24 Empowering Feminist Quotes You'll Want To Learn By Heart
Fighting the patriarchy can be a tiresome slog. So it's helpful, every once in a while, to turn to Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie et al for some inspirational feminist quotes to get you through it.
Even if you've never met these individuals, you can still live by their powerful words. Whether you're combatting an annoying boss who's blocking your promotion, building up the courage to tell someone in your life to stop treating you unfairly or just trying to be a bit kinder to yourself, we advise bookmarking these feminist quotes so that you can return to them when you need them most.
Last year was full to the brim with numerous achievements made by awe-inspiring people who, even during the most turbulent of times, provided a much-needed reminder of the possibilities and opportunities available to women today. From the box office records Barbie director Greta Gerwig broke, to Michelle Yeoh becoming the first Asian actress to win an Oscar and the world reflecting on the influence of Sinéad O'Connor's lasting legacy after she passed away, there was a lot to celebrate.
The year will also be a huge year for activism. With elections fast approaching in both the UK and US, it's expected that people across both countries will take to the streets to demonstrate against the ongoing fight for our reproductive rights, the gender pay gaps and increasingly unaffordable childcare.
The road to genuine gender equality - along with the important intersections of race, class, sexuality and disability - is a long, yet worthwhile, one, so it's always helpful to look to the words of the trailblazing people who have come before to bolster the journey ahead.
Scroll through for some of ELLE UK's favourite feminist quotes throughout the years:
Narges Mohammadi
'Victory is not easy, but it is certain.'
Last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, women's rights activist Narges Mohammadi, was not able to accept her award in person as she is still being wrongly imprisoned in Iran. Instead, her acceptance speech was read out by her teenage daughter.
Jacinda Ardern
'Because no woman or man should have to choose between being a mother or father or having a career.'
Last year, the former Prime Minister of New Zealand (who was the world’s youngest female leader when she first took office) stepped down from her position, but has and continues to leave a lasting global impact for girls and women everywhere.
Whilst in office, Ardern was steadfast in her fight for proving you can combine motherhood and a career.
Jenni Hermoso
'I feel that no one, in no work space, sporting or social, should be a victim to this time of unconsensual behaviour.'
Following the incident where the President of the Spanish FA sparked outrage by kissing her without her consent following the team’s Women's World Cup win, the midfielder bravely spoke out, despite facing immense pressure to justify the President's actions.
Director Sima Bahous
'This is your future, and you must have an opportunity to shape it.'
The UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director issued these sage words at the opening ceremony of the Women Deliver 2023 Conference.
Michelle Yeoh
'I have to dedicate this to my mum, all the mums in the world, because they are really the superheroes and without them, none of us would be here tonight.'
During her moving speech after she became the first Asian woman to win the Best Actress award at the Oscars, the actor credited her mum and mothers worldwide.
Angelina Jolie
'Find who you are in this world and what you need to feel good alone. I think that's the most important thing in life. Find a sense of self because with that, you can do anything else.'
Humanitarian and UN Women ambassador, Angelina Jolie, offered these wise words in an interview with Cosmopolitan. The multi-hyphenate is known for her activism which predominately centres women and children.
Angela Davis
'We fight the same battles over and over again. They are never won for eternity, but in the process of struggling together, in community, we learn how to glimpse new possibilities that otherwise never would have become apparent to us, and in the process we expand and enlarge our very notion of freedom.'
The American political activist, philosopher, academic, and author included this wise statement in a lecture at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Atlanta in 2009.
Simone de Beauvoir
'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.'
Truer words had never been said, courtesy of the existential philosopher and feminist activist and her groundbreaking work, The Second Sex.
Rupi Kaur
'I stand on the sacrifices of a million women before me thinking what can i do to make this mountain taller so the women after me can see farther'
The famed 'Queen of the Instapoets’ became a literary mainstay and a global sensation, after she self published her first collection (milk and honey) of poetry about love, heartbreak and womanhood aged 21.
This quote from the poem legacy comes from her second collection titled the sun and her flowers.
Amanda Gorman
'Alone, a woman is a root curling for change,
But together, women are a forest alive with spirit:a riotous power, the most timeless pact,a call to act, to all those who hear it.
Sturdy as crouched valleys, proud as hard-baked earth, there is nothing more natural than a woman who knows the worth of making the choice to raise her voice.'
An except from a poem written three years prior to her incomparable recital of The Hill We Climb at the US Inauguration in January 2020. The poem was written exclusively for ELLE UK for our September 2018 Sustainability issue, addressing the women of the world.
Audre Lorde
'When I speak of the erotic, then, I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.'
This radical passage is taken from Lorde's essay 'Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power' in her seminal collection Sister Outsider. This piece of work and much of her other writings dove into lesbian feminism and racial issues.
bell hooks
'Feminism is for everybody.'
From hooks' 2000 book of the same title. The author was one of the first feminists to bring intersectionality into the conversation by realising race and class were part and parcel of the movement.
Jane Austen
'I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.'
The author put the wise words to paper in Persuasion in 1817. A pioneer during her time and today, Austen helped mainstream female narration making her characters active speakers with emotions that women could relate to, and were written by a woman.
Reni Eddo-Lodge
'If feminism can understand the patriarchy, it’s important to question why so many feminists struggle to understand whiteness as a political structure in the very same way.'
Taken from the intersectional feminist author's 2017 book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, which topped UK book charts, shortly after the death of George Floyd. The book gave readers a necessary insight into gender and racial inequalities within the UK.
Tarana Burke
'You have to use your privilege to serve other people'
Burke, who is the founder of the #MeToo movement, said this statement during an interview with the Guardian in 2018. Since then, #MeToo has become one the biggest feminist movements in contemporary times as it encouraged millions of women to speak out and has also forced aggressors to take accountability.
Maya Angelou
'You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness. But still, like air, I rise.'
A verse from Maya Angelou's inimitable poem Still I Rise, first published in 1978. One of the most acclaimed feminist poets, her other works including Phenomenal Women and Caged Bird also use figurative language to bring forth a black feminist viewpoint.
Ntozake Shange
'Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic. She can share or not share her powers. This woman is a consort of the spirits.'
The playwright and poet wrote this in her 1982 novel, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo. Her other work includes For Colored Girls, which paints a picture of black womanhood.
Gloria Steinem
'Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.'
The activist is believed to have stated this powerful quote in a collection of essays published in 1983. Steinen has long been in a fighter for women's rights - in 1972 she began writing a column called The City Politic, which helped bring feminism into mainstream media.
Virginia Woolf
'One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.'
The novellist penned the phrase in A Room of One's Own (1929), which is cited as one of the first texts of feminist criticism. To this day, Woolf's legacy lives through her works and advocacy.
Cher
'My mum said to me, "You know, sweetheart one day you should settle down and marry a rich man". I said, "Mum, I am a rich man"'.
The singer uttered the resurfaced viral quotes in a 1996 interview. Since then the superstar has provided us with more famous feminist quotes. For example, at the 2018 Women's March she famously said 'If you want the job done right, get a woman.'
Amal Clooney
'The worst thing that we can do as women is not stand up for each other, and this is something we can practice every day, no matter where we are and what we do — women sticking up for other women, choosing to protect and celebrate each other instead of competing or criticising one another... Holding back women is holding back half of every country in the world.'
The human rights lawyer said the rousing comments in a keynote speech at the Texas Conference for women in 2016. From urging other women to commit everyday acts of feminism to her work with Clooney Foundation for Justice, this lady does it all.
Michelle Obama
'Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn’t.'
The former First Lady made the comments in a speech in Phoenix, Arizona in 2008 while she was campaigning for husband Barack Obama's presidential bid.
Emma Watson
'If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong… It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals.'
The actor said these words during her HeForShe speech at the United Nations in 2014. She became a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in 2014, and helped launch the HeForShe campaign. To this day, the campaign still strives to promote women's rights and political participation.
Laverne Cox
'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.'
Cox, an America actor and LGBTQ+ advocate, said this in Dame Magazine in 2014. Her character in Orange Is The New Black, was a trans woman in prison who fought to receive hormone medication played a pivotal in shedding light on the hardships of trans women.
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