About this Quote
Clift’s line lands because it refuses the easy story of sexism as a single villain you can point to, sue, and topple. The most durable gender inequities aren’t the cartoon “NO WOMEN ALLOWED” signs; they’re the soft architecture of everyday life - the tone shift in a meeting when a woman pushes hard, the invisible tax on likability, the way “potential” gets assigned to men and “proven” gets demanded of women. By calling the disparities “subtle,” she’s not minimizing them; she’s naming their survival strategy. Subtlety is how bias passes through institutions that consider themselves enlightened.
The subtext is a warning about political optics and personal psychology. Clear barriers create clear antagonists and clear victories; they galvanize movements, generate headlines, and offer a satisfying before-and-after narrative. Subtle barriers, by contrast, invite doubt: Was it sexism or just my timing? Was that interruption hostile or harmless? That ambiguity drains energy, isolates complainants, and protects organizations that can plausibly deny intent. It’s a system designed to be hard to litigate and even harder to talk about without sounding “too sensitive.”
As a journalist, Clift is also speaking from the trenches of media and politics, where power is informal and gatekeeping is rarely written down. Who gets sourced, who gets mentored, who is seen as “tough,” who is branded “shrill” - these are cultural judgments that rarely look like barriers until you map the cumulative effect. Her intent is diagnostic: if you keep hunting for the obvious wall, you’ll miss the maze.
The subtext is a warning about political optics and personal psychology. Clear barriers create clear antagonists and clear victories; they galvanize movements, generate headlines, and offer a satisfying before-and-after narrative. Subtle barriers, by contrast, invite doubt: Was it sexism or just my timing? Was that interruption hostile or harmless? That ambiguity drains energy, isolates complainants, and protects organizations that can plausibly deny intent. It’s a system designed to be hard to litigate and even harder to talk about without sounding “too sensitive.”
As a journalist, Clift is also speaking from the trenches of media and politics, where power is informal and gatekeeping is rarely written down. Who gets sourced, who gets mentored, who is seen as “tough,” who is branded “shrill” - these are cultural judgments that rarely look like barriers until you map the cumulative effect. Her intent is diagnostic: if you keep hunting for the obvious wall, you’ll miss the maze.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|
More Quotes by Eleanor
Add to List
