24 Empowering Feminist Quotes You'll Want To Learn By Heart (2024)

'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.

'Because no woman or man should have to choose between being a mother or father or having a career.'

Last year, Jacinda Arden, 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.

'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 during which the President of the Spanish FA kissed 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.

'This is your future, and you must have an opportunity to shape it.'

UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous, issued these sage words at the opening ceremony of the Women Deliver 2023 Conference.

'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, Michelle Yeoh credited her mum and mothers worldwide.

'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 focusses on women and children.

'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, Angela Davis, included this wise statement in a lecture at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Atlanta in 2009.

'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'

Rupi Kaur became a global sensation after she self published her first poetry collection, milk and honey, at the age of 21. This quote comes from the poem legacy comes from her second collection, the sun and her flowers.

'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.'

Truer words had never been said, courtesy of the philosopher and feminist activist, Simone de Beauvoir, and her groundbreaking piece of work, The Second Sex.

'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.'

This poem, which was initially written exclusively for ELLE UK as part of our September 2018 sustainability issue, was then recited three years later by its author, Amanda Gorman, at the US inauguration of President Biden in 2021.

'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 intersectional feminist Audre Lorde's essay 'Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power', which is part of her seminal collection Sister Outsider.

'Feminism is for everybody.'

bell hooks was one of the first feminists to bring intersectionality into the conversation by realising race and class were part and parcel of the movement. This quote was taken from hooks' seminal 2000 book, Feminism Is For Everybody.

'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 these wise words to paper in Persuasion in 1817. A pioneer during her time and today, Austen helped mainstream female narration by making her protagonists characters that women could relate to.

'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.'

These words were taken from the Reni Eddo Lodge'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 the gender and racial inequalities still very much at play within the UK.

'You have to use your privilege to serve other people.'

Tarana Burke, who is the founder of the #MeToo movement, made this statement during an interview with the Guardian in 2018. Since then #MeToo has become one the biggest feminist movements in modern times as it has encouraged millions of women to speak out and has forced aggressors to take accountability.

'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.'

This is a verse from Maya Angelou's inimitable poem, Still I Rise, which was first published in 1978. One of the most acclaimed feminist writers, her other works include Phenomenal Women and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

'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 Coloured Girls, which paints a picture of black womanhood.

'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. Steinem has long been a fighter for women's rights; in 1972 she began writing a column called The City Politic, which helped bring feminism into mainstream media.

'One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.'

The novellist penned the phrase in 1929 novel A Room of One's Own, which is cited as one of the first texts of feminist criticism.

'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 first uttered this quote in a 1996 interview and, in the years since has provided us with more infamous quotes, including her words from the 2018 Women's March, during which she said, 'If you want the job done right, get a woman.'