Every year, on March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day. This is an opportunity to globally honor the achievements and contributions of women, especially as we continue to fight the discrimination and oppression they face.
As a way to embrace and cultivate the lives and futures of women from all walks of life, we’ve developed a list of inspiring quotes from world-changing women.
Our hope is that these quotes leave you feeling inspired, empowered, maybe a little outraged — and ready to do more good.
You might also like: The best empowering quotes for women — by women
The Best International Women’s Day Quotes & Greetings
Famous Quotes
“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”
— Michelle Obama
“Women don’t need to find a voice, they have a voice, and they need to feel empowered to use it, and people need to be encouraged to listen.”
— Meghan Markle
“It would be a thousand pities if women wrote like men, or lived like men, or looked like men, for if two sexes are quite inadequate, considering the vastness and variety of the world, how should we manage with one only?”
— Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
“As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.”
— Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“I can promise you that women working together — linked, informed, and educated — can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet.”
— Isabel Allende
“I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.”
— Mary Shelley
“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 should be respected as well! Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn’t women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?”
— Anne Frank
“There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer.”
— Rihanna
“Women will be hidden no more. We will not remain hidden figures. We have names… It was woman that gave you Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was woman that gave you Malcolm X. And according to the Bible, it was a woman that gave you Jesus. Don’t you ever forget it.”
— Janelle Monáe
“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”
— Maya Angelou
Inspirational Quotes
“We need to encourage girls that their voice matters. I think there are hundreds and thousands of Malalas out there.”
— Malala Yousafzai
“I think transwomen, and transpeople 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
“Dear friends, much pain has been endured in the past, and that pain is no longer designated to hopelessness. It’s time to move the process of reconciliation forward with a little more speed. That is the task. If not now, when? If not us, who?”
— Faith Bandler
“One individual cannot possibly make a difference, alone. It is individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference — all the difference in the world!”
— Jane Goodall
“I like being present in spaces where I am not welcome because you do not deserve to feel comfortable just because you’re racist or sexist or small-minded.”
— Scaachi Koul, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter
“Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”
— Charlotte Whitton
Empowering Quotes
“Extremists have shown what frightens them most. A girl with a book.”
— Malala Yousafzai
“Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.”
— Margaret Sanger
“The woman power of this nation can be the power which makes us whole and heals the rotten community, now so shattered by war and poverty and racism. I have great faith in the power of women who will dedicate themselves whole-heartedly to the task of remaking our society.”
— Coretta Scott King
“At some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time. After that, she is free to become whoever she truly is.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert
“Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”
— G.D. Anderson
“Every woman’s success should be an inspiration to another. We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.”
— Serena Williams
“We know that when a woman speaks truth to power, there will be attempts to put her down… I’m not going to go anywhere.”
— Maxine Waters
“Friends. Sisters. Mothers. Professors. When women affirm women, it unlocks our power. It gives us permission to shine brighter.”
— Elaine Welteroth
“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
Short Quotes
“Each time a woman stands up for herself she stands up for all women.”
— Maya Angelou
“A feminist is any woman who tells the truth about her life.”
— Virginia Woolf
“We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced.”
— Malala Yousafzai
“There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.”
— Hannah Gadsby
“I’d rather regret the things I’ve done than regret the things I haven’t done.”
— Lucille Ball
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
— Audre Lorde
On Equality
“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
“If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free since our freedom would necessitate the destruction of all the systems of oppression.”
— The Cohambee River Collective
“While the issues we prioritize may be different country by country, there is a real consensus that men must play their part if we are to achieve true parity between the sexes. It is also heartening to see that attitudes towards male and female roles are changing. Politicians and business leaders must hear and act on that message. We need to redouble efforts to accelerate progress in tackling gender gaps and increasing female representation in positions of power.”
— Julia Gillard
“I’ve been in so many spaces where I’m the first and only Black trans woman or trans woman period. I just want to work until there are fewer and fewer ‘first and only’s.”
— Raquel Willis
“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
Quotes About Women’s History
“Women should be celebrated every day, but a month dedicated to female empowerment is extremely special. It doesn’t just honor the iconic women who have changed history, but encourages new generations to dream big and know that anything is possible.”
— Molly McCook, in Forbes
“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
“This is for the powerful women, the badly behaved women, the women who shaped history with their hands, the women who fought tooth and nail so girls today can read, write, vote, be employed. We are indebted to their sacrifices and it is a reminder that nothing ever comes easy, it must be fought for. For all the women who come after us, for all the little girls growing up in this world, we owe it to them to keep fighting.”
— Nikita Gill
“Women’s History, the essential tool in creating feminist consciousness in women, is providing the body of experience against which new theory can be tested and the ground on which women of vision can stand. A feminist world-view will enable women and men to free their minds from patriarchal thought and practice and at last to build a world free of dominance and hierarchy, a world that is truly human.”
— Gerda Lerner
“So what do people see when they read that well-behaved women rarely make history? Do they imagine good-time girls in stiletto heels or do-good girls carrying clipboards and passing petitions? Do they envision an out-of-control hobbyist or a single mother taking down a drunk in a bar? I suspect that it depends on where they stand themselves.”
— Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
“Though we have more Native women serving in Congress, a woman of color in the vice president’s office, and women making moves across the country, we still have to recognize that the disadvantages that we face are created by a system designed to keep us out, and that, coupled with systemic racism, makes Women’s History Month all the more important.”
— Deb Haaland, in an interview with The New York Times
“History is no longer just a chronicle of kings and statesmen, of people who wielded power, but of ordinary women and men engaged in manifold tasks. Women’s history is an assertion that women have a history.”
— Aparna Basu
Quotes About International Women’s Day
“I’ve spent my entire life in male-dominated fields — first in the military, now in Congress. And this International Women’s Day, allow me to share what I’ve learned.
You don’t need to be ‘one of the guys.’
You are strong, brave and destined to lead. Own it.”
— Senator Tammy Duckworth
“International Women’s Day has always been about gender inequality and discrimination. Gender equity is still not a reality in the world so IWD is a day to raise awareness and demand equity for all people regardless of gender.”
— Jo Luehmann
“To the women before me, my undying gratitude.
To the women beside me, my unwavering loyalty.
To the women after me, all the love and blessings I can bestow.
Enjoy all five generations of us.
Happy International Women’s Day.”
— René Brooks
More Quotes
“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”
— Marian Wright Edelman
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m not shutting up. I will always stand up for women and girls, cis and trans.”
— Fae Johnstone
“Women endure entire lifetimes of these indignities — in the form of catcalls, groping, assault, oppression. These things injure us. They sap our strength. Some of the cuts are so small they’re barely visible. Others are huge and gaping, leaving scars that never heal. Either way, they accumulate. We carry them everywhere, to and from school and work, at home while raising our children, at our places of worship, anytime we try to advance.”
— Michelle Obama
“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul.”
— Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“You never completely have your rights, one person, until you all have your rights.”
— Marsha P. Johnson
“The women of today are the thoughts of their mothers and grandmothers, embodied and made alive. They are active, capable, determined and bound to win. They have one-thousand generations back of them... Millions of women dead and gone are speaking through us today.”
— Matilda Joslyn Gage
“Wouldn’t it be nice if Black girls weren’t inundated with negative, sexist comments about Black women? If they were told instead of the many important things that we’ve achieved?... Black women, too often in the shadows of such accomplishments, actually powered the civil rights movement.”
— Megan Thee Stallion
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker
“I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue — my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.”
— Gloria E. Anzaldúa
“Do not live someone else’s life and someone else’s idea of what womanhood is. Womanhood is you.”
— Viola Davis
“The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn’t have the weight of gender expectations.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
