Parenting & Family Quote by Patricia Schroeder

“Defense” is supposed to sound neutral, technical, above politics. Patricia Schroeder punctures that pose by pointing out who gets conscripted into its moral alibi: “women and children.” The line works because it exposes a familiar trick in public rhetoric: invoke the vulnerable to sanctify the powerful. Once you say you’re “protecting” mothers and kids, dissent starts to look like cruelty or naivete, and the actual stakes - budgets, empire, prestige, votes - slip offstage.

Schroeder’s intent is not merely to advocate listening. It’s to indict a gendered script that treats women and children as symbols rather than citizens. The subtext is blunt: the people used to justify force are the very people denied agency in deciding when force is necessary. “Men talk about defense” is less a biological claim than an institutional one: militaries, foreign policy committees, and national security establishments have historically been male-dominated, and their language reflects that hierarchy.

The quote lands with particular force in the late Cold War-to-post-Vietnam era when Schroeder built her career challenging Pentagon spending and the automatic reverence attached to military framing. “Defense” becomes a kind of linguistic body armor; she’s stabbing at the seam. By flipping the question to “did you ask them,” she forces a shift from paternalism to consent. It’s a rhetorical move that turns sentimental protection into democratic accountability, and it implies a deeper critique: a state that constantly speaks for the vulnerable is often preparing to act without their permission, and sometimes against their interests.