Women's Rights Quotes

* Women will not simply be mainstreamed into the polluted stream. Women are changing the stream, making it clean and green and safe for all -- every gender, race, creed, sexual orientation, age, and ability. -- Bella Abzug The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes. -- -- Bella Abzug

* If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. -- Abigail Adams “If we mean to have heroes, statesmen and philosophers, we should have learned women.” -- Abigail Adams

* The connection between women's human rights, gender equality, socioeconomic development and peace is increasingly apparent. -- Mahnaz Afkhami Women's empowerment is intertwined with respect for human rights. -- Mahnaz Afkhami

Even though they make up half the population, women and girls have endured discrimination in most societies for thousands of years. In the past, women were treated as property of their husbands or fathers - they couldn't own land, they couldn't vote or go to school, and were subject to beatings and abuse and could do nothing about it. Over the last hundred years, much progress has been made to gain equal rights for women around the world, but many still live without the rights to which all people are entitled. -- Robert Alan Silverstein

"You ask whether a woman should be paid the same wages as man when she does the same work? To this, there can be but one answer. If she does the same quantity and quality of work under the same conditions as a man, simple justice requires that she should be paid the same. wages. To deny her this is to deny her justice." -- John Peter Altgeld

* We were idealists. We thought that when we got the vote the whole pattern of politics would be greatly improved and would be dominated by women. -- Jessie Daniel Ames While women's suffrage has not brought about the political millennium which its fondest backers predicted, its effects on the whole have been decidely beneficial. -- Jessie Daniel Ames

Equal pay for women is a matter of simple justice. -- Mary Anderson

* “How important it is to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes.” -- Maya Angelou

"…gender equality is critical to the development and peace of every nation." -- Kofi Annan "…there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women." -- Kofi Annan "women themselves have the right to live in dignity, in freedom from want and freedom from fear. On this International Women's Day, let us rededicate ourselves to making that a reality. -- Kofi Annan When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life. -- Kofi Annan

* "The day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race." -- Susan B. Anthony * "Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform.

"Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences."
-- Susan B. Anthony

"Independence is happiness." -- Susan B. Anthony

"There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers." -- Susan B. Anthony

"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself and there I take my stand." -- Susan B. Anthony

* Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men - bring them softness, teach them how to cry. --Joan Baez

* "This is your life!!! The children/husbands/lovers are just one chapter. The stronger we (women) get the more loving we can be- to all." -- Cynthia Basinet

"The dogma of woman's complete historical subjection to men must be rated as one of the most fantastic myths ever created by the human mind."
-- Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958),

"For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women."
-- Elizabeth Blackwell (The first woman in the U.S. to become a physician)

"If society will not admit of woman's free development, then society must be remodeled."
-- Elizabeth Blackwell

* It will not do to say that it is out of woman's sphere to assist in making laws, for if that were so, then it should be also out of her sphere to submit to them. -- Amelia Bloomer

* “We are unalterably opposed to the presentation of the female body being stripped, bound, raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered in the name of commercial entertainment and free speech” -- Susan Brownmiller

* “We are asking people to understand that slavery still exists today; in fact, according to a recent New York Times article, if you count the number of women and children in bonded labor, domestic slavery or sexual slavery today, there are more slaves in the world than at any other time in history.” -- Charlotte Bunch * “Feminism is a transformational force, an individual and social force. It is a way of looking at the world–a questioning of power/domination issues, an affirmation of women’s energy.” -- Charlotte Bunch

* Sexual, racial, gender violence and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.
-- Charlotte Bunch

“We have to start looking at the world through women’s eyes’ how are human rights, peace and development defined from the perspective of the lives of women? It’s also important to look at the world from the perspective of the lives of diverse women, because there is not single women’s view, any more than there is a single men’s view.”
-- Charlotte Bunch

Feminism is an entire world view or gestalt, not just a laundry list of women's issues.
-- Charlotte Bunch

“The state of the world today demands that women become less modest and dream/plan/act/risk on a larger scale.”
-- Charlotte Bunch

Women have a lot to say about how to advance women's rights, and governments need to learn from that, listen to the movement and respond.”
-- Charlotte Bunch

* Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government. -- Carrie Chapman Catt

Remember our heritage is our power; we can know ourselves and our capacities by seeing that other women have been strong.
-- Judy Chicago

* The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "It's a girl." -- Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm

"Educate a man and you educate an individual. Educate a woman and you educate a family."
-- A.Cripps

"We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever."
-- Declaration of Rights for Women, July 1876

My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it's very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself, and do whatever she needs to do. -- Ani DiFranco * I have something to prove, as long as I know there's something that needs improvement, and you know that everytime I move, I make a woman's movement. -- Ani DiFranco

* The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future. -- Abigail Duniway

When women's true history shall have been written, her part in the upbuilding of this nation will astound the world.
-- Abigail Duniway

* We need a kind of feminism that aims not just to assimilate into the institutions that men have created over the centuries, but to infiltrate and subvert them. -- Barbara Ehrenreich What we need is a tough new kind of feminism with no illusions. Women do not change institutions simply by assimilating into them. We need a feminism that teaches a woman to say no - not just to the date rapist or overly insistent boyfriend but, when necessary, to the military or corporate hierarchy within which she finds herself. We need a kind of feminism that aims not just to assimilate into the institutions that men have created over the centuries, but to infiltrate and subvert them. -- Barbara Ehrenreich

* "...gender relationships, which are tough for people to deal with, are key to whether a society orients to domination or partnership in all its relations." -- Riane Eisler "For most of recorded history, parental violence against children and men's violence against wives was explicitly or implicitly condoned. Those who had the power to prevent and/or punish this violence through religion, law, or custom, openly or tacitly approved it. …..The reason violence against women and children is finally out in the open is that activists have brought it to global attention." -- Riane Eisler

"We've chosen the path to equality, don't let them turn us around."
-- Geraldine Ferraro (The first woman to be nominated as Vice President of the United States)

* "Adult women, all of us, have to come to grips with how we have been affected by gender norms, and how we have been silenced. We have to help our daughters. Understanding it within ourselves and helping our young girls stand up for themselves is one way." -- Jane Fonda * "If you can intervene early in the lives of girls here and in other parts of the world, you can begin to change the prospects for the future." -- Jane Fonda

But the whole point of liberation is that you get out. Restructure your life. Act by yourself.
-- Jane Fonda

The extension of women's rights is the basic principle of all social progress.
-- Charles Fourier

Men are not the enemy, but the fellow victims. The real enemy is women's denigration of themselves. -- Betty Friedan * The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own. There is no other way. -- Betty Friedan

A girl should not expect special privileges because of her sex but neither should she adjust to prejudice and discrimination.
-- Betty Friedan

* "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." -- Margaret Fuller

... being a feminist means that you believe in civil rights and social justice. -- Janeane Garofalo

* "Women's rights are an essential part of the overall human rights agenda, trained on the equal dignity and ability to live in freedom all people should enjoy." -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg Every constitution written since the end of World War II includes a provision that men and women are citizens of equal stature. Ours does not. -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg * Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation. -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.
-- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

It is not women's liberation, it is women's and men's liberation.
-- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.”
-- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.
-- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

I do think that being the second [female Supreme Court Justice] is wonderful, because it is a sign that being a woman in a place of importance is no longer extraordinary.
-- Ruth Bader Ginsburg

* "Male and female citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, must be equally admitted to all honors, positions, and public employment according to their capacity and without other distinctions besides those of their virtues and talents." -- Olympe de Gouges

* “It is truly a privilege to be able to support all women's causes on a global level. It is remarkable that something as simple as television can empower us to create change and awareness in the world. I am blessed to be able to work at a job I love and also give back in the most vital way--to people in need.” -- Teri Hatcher

* “I've always been a big believer in equality. No one has ever been able to tell me I couldn't do something because I was a girl.” -- Anne Hathaway

* "When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings. -- Julia Ward Howe

* "Full democracy requires the full participation of women. Your voices are vital. The word 'vital' means necessary for life. A democracy, to be fully alive, must include all its citizens." -- Swanee Hunt

women are the victims of war... as widows they've faced the trauma of being single parents and livelihoods of families are affected. A lot of gender-related problems come up in terms of health, education, domestic violence, etc. -- Kumari Jayawardena * Today women in many countries are taking part in various types of movements of protest, some of which are serious struggles for economic and social emancipation . -- Kumari Jayawardena

* "Across the world women are joining hands in solidarity and support, in a global women’s movement, sharing knowledge and experience and empowering themselves to build a peaceful and fairer world." -- Marilee Karl

* Every day we hear about the dangers of cancer, heart disease and AIDS. But how many of us realize that, in much of the world, the act of giving life to a child is still the biggest killer of women of child-bearing age? -- Liya Kebede * The message of our campaign is "Make every mother and child count". This campaign is not just about health. It is also a powerful call for radical progress in women's rights and the rights of their children. Too often, the health of mothers and children does not count. In too many parts of the world, they are forgotten. -- Liya Kebede

* I think it's important for me as an actor that I say these are the issues I'm going to be committed to. One of them for me is women and children's health around the world and their rights;the other is ovarian cancer. -- Nicole Kidman * As a Goodwill Ambassador for UNIFEM, I’ve learned that violence against women knows no boundaries. Join me in helping women worldwide who have suffered unthinkable violence. -- Nicole Kidman * Violence against women is an appalling human rights violation. But it is not inevitable. We can put a stop to this. -- Nicole Kidman

“One in three women may suffer from abuse and violence in her lifetime. This is an appalling human rights violation, yet it remains one of the invisible and under-recognized pandemics of our time.”
-- Nicole Kidman

I’m especially interested in helping to give visibility to the pandemic of violence against women
-- Nicole Kidman

“I know we can't abolish prejudice through laws, but we can set up guidelines for our actions by legislation.” -- Belva Ann Lockwood * “I do not believe in sex distinction in literature, law, politics, or trade - or that modesty and virtue are more becoming to women than to men, but wish we had more of it everywhere.” -- Belva Ann Lockwood

* “Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief.” -- Wilma Mankiller

* Because of their agelong training in human relations-for that is what feminine intuition really is-women have a special contribution to make to any group enterprise. -- Margaret Mead It has been a woman's task throughout history to go on believing in life when there was almost no hope. -- Margaret Mead Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man. -- Margaret Mead

* The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, because in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source. -- Lucretia Mott

History looks different when the contributions of women are included.
~ National Women's History Project

* In less than a century we experienced great movement. The youth movement! The labor movement! The civil rights movement! The peace movement! The solidarity movement! The women's movement! The disability movement! The disarmament movement! The gay rights movement! The environmental movement! Movement! Transformation! Is there any reason to believe we are done? -- Holly Near

* We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that they can help to free the other half --Emmeline Pankhurst

...the Government must not think that they can stop this agitation. It will go on...We are here not because we are law-breakers; we are here in out efforts to become law-makers.
--Emmeline Pankhurst

What is the use of fighting for a vote if we have not got a country to vote in?
--Emmeline Pankhurst

* I never doubted that equal rights was the right direction. Most reforms, most problems are complicated. But to me there is nothing complicated about ordinary equality. -- Alice Paul I always feel the movement is a sort of mosaic...Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end. -- Alice Paul There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it. -- Alice Paul

"What exactly is success? For me it is to be found not in applause, but in the satisfaction of feeling that one is realizing one’s ideal."
-- Anna Pavlova (1881-1931)

* “The only way to solve the problem of women’s subordination is to change people’s mindset and to plant the new idea of gender equality into every mind.” -- Qingrong Ma

* "If the world was taking care of women, women would take care of the world." -- Jane Roberts, Co-Founder, 34 Million Friends of UNPF

There is no reason against woman's elevation, but prejudices. -- Ernestine Rose For here lies the corner stone of all the injustices done woman, the wrong idea from which all other wrongs proceed. She is not acknowledged as mistress of herself. For her cradle to her grave she is another's. We do indeed need and demand the other rights of which I have spoken, but let us first obtain OURSELVES." -- Ernestine Rose

* But remember that if the struggle were to resort to violence, it will lose vision, beauty and imagination. Most dangerous of all, it will marginalize and eventually victimize women. And a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it, and within it is no struggle at all. -- Arundhati Roy * ...a political struggle that does not have women at the heart of it, above it, below it, and within it is no struggle at all. -- Arundhati Roy

* Ordinary people like you and me have the chance to make a tremendous difference for mothers and their children worldwide -- Meg Ryan

* "It will be great when it's not such a big deal when a woman gets a good job." -- Susan Sarandon

"I was told Indian women don't think like that about equality. But I would like to argue that if they don't think like that they should be given a real opportunity to think like that." -- Amartya Sen

* Women’s voices help balance out the male energy. Until we do that, we are not going to have peace in the world. -- Barbara Simmons

"The women of this country ought be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they live, that they may no longer publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns. -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton * We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men and women are created equal. -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

* This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labour in which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism. -- Gloria Steinem

However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group's greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion, or all four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and airtight roles within the family.
-- Gloria Steinem

* “I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned.” -- Lucy Stone

* "Women are the real architects of society." -- Harriet Beecher Stowe

* I am also very proud to be a liberal. Why is that so terrible these days? The liberals were liberators—they fought slavery, fought for women to have the right to vote, fought against Hitler, Stalin, fought to end segregation, fought to end apartheid. Liberals put an end to child labor and they gave us the five day work week! What's to be ashamed of?" -- Barbra Streisand

One of the things about equality is not just that you be treated equally to a man, but that you treat yourself equally to the way you treat a man. -- Marlo Thomas

* "If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again." -- Sojourner Truth (c. 1797­1883)

* "I am dedicated to ensuring reproductive health and freedom for all." -- Kathleen Turner "I am dedicated to ensuring reproductive health and freedom for all. Please join me in supporting Planned Parenthood's vital work to protect access to reproductive health care and real sex education worldwide." -- Kathleen Turner This is not about abortion or the antics. This is about pro choice versus anti-choice and government intervention in a woman's personal decisions about her life. -- Kathleen Turner

* “We women have the same capacity and potential for power to allow us to be participants in our own destiny.” ~ Rafaela vos Obeso

“We women have presented an alternative proposal to society and to humanity. It is about the construction of a world where tolerance is a life style; Where daily social and political divergences and its resolutions would be seen as part of humanity; Where equality would be possible in all its dimensions; Where knowledge and access to education and other social possessions would not be the privilege of a few; A world where violence in all its forms would be past history, where fear will not overwhelm us and where we shall be able to enjoy the goodness of existence.”
~ Rafaela vos Obeso

* The task of organizing human happiness needs the active cooperation of man and woman. It cannot be relegated to one half of the world. -- Lillian Wald

* Democratic principles are the result of equality of condition. -- Mercy Otis Warren

* "You cannot have peace without human rights, democracy, gender equality, and clean water. Look to the root causes of war and you will find, in their reverse, the root foundations of peace." -- Cora Weiss

"I have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat"
-- Rebecca West, 1913

* I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves. -- Mary Wollstonecraft Let not men then in the pride of power, use the same arguments that tyrannic kings and venal ministers have used, and fallaciously assert that women ought to be subjected because she has always been so.... It is time to effect a revolution in female manners -- time to restore to them their lost dignity.... It is time to separate unchangeable morals from local manners. -- Mary Wollstonecraft

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft

* The uses of government should be to foster, protect and promote the possession of equality. -- Victoria Woodhull I ask the rights to pursue happiness by having a voice in that government to which I am accountable. -- Victoria Woodhull

The failure of women to have reached positions of leadership has been due in large part to social and professional discrimination. -- Rosalyn Yalow