26 amazing feminist quotes from the world’s greatest women to inspire us all to kick some ass in 2015
“I don't want fear of failure to stop me doing what I really care about.” Emma Watson
“I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that's me.” Maya Angelou
“… women ARE complicated. Women are multifaceted. Not because women are crazy . But because people are crazy, and women happen to be people.” Tavi Gevinson
“We need to reclaim the word 'feminism'. We need the word 'feminism' back real bad. When statistics come in saying that only 29% of American women would describe themselves as feminist - and only 42% of British women - I used to think, What do you think feminism IS, ladies? What part of 'liberation for women' is not for you? Is it freedom to vote? The right not to be owned by the man you marry? The campaign for equal pay? 'Vogue' by Madonna? Jeans? Did all that good shit GET ON YOUR NERVES? Or were you just DRUNK AT THE TIME OF THE SURVEY?” Caitlin Moran
“My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.” Mary Wollestonecraft
“Make sure you have your own life before becoming someone's wife” Beyonce Knowles
I think every woman in our culture is a feminist. They may refuse to articulate it, but if you were to take any woman back 40 years and say 'is this the world you want to live in?' they would say 'no'. Helen Mirren
“The extremists are afraid of books and pens, the power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women.” Malala Yousafzai
“The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. ” Roseanne Barr
“No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor. ” Betty Friedan
“Barbie’s disfigured. It’s fine to play with her just as long as you keep that in mind.” Lena Dunham
“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.” Gloria Steinem
“It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.” Warsan Shire
“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.” Virginia Woolf
“When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.” Bette Davis
“Every moment wasted looking back, keeps us from moving forward.” Hillary Rodham Clinton
“If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed….” Charlotte Bronte
“Whisky, gambling and Ferraris are better than housework.” Francoise Sagan
“I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth. The sense of independence and security is very sweet.” Susan B Anthony
“No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you've come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.” Madonna
“Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody. ” Jane Austen
“Chosen motherhood is the real liberation. The choice to have a child makes the whole experience of motherhood different, and the choice to be generative in other ways can at last be made, and is being made by many women now, without guilt.” Betty Friedan
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” Margaret Atwood
“There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." Madeleine Albright
“I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.” Charlotte Bronte
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” Gloria Steinem