“For too many centuries women have been being muses to artists. I wanted to be the muse, I wanted to be the wife of the artist, but I was really trying to avoid the final issue—that I had to do the job myself.”— Anaïs Nin, thoughtcatalog.com
“I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.”— Dolly Parton, thoughtcatalog.com
“I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself.”— Simone de Beauvoir, thoughtcatalog.com
“There are some people who still feel threatened by strong women. That’s their problem. It’s not mine.”— Gloria Allred, thoughtcatalog.com
“People call me a feminist whenever I express statements that distinguish me from a doormat.”— Rebecca West, thoughtcatalog.com
“I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.”— Madonna, thoughtcatalog.com
“It is amazing what a woman can do if only she ignores what men tell her she can’t.”— Carol K. Carr, thoughtcatalog.com
“Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”— Charlotte Whitton, thoughtcatalog.com
“There’s nothing a man can do, that I can’t do better and in heels.”— Ginger Rogers, thoughtcatalog.com
“I think when you start out in your career, you think that everything is fair, and you are getting equal opportunities. And as you move up higher in the ranks, you realize that actually there are fewer positions and it’s more competitive and it’s harder to get those opportunities. And then you reach…”— Ellen Pao, blogs.wsj.com
“It is pure mythology that women cannot perform as well as men in science, engineering and mathematics. In my experience, the opposite is true: Women are often more adept and patient at untangling complex problems, multitasking, seeing the possibilities in new solutions and winning team support for c…”— Weili Dai, edition.cnn.com
“No matter where you are in life, you’ll save a lot of time by not worrying too much about what other people think about you. The earlier in your life that you can learn that, the easier the rest of it will be.”— Sophia Amoruso, kindle.amazon.com
“I handle my business and also I speak up for myself. But if I was not like this, so many people would’ve taken advantage of me…I just always felt like, I’m never going to let anyone pull me down and make me feel small. I’m never going to let a man do that and I think sometimes that transfers over in…”— Nicki Minaj, youtube.com
“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 t…”— Hillary Clinton, popsugar.com
“You could certainly say that I’ve never underestimated myself, there’s nothing wrong with being ambitious.”— Angela Merkel, content.time.com
“I love bossy women. Some people hate the word, and I understand how ‘bossy’ can seem like a shitty way to describe a woman with a determined point of view, but for me, a bossy woman is someone to search out and celebrate. A bossy woman is someone who cares and commits and is a natural leader.”— Amy Poehler, amazon.com
“We should not wait for someone else to come and raise our voice. We should do it by ourselves. We should believe in ourselves. Yes, we can do it. One day you will see that all the girls will be powerful; all the girls will be going to school. And it is possible only by our struggle; only when we rai…”— Malala Yousafzai, youtube.com
“I always get asked, ‘Where do you get your confidence?’ I think people are well meaning, but it’s pretty insulting. Because what it means to me is, ‘You, Mindy Kaling, have all the trappings of a very marginalized person. You’re not skinny, you’re not white, you’re a woman. Why on earth would you fe…”— Mindy Kaling, huffingtonpost.com
“[Being a boss] is my job…We’re all feminists here and I don’t think anyone I work with would interpret that being a boss would be like being a bitch or anything.”— Tavi Gevinson, mtv.com