Dictionary

the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world en · X

Etymology

Found as a popular saying from 1840 (See Parent's Monitor and Young People's Friend Volume 1, p. 47 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Parent_s_Monitor_and_Young_People_s_Frie/wv8XAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22hand+that+rocks+the+cradle+rules%22&pg=PA47&printsec=frontcover); made famous by a poem (1865) by William Ross Wallace.

Meanings

1. Women, particularly mothers, have a decisive influence on the future direction of society because they raise and nurture the next generation.
   • Blessings on the hand of women! . . . For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world. 1865, William Ross Wallace, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle:
   • Men rationalize their dominant estate: Woman's lot is to be the homemaker, the child raiser, the provider of sons; the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. 1981 Nov. 15, Paul A. Colinvaux, "Women's Work" (book review of The Woman That Never Evolved by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, New York Times (retrieved 26 Oct 2012)
   • President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga . . . quoted Kenyan Bishop Ndimbe's memorable words: "Train a man, you train an individual, train a woman you build a nation." This is the same as saying that the "hand that rocks the cradle rules the world". 2004 March 8, “Editorial: Restoring women's dignity”, in Ceylon Daily News, Sri Lanka, retrieved 26 Oct 2012:
   • We talk a great deal about the strength of early impressions. I wonder if we mean all we say; we do not live up to it, at all events. "In childish play deep meaning lies." "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." "Give me the first six years of a child's life, and I care not who has the rest." 1892, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 2, in Children's Rights and Others: A Book of Nursery Logic:
   • Woman meanwhile becomes the fearless, inwardly relentless, determined positive party. She grips the responsibility. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. Nay, she makes man discover that cradles should not be rocked, in order that her hands may be left free. 1922, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Education and Sex in Man, Woman and Child”, in Fantasia of the Unconscious, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, →OCLC, page 136:

Forms

Relateds

behind every successful man there stands a woman