"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

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 ý 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

"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

 

Women's Rights Quotes

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5

(Click on * for free 8.5 X 11 PDF to print)

WOMEN'S RIGHTS
HERO PIX

Mahnaz Afkhami | Ani DiFranco | Betty Friedan |
Anne Hathaway | Marilee Karl
Alice Paul | Arundhati Roy | Victoria Woodhull

Intl. Women's Day - March 8

Women's Equality Day - August 26