Gloria Steinem, a trailblazing feminist, journalist, and social-political activist, has been a leading voice in the women’s liberation movement for decades.
Her work, spanning from the grassroots level to the global stage, has significantly contributed to the discourse on gender equality, women’s rights, and social justice.
Steinem’s insightful commentary and sharp wit have not only challenged societal norms but have also empowered generations to think critically about the structures of power and privilege.
Here, we’ve gathered a selection of Gloria Steinem’s most memorable quotes.
Whether you're a long-time admirer of her work or new to her contributions, Steinem's words continue to inspire and challenge us to envision a world where everyone has the freedom to become the fullest version of themselves.
The Best Quotes from Gloria Steinem
Famous Quotes
“Empathy is the most radical of human emotions.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Revolutions that last don’t happen from the top down. They happen from the bottom up.”
— Gloria Steinem
“The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us.”
— Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem
“The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Don’t think about making women fit the world — think about making the world fit women.”
— Gloria Steinem, in a speech
“The art of being helpful is behaving as if everything we do matters — because we never know which things might.”
— Gloria Steinem
“None of us can be liberated if other groups are not.”
— Gloria Steinem, in a speech
“We need to worry less about doing what is most important, and more about doing whatever we can.”
— Gloria Steinem, in an article
“Law and justice are not always the same. When they aren’t, destroying the law may be the first step toward changing it.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”
— Gloria Steinem
On Love
“Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.”
— Gloria Steinem
“I wonder: If you think of someone you love, do you become a little more like them? I would like to think so.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
“Love is wanting what’s best for the other person. Romance is wanting the other person.”
— Gloria Steinem
“If you are not a feminist in love, you fail to recognize someone who does not love you. Feminism makes love easier. Otherwise, there is the danger of feeling romantically drawn to someone who does not see you as an equal.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Being able to support oneself allows one to choose a marriage out of love and not just economic dependence. It also allows one to risk that marriage.”
— Gloria Steinem
“As Robin Morgan wrote so wisely, ‘Hate generalizes, love specifies’. That’s what makes going on the road so important. It definitely specifies.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
On Motherhood
“I see mother as a verb — we are all able to mother, whatever our sex or our age or our abilities. Bring one of your mothers to this event.”
— Gloria Steinem, in a tweet
“Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one.”
— Gloria Steinem, In Praise of Women’s Bodies
“Most of us are living out the unlived lives of our mothers, because they were not able to become the unique people they were born to be.”
— Gloria Steinem
“We are all able to mother, whatever our sex or our age or our abilities. To mother is to care about the welfare of another person as much as one’s own. To mother depends on empathy and thoughtfulness, noticing and caring.”
— Gloria Steinem, on Instagram
“In retrospect, perhaps the biggest reason my mother was cared for but not helped for twenty years was the simplest: Her functioning was not that necessary to the world.”
— Gloria Steinem
“We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons… but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.”
— Gloria Steinem
On Equality
“When humans are ranked instead of linked, everyone loses.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
“A belief in equality, without division by sex or race, is now held by a huge majority in public-opinion polls. But a stubborn minority of Americans feel deprived of the unearned privilege of that old hierarchy and are in revolt. The time of greatest danger comes after a victory, and that’s where we are now.”
— Gloria Steinem, in an article
“On the fight for equality today: ‘It’s not so good when we say to kids, You can be anything you want,’ because it’s not true. Much better to say, ‘You should be able to be anything you want.’”
— Gloria Steinem
“I’ve been using my torch to light other peoples’ torches. Because the whole idea that there’s only one torch is part of the reason why we’re so f*cked up. Everybody needs a torch.”
— Gloria Steinem, in a speech
On Leadership
“There is no such thing as a perfect leader. We have to learn to lead ourselves.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Also, one of the simplest paths to deep change is for the less powerful to speak as much as they listen, and for the more powerful to listen as much as they speak.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
“Hang out with people who make you feel smart, not dumb. That’s crucial. Because if they make you feel dumb, they’re not supporting you and they’re not helping you. It isn’t that we’re right or wrong. It doesn’t have to do with being right all the time, but if you have consistency of support from people who value your opinion, it will help you to value your opinion. We’re communal people. You can’t do it by yourself.”
— Gloria Steinem, in an interview
“I’ve noticed that great political leaders are energized by conflict. I’m energized by listening to people’s stories and trying to figure out shared solutions. That’s the work of an organizer.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
“Clearly no one knows what leadership has gone undiscovered in women of all races, and in black and other minority men.”
— Gloria Steinem
“If you want people to listen to you, you have to listen to them. If you hope people will change how they live, you have to know how they live. If you want people to see you, you have to sit down with them eye-to-eye.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
On Feminism
“A feminist is someone who believes in the full humanity of all people.”
— Gloria Steinem, in a tweet
“Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That’s their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Women have two choices: Either she’s a feminist or a masochist.”
— Gloria Steinem
“We’ll never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth.”
— Gloria Steinem
“For women… bras, panties, bathing suits, and other stereotypical gear are visual reminders of a commercial, idealized feminine image that our real and diverse female bodies can’t possibly fit. Without these visual references, each individual woman’s body demands to be accepted on its own terms. We stop being comparatives. We begin to be unique.”
— Gloria Steinem, In Praise of Women’s Bodies
“Women are always saying, ‘We can do anything that men can do,’ but men should be saying, ‘We can do anything that women can do.’”
— Gloria Steinem
“Women have a special opportunity to live the revolution. By refusing to play their traditional role, they upset and displace the social structure around them.”
— Gloria Steinem, in a speech
“Every woman remembers the first time we ever stood up for ourselves.”
— Gloria Steinem, in a tweet
“Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.”
— Gloria Steinem, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
“Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.”
— Gloria Steinem
“We are the women our parents warned us against, and we are proud.”
— Gloria Steinem
→ Read more feminist quotes
Short Quotes
“Once we give up searching for approval we often find it easier to earn respect.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Laughter is a rescue.”
― Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
“Dying seems less sad than having lived too little.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Democracy exists when all people have the fundamental right to make decisions about our own bodies and lives.”
— Gloria Steinem, on Instagram
“Self-esteem isn’t everything; it’s just that there’s nothing without it.”
— Gloria Steinem
“We learn most where we know the least.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
— Gloria Steinem
“When unique voices are united in a common cause, they make history.”
— Gloria Steinem
“We are so different, yet so much the same.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
“A good friendship is a conversation that never ends.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Experience is everything. Somebody who has experienced something is more expert at it than the experts.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
“Being married is like having somebody permanently in your corner. It feels limitless, not limited.”
— Gloria Steinem
“The first resistance to social change is to say it’s not necessary.”
— Gloria Steinem
“Decisions are best made by the people affected by them.”
— Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
→ Read more short quotes
More Quotes
“So whatever you want to do, just do it… Making a damn fool of yourself is absolutely essential.”
— Gloria Steinem, in a speech
“We need to unlearn our respect for education since it has undermined our respect for ourselves. It’s worth taking time to demystify it… All the things an adolescent can be… are reduced to a three-digit number… We too can decide how to value our education instead of letting them value us.”
— Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within
“The problem is the feeling that we’re divided from politics, that our vote doesn’t count or what we do doesn’t count. In fact, everything we do counts.”
— Gloria Steinem
“When the past dies, there is mourning, but when the future dies our imaginations are compelled to carry it on.”
— Gloria Steinem
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn. We are filled with popular wisdom of several centuries just past, and we are terrified to give it up.”
— Gloria Steinem, in an article
“Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”
— Gloria Steinem
“We tend to forget that every revolution or social change is like a tree — it grows from the bottom up, not the top down. However small it may seem to begin, that does not matter because it will grow.”
— Gloria Steinem, in an interview
“The power to make decisions about our own bodies is the first step towards democracy, so it comes as no surprise that authoritarian regimes resist our right to reproductive freedom.”
— Gloria Steinem, on Instagram
“We need to remember across generations that there is as much to learn as there is to teach.”
— Gloria Steinem
