Although the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines feminism as “the advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes,” this single sentence doesn’t necessarily give us the full picture.
Feminism is a movement far beyond equality of the sexes, calling upon intersectionality to seek liberation for people of all genders and races.
Feminism demands equal access to healthcare, economic and educational opportunities, and social power, as well as the elimination of harm, violence, and discrimination based on gender.
The goal? To bring the most marginalized of communities to a level playing field, and thus, an equitable future.
The storied history of feminism requires us to learn from so many figures in history to better fight for equality and justice.
By actively supporting and learning from feminists and leaders in the movement for gender equality, we can better work together to create a world where everyone is treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their gender.
We’ve compiled a list of impactful quotes from feminists across history. Please share and utilize these quotes to promote support for intersectional feminism and create a safer, more just world for all.
You might also like: Quotes To Empower Women | Independent Women Quotes | Women’s History Month Quotes | News About Inspiring Women
Explore These Quotes About Feminism
Famous Feminist Quotes
“I raise up my voice — not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard… We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.”
— Malala Yousafzai
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
— Maya Angelou
“Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.”
— Coretta Scott King
“They’ll tell you you’re too loud, that you need to wait your turn and ask the right people for permission. Do it anyway.”
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Young feminists are a thrilling phenomenon: smart, bold, funny defenders of rights and claimers of space — and changers of the conversation.”
— Rebecca Solnit
“I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t.”
— Audre Lorde
“A huge part of being a feminist is giving other women the freedom to make choices you might not necessarily make yourself.”
— Lena Dunham
“I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us.”
— Louisa May Alcott
Empowering Quotes
“I am convinced that the women of the world, united without any regard for national or racial dimensions, can become a most powerful force for international peace and brotherhood.”
— Coretta Scott King
“When women lose themselves, the world loses its way. We do not need more selfless women. What we need right now is more women who have detoxed themselves so completely from the world’s expectations that they are full of nothing but themselves. What we need are women who are full of themselves. A woman who is full of herself knows and trusts herself enough to say and do what must be done. She lets the rest burn.”
— Glennon Doyle
“Women are leaders everywhere you look — from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.”
— Nancy Pelosi
“I’m not going to continue knocking that old door that doesn’t open for me. I’m going to create my own door and walk through that.”
— Ava Duvernay
“I think transwomen, and trans people in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms. A lot of what feminism is about is moving outside of roles and moving outside of expectations of who and what you’re supposed to be to live a more authentic life.”
— Laverne Cox
“I want to build a community where women of all races can communicate and... continue to support and take care of each other. I want to give women a space to feel their own strength and tell their stories. That is power.”
— Beyoncé
“Whether I am meant to or not, I challenge assumptions about women. I do make some people uncomfortable, which I’m well aware of, but that’s just part of coming to grips with what I believe is still one of the most important pieces of unfinished business in human history — empowering women to be able to stand up for themselves.”
— Hillary Clinton
“I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.”
— Dolly Parton
“More and more women are realizing that only collective strength and action will allow us to be free to fight for the kind of society that meets basic human needs.”
— Roxanne Dunbar
“It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.”
— Madeleine Albright
“We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women’s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored.”
— Sheryl Sandberg
“You’ve got to rattle your cage door. You’ve got to let them know that you’re in there, and that you want out. Make noise.”
— Florynce Kennedy
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
— Charlotte Brontë
Related: Read the best quotes to empower women
Inspirational Quotes
“I can promise you that women working together — linked, informed, and educated — can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.”
— Isabelle Allende
“Do not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is everything that is inside of you.”
— Viola Davis
“Feminism isn’t a cloak that I put on in the morning and take off at certain times. It’s who I am. I look at the world through eyes that are very alert to gender injustice, and I always will.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“When we invest in women and girls, we are investing in the people who invest in everyone else.”
— Melinda Gates
“It’s important to teach our female youth that it’s OK to say, ‘Yes, I am good at this,’ and you don’t hold back.”
— Simone Biles
“I want history to remember me... not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.”
— Shirley Chisholm
“I want women’s rights to be equally honored, and uplifted, and heard… but I want to see us fighting the fight for all women — women of color, our LGBTQ sisters, our Muslim sisters. I want to see millions of us marching out there for our rights, and I want to see us out there marching for the rights of women like Dajerria Becton, who was body slammed by a cop while she was in her swimsuit for simply existing as a young, vocal, Black girl. I think we are inching closer and closer there, and for that, I am very proud.”
— Solange Knowles
“When girls are educated, their countries become stronger and more prosperous.”
— Michelle Obama
“You could make a case that, along with the technological revolution, the most provocative upending destabilizing thrilling change in the course of human history is that we’re finally in it… We’re here now, women are in the world, and we will not be bullied.”
— Meryl Streep
“That’s one of the things I have dysphoria around as a trans woman. “So what if I’m not a model?”... But I was just like, ‘This is me. This is what I look like. This is who I love. This is who I fight for.’”
— Raquel Willis
“The only thing required to be a woman is to identify as one. Period. End of story.”
— Amanda Lovelace
“No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.”
— Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Feminist Quotes From Literature
“Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody.”
— Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
“Hear me as a woman
Have me as your sister
On purpled battlefield breaking day,
So I might say our victory is just beginning,
See me as change,
Say I am movement,
That I am the year
And I am the era
Of the women.”
— Amanda Gorman, Won’t You Be My Sister
“A woman’s passion is like the tide, it stays for no man when the hour is come.”
— Aphra Behn, The Lucky Chance, Or, the Alderman’s Bargain
“A girl should not expect special privileges because of her sex, but neither should she ‘adjust’ to prejudice and discrimination.”
— Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique
“The way a culture treats women in birth is a good indicator of how well women and their contributions to society are valued and honored.”
— Ina May Gaskin, Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta
“I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists — I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.”
— Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
“We can’t all be happy, we can’t all be rich, we can’t all be lucky — and it would be so much less fun if we were… There must be the dark background to show up the bright colours.”
— Jean Rhys, Good Morning, Midnight
“I will have my serpent’s tongue — my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice.”
— Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
“I don’t really want to become normal, average, standard. I want merely to gain in strength, in the courage to live out my life more fully, enjoy more, experience more. I want to develop even more original and more unconventional traits”
— Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934
“In future feminist movement we need to work harder to show parents the ways ending sexism positively changes family life. Feminist movement is pro-family.”
— bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody
“Just like any woman… we weave our stories out of our bodies. Some of us through our children, or our art; some do it just by living. It’s all the same.”
— Francesca Lia Block, Necklace of Kisses
Short Feminist Quotes
“Women have discovered that they cannot rely on men’s chivalry to give them justice.”
— Hellen Keller
“I am a woman and a warrior. If you think I can’t be both, you’ve been lied to.”
— Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
“Feminism is an entire world view or gestalt, not just a laundry list of women’s issues.”
— Charlotte Bunch
“Where there is woman, there is magic.”
— Ntozake Shange
“Feminism is layered and its power comes from its diversity.”
— Scarlett Curtis
“Women’s freedom is the sign of social freedom.”
— Rosa Luxemburg
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
— Oprah Winfrey
“Feminism is not just about women; it’s about letting all people lead fuller lives.”
— Jane Fonda
By Simone de Beauvoir
“The point is not for women simply to take power out of men’s hands, since that wouldn’t change anything about the world. It’s a question precisely of destroying that notion of power.”
— Simone De Beauvoir
“On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself — on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of life and not of mortal danger. In the meantime, love represents in its most touching form the curse that lies heavily upon woman confined in the feminine universe, woman mutilated, insufficient unto herself.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
“Being poorly integrated in the universe of humanity and hardly able to adapt herself therein, she, like the child, is able to see it objectively; instead of being interested solely in her grasp on things, she looks for their significance; she catches their special outlines, their unexpected metamorphoses. She rarely feels a bold creativeness, and usually she lacks the technique of self-expression; but in her conversation, her letters, her literary essays, her sketches, she manifests an original sensitivity. The young girl throws herself into things with ardor, because she is not yet deprived of her transcendence; and the fact that she accomplishes nothing, that she is nothing, will make her impulses only the more passionate. Empty and unlimited, she seeks from within her nothingness to attain All.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
“Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
“We will not let ourselves be intimidated by the number and violence of attacks against women; nor be fooled by the self-serving praise showered on the “real woman”; nor be won over by men’s enthusiasm for her destiny, a destiny they would not for the world want to share.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
More Quotes & Captions
“Feminism is not a dirty word. It does not mean you hate men. It does not mean you hate girls that have nice legs and a tan, and it does not mean you are a bitch or a dyke, it means you believe in equality.”
— Kate Nash
“Though we have the courage to raise our daughters more like our sons, we’ve rarely had the courage to raise our sons like our daughters.”
— Gloria Steinem
“I have certainly met much more discrimination in terms of being a woman than being black, in the field of politics.”
— Shirley Chisholm
“The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“My movement is my movement. When all the dust has settled on the groundbreaking-ness, I’m going to still be doing this. I’m not going to suddenly change. I’m going to still be telling my life story through music. And if that’s body-positive to you, amen. If that’s feminist to you, amen. If that’s pro-Black to you, amen. Because ma’am, I’m all of those things.”
— Lizzo
“Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, ‘she doesn’t have what it takes.’ They will say, ‘Women don’t have what it takes.’”
— Clare Boothe Luce
“No woman should be told she can’t make decisions about her own body. When women’s rights are under attack, we fight back.”
— Kamala Harris
“When things get tough just keep on going because if you keep on going, you get a better chance of getting there. Most obstacles you can actually overcome, but you won’t if you just stop. So be ambitious, go for the big goal and try and change something that’s really meaningful.”
— Anne Boden
“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
“Women need a seat at the table, they need an invitation to be seated there, and in some cases, where this is not available, they need to create their own table. We need a global understanding that we cannot implement change effectively without women’s political participation.”
— Meghan Markle
“The more I have spoken about feminism the more I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.”
— Emma Watson
“They cannot stand that a refugee, a black woman, an immigrant, a Muslim, shows up in Congress thinking she’s equal to them. But I say to them, ‘How else did you expect me to show up?’”
— Ilhan Omar
“Embracing failure is the most important trait I’ve developed in my career… It has made me stronger, more confident and more resilient.”
— Reshma Saujani
“More than ever, I am aware of the need to support and celebrate each other. I like to believe I am part of a global support group network of 3.4 billion. Imagine: if you can fall back on the 3.5 billion sisters, and the many good men who are with us, what could we possibly not achieve?”
— Nicole Kidman
“Real fearless and fierce women compliment other women and we recognize and embrace that their shine in no way diminishes our light and that it actually makes it brighter.”
— Gabrielle Union
