"We are the women men warned us about"
About this Quote
The subtext is a history of social control disguised as protection. “Men warned us” implies a paternal script: behave, or become that. The warning is less about safety than containment, a reminder that women’s ambition and anger will be pathologized as chaos. Morgan answers with a rhetorical judo move: if your system is built on keeping us small, then your nightmares are simply our growth. The line smuggles in solidarity too. “We” is a rallying pronoun, converting private dissent into a collective identity sturdy enough to absorb backlash.
Context matters: Morgan came up through second-wave feminism, when women organizing for bodily autonomy, workplace power, and cultural legitimacy were routinely painted as man-haters, home-wreckers, extremists. The sentence reads like a chant because it’s designed to travel: on posters, in marches, across generations. Its intent isn’t to reassure; it’s to announce a boundary. If equality looks frightening to those invested in hierarchy, that fear is not a reason to retreat. It’s evidence you’re pressing on the right pressure point.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Morgan, Robin. (2026, January 15). We are the women men warned us about. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-the-women-men-warned-us-about-164490/
Chicago Style
Morgan, Robin. "We are the women men warned us about." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-the-women-men-warned-us-about-164490/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We are the women men warned us about." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-the-women-men-warned-us-about-164490/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.









