Notable women

We Must All Reflect So Life Will Be Worth Living.

“I was the Marlon Brando of my generation.”

Bette Davis

“Women are up against men who believe money is more important than food.”

Gloria G. Lee, writer, 1945 –

“I decided it is better to scream. Silence is the real crime against humanity”

Nadezhda Mandelstam, 81, Russian writer,

"It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole

people, who formed the Union."

Susan B. Anthony, feminist

“Rest and you rust.”

Helen Hayes, 92, American actress,

“When they asked for those to raise their hands who’d go down to the courthouse the next day, I raised mine. Had it high up as I could get it. I guess if I’d had any sense I’d've been a little scared, but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do to me was kill me and it seemed like they’d been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember. “The landowner said I would have to go back to withdraw or I would have to leave and so I told him I didn’t go down there to register for him, I was down there to register for myself.” “I am determined to get every Negro in the state of Mississippi registered.” “They just kept beating me and telling me, "You nigger bitch, we’re gonna make you wish you were dead." … Every day of my life I pay with the misery of that beating.”

Fannie Lou Hamer, champion, 1917-1977

“The true worth of a race must be measured by the character of its womanhood.”

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)

“I have reached a point in my life where I understand the pain and the challenges; and my attitude is

one of standing up with open arms to meet them all.”

Myrlie Evers, activist 1933 -

“You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for

miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.”

Billie Holiday, singer -songwriter, April 17, 1915 – July 17, 1959

“One night I went to the church. They had a mass meeting. And I went to the church, and they talked

about how it was our right, that we could register and vote. They were talking about we could vote out

people that we didn’t want in office, we thought that wasn’t right, that we could vote them out. That

sounded interesting enough to me that I wanted to try it. I had never heard, until 1962, that black

people could register and vote.”

Fannie Lou Hamer, champion, 1917-1977

“Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.”

Erica Jong, author, March 26, 1942 –

“None of you [men] ask for anything — except everything, but just

for so long as you need it.”
Doris Lessing, writer, October 22, 1919 -

“We are coming down from our pedestal and up from the laundry room.”

Bella Savitsky Abzug, 77, lawyer

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech

Maryanne Williamson, writer

“A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and

love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive. Having been alive,it won’t be so hard in the end to

lie down and rest.”

Pearl Bailey, singer, 1918 – 1990

“I don’t know how to make it work so I guess it cannot be done. Right! So lack of knowledge

should stop me from trying.”

Gloria G. Lee, writer, 1945 –

“The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.”

Mary McLeod Bethune, 1875-1955

“You have to be taught to be second class; you’re not born that way.”

Lena Horne, singer 1917 –

“Yes there are women smarter than you. The reason why they are smarter than you is because they

did not stop reading.”

Gloria G. Lee, writer, 1945 -

“[on women's role in government] Toughness doesn’t have to come in a pinstripe suit.”

Dianne Feinstein, politician, 1933 –

Do you know the names of the three women who spoke the following words?

“I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be elected to Congress, not as the

first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman

who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself.”