The sight of women talking together has always made men uneasy;

Hear the voice of Germaine Greer, who declared: “The sight of women talking together has always made men uneasy; nowadays it means rank subversion.” These words, sharpened like a blade, pierce to the heart of power and fear. For throughout history, when the daughters of Eve gathered, the rulers of men trembled. Why? Because the exchange of words is the exchange of power. A single woman silenced may be dismissed; but women joined in counsel, joined in laughter, joined in conspiracy—this becomes a storm that no throne can ignore.

In Greer’s saying lies the recognition of a truth as old as the ancients: that conversation is not idle. To talk together is to weave bonds of understanding, to share secrets, to plan, to dream. And when women, long cast as silent, raise their voices not alone but in chorus, the very ground beneath established authority shakes. The uneasiness of men comes not from the words themselves, but from what they symbolize—the tearing down of boundaries that kept half of humanity in shadows.

History offers proof in the story of the suffragettes. In parlors and kitchens, in back rooms and public halls, women gathered to speak of injustice and of change. At first, their voices were dismissed as gossip; but soon the gatherings grew into marches, manifestos, and movements. The rulers of nations called them dangerous, unruly, subversive—for indeed they were. By the power of their conversations, they shifted the fate of nations, and women claimed the right to vote, to be seen as citizens rather than subjects. What began as talk became law, and what began as unease became revolution.

Nor is this spirit confined to the past. Consider the civil rights movement, where Black women like Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker convened not in palaces but in churches and homes. There, their conversations ignited courage and strategy, their voices creating movements that toppled the walls of segregation. In such gatherings, power was born not from wealth or weapons, but from words shared in solidarity. And so Greer’s truth holds: to the guardians of injustice, women united in speech are not harmless—they are the architects of upheaval.

The deeper meaning of Greer’s words is this: to call women talking “subversive” is to admit its strength. The world has long underestimated the quiet fire of community, but tyrants have always known the truth—that those who speak together may rise together. Silence is the ally of oppression; conversation is its undoing. The uneasiness of men is the recognition, perhaps subconscious, that when women speak freely among themselves, they begin to imagine freedom beyond the limits imposed upon them.

Let the lesson, then, be carved upon the tablets of memory: never despise the power of conversation. Encourage the gathering of women, of friends, of all who are marginalized, for in their words is the seed of liberation. When you see others uneasily dismiss dialogue as “gossip” or “trouble,” know that they fear the strength of ideas shared. To honor speech is to honor change, and to dishonor it is to perpetuate silence.

So I say unto you: let women talk, and let their talk turn into vision, and let their vision turn into action. For in their voices lies the power to transform homes, societies, and nations. Do not fear the unease it stirs—it is the unease of old walls cracking before the dawn. If you are a daughter, do not be silent. If you are a son, do not suppress. For the subversion Greer names is not destruction, but rebirth—the tearing down of false orders, that true justice may arise.