I have never yet spoken from a public platform about women in industry that someone has not said, 'But things are far better than they used to be.' I confess to impatience with persons who are satisfied with a dangerously slow tempo of progress for half of society in an age which requires a much faster tempo than in the days that 'used to be.' Let us use what might be instead of what has been as our yardstick!
--Mary Barnett Gilson, 1940

Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.
--Pearl S. Buck, 1941

Unusual excellence in women was clearly associated for them with the loss of femininity, social rejection, personal or societal destruction or some combination of the above.
--Matina Horner, 1964

Equity speaks softly and wins in the end. But it is expedience, with its loud voice, that sets the time of victory.
--Caroline Bird, 1968

A pedestal is as much a prison as any other small space.
--Anonymous Woman, 1970s

But if God had wanted us to think with our wombs, why did He give us a brain?
--Clare Boothe Luce, 1970

I became a feminist as an alternative to becoming a masochist.
--Sally Kempton, 1970

I submit that women's history has been hushed up for the same reason that black history has been hushed up . . . and that is that a feminist movement poses a direct threat to the establishment. From the beginning it exposed the hypocrisy of the male power structure.
--Shulamith Firestone, 1970

When men imagine a female uprising they imagine a world in which women rule men as men have ruled women: their guilt which is the guilt of every ruling class, will allow them to see no middle ground.
--Sally Kempton, 1970

When a man can't explain a woman's actions, the first thing he thinks about is the condition of her uterus.
--Clare Boothe Luce, 1970

I don't know what immutable differences exist between men and women apart from differences in their genitals; perhaps there are some other unchangeable differences; probably there are a number of irrelevant differences. But it is clear that until social expectations for men and women are equal, until we provide equal respect for both men and women, our answers to this question will simply reflect our prejudices.
--Naomi Weisstein, 1970

The only jobs for which no man is qualified are human incubator and wet nurse. Likewise, the only job for which no woman is or can be qualified is sperm donor.
--Wilma Scott Heide, 1971

Men insist that they don't mind women succeeding so long as they retain their 'femininity'. Yet the qualities that men consider 'feminine' -- timidity, submissiveness, obedience, silliness, and self-debasement -- are the very qualities best guaranteed to assure the defeat of even the most gifted aspirant.
--Elizabeth Gould Davis, 1971

. . . we whose hands have rocked the cradle, are now using our heads to rock the boat . . .
--Wilma Scott Heide, 1971

Women's chains have been forged by men, not by anatomy.
--Estelle R. Ramey, 1972

At this moment in history only women can (if they will) support the entry or re-entry of women into the human race.
--Phyllis Chesler, 1972

To be somebody, a woman does not have to be more like a man, but has to be more of a woman.
--Sally E. Shaywitz, 1973

What the emergence of woman as a political force means is that we are quite ready now to take on responsibilities as equals, not protected partners.
--Jill Ruckelshaus, 1973

The single most impressive fact about the attempt by American women to obtain the right to vote is how long it took.
--Alice Rossi, 1973

I have a brain and a uterus and I use them both.
--Patricia Schroeder, 1973

Male supremacy has kept woman down. It has not knocked her out.
--Clare Boothe Luce, 1974

There are very few jobs that actually require a penis or a vagina. All other jobs should be open to everybody.
--Florynce R. Kennedy, 1974

The oppressed never free themselves -- they do not have the necessary strengths.
--Clare Boothe Luce, 1974

As soon as a woman crosses the border into male territory, the nature of professional combat changes.
--Francoise Giroud, 1974

The American Republic is now almost 200 years old, and in the eyes of the law women are still not equal with men. The special legislation which will remedy that situation is the Equal Rights Amendment. Its language is short and simple: Equality of rights under the law shall not be abridged in the United States or by any state on account of sex.
--Clare Boothe Luce, 1974

How wrong it is for women to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than set out to create it herself.
--Anais Nin, 1974