# Quote — Joanna Russ, The Female Man

> Anyway everyboy (sorry) knows that what women have done that is really important is not to constitute a great, cheap labor force that you can zip in when you're at war and zip out again afterwards but to Be Mothers, to form the coming generation, to give birth to them, to nurse them, to mop floors for them, to love them, cook for them, clean for them, change their diapers, pick up after them, and mainly sacrifice themselves for them. This is the most important job in the world. That’s why they don’t pay you for it.

- Author: [Joanna Russ](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ.md)
- Book: [The Female Man](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ/the-female-man.md)
- Page: 137
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joanna_Russ#The_Female_Man_(1975)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ/the-female-man/anyway-everyboy-sorry

## More from this book

> As my mother once said: The boys throw stones at the frogs in jest.
>
> But the frogs die in earnest.

p. 196 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ/the-female-man/as-my-mother.md)

> Remember: I didn’t and don’t want to be a “feminine” version or a diluted version or a special version or a subsidiary version or an ancillary version, or an adapted version of the heroes I admire. I want to be the heroes themselves.
>
> What future is there for a female child who aspires to being Humphrey Bogart?

p. 206 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ/the-female-man/remember-i-didnt.md)

> Remember, I don’t threaten. I don’t play. I always carry firearms. The truly violent are never without them.

p. 181 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/joanna-russ/the-female-man/remember-i-dont.md)