Women are afraid of mice and of murder, and of very little in between.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
The real thinking of woman is pre-eminently practical and applied. It is something we describe as sound common sense, and is usually directed to what is close at hand and personal. In general, it can be said that feminine mentality manifests an undeveloped, childlike, or primitive character; instead of the thirst for knowledge, curiosity; instead of judgment, prejudice; instead of thinking, imagination or dreaming; instead of will, wishing. Where a man takes up objective problems, a woman contents herself with solving riddles; where he battles for knowledge and understanding, she contents herself with faith or superstition, or else she makes assumptions.
—Emma Jung (1882–1955) Swiss Psychoanalyst, Author
The most popular image of the female despite the exigencies of the clothing trade is all boobs and buttocks, a hallucinating sequence of parabolae and bulges.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
People in the States used to think that if girls were good at sports their sexuality would be affected. Being feminine meant being a cheerleader, not being an athlete. The image of women is changing now. You don’t have to be pretty for people to come and see you play. At the same time, if you’re a good athlete, it doesn’t mean you’re not a woman.
—Martina Navratilova (b.1956) Czech-born American Sportsperson
There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.
—Kofi Annan (1938–2018) Ghanaian Statesman, International Diplomat
There are always women who will take men on their own terms. If I were a man I wouldn’t bother to change while there are women like that around.
—Ann Oakley (b.1944) English Sociologist, Writer, Feminist
The suffering of either sex—of the male who is unable, because of the way in which he was reared, to take the strong initiating or patriarchal role that is still demanded of him, or of the female who has been given too much freedom of movement as a child to stay placidly within the house as an adult—this suffering, this discrepancy, this sense of failure in an enjoined role, is the point of leverage for social change.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Women are always eagerly on the lookout for any emotion.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (1783–1842) French Writer
Whether they give or refuse, it delights women just the same to have been asked.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
The man, at the head of the house, can mar the pleasure of the household, but he cannot make it.—That must rest with the woman, and it is her greatest privilege.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) British Essayist, Historian
Coming to terms with the rhythms of women’s lives means coming to terms with life itself, accepting the imperatives of the body rather than the imperatives of an artificial, man-made, perhaps transcendentally beautiful civilization. Emphasis on the male work-rhythm is an emphasis on infinite possibilities; emphasis on the female rhythms is an emphasis on a defined pattern, on limitation.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
A pretty little collection of weaknesses and a terror of spiders are our indispensable stock-in-trade with the men.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
Women have face-lifts in a society in which women without them appear to vanish from sight.
—Naomi Wolf (b.1962) American Writer, Journalist
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
When a man talks dirty to a woman, it’s sexual harassment. When a woman talks dirty to a man, it’s $3.95 a minute.
—Unknown
Women are never landlocked: they’re always mere minutes away from the briny deep of tears.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
There is a growing strength in women, but it’s in the forehead, not in the forearm.
—Beverly Sills (1929–2007) American Singer, Musician
One is not born a woman, one becomes one.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
Because of our social circumstances, male and female are really two cultures and their life experiences are utterly different.
—Kate Millet (1934–2017) American Feminist, Writer, Sculptor
What breadth, what beauty and power of human nature and development there must be in a woman to get over all the palisades, all the fences, within which she is held captive!
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
No men who really think deeply about women retain a high opinion of them; men either despise women or they have never thought seriously about them.
—Otto Weininger (1880–1903) Austrian Philosopher
Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
There are some women who should barely be spoken to; they should only be caressed.
—Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French Painter, Sculptor
If your husband expects you to laugh, do so; if he expects you to cry, don’t; if you don’t know what he expects, what are you doing married?
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
The woman is the home. That’s where she used to be, and that’s where she still is. You might ask me, What if a man tries to be part of the home—will the woman let him? I answer yes. Because then he becomes one of the children.
—Marguerite Duras (1914–96) French Novelist, Playwright
A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
In the battle of the sexes, woman gains her greatest victory by surrendering.
—Unknown
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