Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.
—Erica Jong (b.1942) American Novelist, Feminist
If I were a woman, I would never trust men who say they are feminists. Either they are acting out of guilt, trying to establish credentials, or they think they might be able to pick up more girls. If I were a woman, I would say, go away and have your first period. Then come back and tell me you are a feminist.
—R. David Thomas (1932–2002) American Entrepreneur, Philanthropist
I wanted to be the first woman to burn her bra, but it would have taken the fire department four days to put it out.
—Dolly Parton (b.1946) American Musician, Actress
Everything in woman hath a solution. It is called pregnancy.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Let us rise in the moral power of womanhood; and give utterance to the voice of outraged mercy, and insulted justice, and eternal truth, and mighty love and holy freedom.
—Maria Weston Chapman (1806–85) American Abolitionist
Whether women are better than men I cannot say – but I can say they are certainly no worse.
—Golda Meir (1898–1978) Israeli Head of State
If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of women, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test: though a different opinion prevails in this country.
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–97) English Writer, Feminist
The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet.
—Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American Poet, Essayist
Women’s Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It’s the men who are discriminated against. They can’t bear children. And no one’s likely to do anything about that.
—Golda Meir (1898–1978) Israeli Head of State
I didn’t fight to get women out from behind vacuum cleaners to get them onto the board of Hoover.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
Women’s liberation, if it abolishes the patriarchal family, will abolish a necessary substructure of the authoritarian state, and once that withers away Marx will have come true willy-nilly, so let’s get on with it.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
I am blackly bored when they are at large and at work; but somehow I am still more blackly bored when they are shut up in Holloway and we are deprived of them.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
The first principle of full feminism is the simple equality of men and women. And it is an erroneous principle. For here nature steps in and forbids its achievement.
—Correa Moylan Walsh (1862–1936) American Statistician, Economist
Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Activist, Political Advocate
Male supremacy has kept woman down. It has not knocked her out.
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–87) American Playwright, Diplomat, Journalist
The true Republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American Civil Rights Leader
Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
—Timothy Leary (1920–96) American Psychologist, Author
The people I’m getting furious with are the women’s liberationists. They keep getting on their soapboxes proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That’s true, but it should be kept quiet or it ruins the whole racket.
—Anita Loos (1888–1981) American Actor, Novelist, Screenwriter
Just because we’re sisters under the skin doesn’t mean we’ve got much in common.
—Angela Carter (1940–92) English Novelist
Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist
Men now monopolize the upper levels… depriving women of their rightful share of opportunities for incompetence.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-Born American Author
I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist.
—Sally Kempton (1943–2023) American Meditation Teacher, Author, Journalist
Like Broadway, the novel, and God, feminism has been declared dead many times.
—Katha Pollitt (b.1949) American Poet, Essayist
The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of “Woman’s Rights” with all its attendant horrors on which her poor, feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety.
—Queen Victoria (1819–1901) British Royal
The sadness of the women’s movement is that they don’t allow the necessity of love. See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.
—Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American Poet
When an individual is kept in a situation of inferiority, the fact is that he does become inferior.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
The feminist anti-pornography movement, no less than the feminist movement of a century ago, encourages the assumption that male and female sexuality, and possibly morality, are as unlike as yin and yang.
—Barbara Ehrenreich (1941–2022) American Social Critic, Essayist
Women’s liberation is the liberation of the feminine in the man and the masculine in the woman.
—Corita Kent (1918–86) American Nun, Artist, Educator
Feminism was recognized by the average man as a conflict in which it was impossible for a man, as a chivalrous gentleman … as a highly evolved citizen of a highly civilized community, to refuse the claim of this better half to self-determination.
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
As it is our nature to be more moved by hope than fear, the example of one we see abundantly rewarded cheers and encourages us far more than the sight of many who have not been well treated disquiets us.
—Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) Italian Historian, Statesman
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