35 Powerful & Honest Quotes About Women & Womanhood

Being a woman can be tough at times. As the best women quotes remind us, we have stereotypes to break, jobs to excel at, families to care for, lives to lead, friends to hang out with, and a world to run.

Sometimes we're so busy making sure everything gets done, we forget to look to the women who have paved the way for all of our awesomeness.

There might be times when we hate being women (ok, usually just when our uterus is trying to kill us), but the truth is, we love being women! 

So here is a list of honest (if at times ridiculous) and inspirational women quotes that sum up what it means to be a woman today.

1. "The thing women have yet to learn is that nobody gives you power. You just take it." - Roseanne Barr

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2. "I'm excited about the aging process. I'm more interested in women who aren't perfect. They're more compelling." - Emma Watson

3. "God gave women intuition and femininity. Used properly, the combination easily jumbles the brain of any man I've ever met." - Farrah Fawcett

4. "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult." - Charlotte Whitton

5. "After all those years as a woman hearing ‘not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,’ almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought: I’m enough." - Anna Quindlen

6. "The most dangerous animal in the world is a silent smiling woman." 

7. “I feel like young girls are told that they have to be a princess and fragile. It’s bull—. I identify much more with being a warrior – a fighter. If I was going to be a princess, I’d be a warrior princess.” - Emma Watson

8. “Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.” - Nora Ephron 

9. "If you retain nothing else, always remember the most important rule of beauty, which is: who cares?" - Tina Fey

10. "A strong woman builds others up because she knows what it's like to be torn down." 

11. "I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand." - Susan B. Anthony

12. “Better to be strong than pretty and useless.” - Lilith Saintcrow, Strange Angels

13. "Beauty isn't about having a pretty face. It's about having a pretty mind, a pretty heart, and a pretty soul." 

14. "A strong woman looks a challenge dead in the eye and gives it a wink." - Gina Carey

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15. “Girls should never be afraid to be smart.” - Emma Watson

16. "People think at the end of the day that a man is the only answer [to fulfillment]. Actually, a job is better for me." - Princess Diana

17. "Behind every successful woman is a tribe of other successful women who have her back." 

18. "When you're a girl, you have to be everything. You have to be dope at what you do but you have to be super-sweet. And you have to be sexy...and you have to be nice. It's like, I can't be all those things at once: I'm a human being." - Nicki Minaj

19. "The most alluring thing a woman can have is confidence." - Beyoncé

20. “I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a b—h, okay.” - Madonna

21. "If I say I'm beautiful... If I say I'm strong. You will not determine my story - I will." - Amy Schumer

22. “I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.” - Emma Watson

23. "A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water." - Eleanor Roosevelt

24. “A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.” - Coco Chanel

25. "Taking joy in living is a woman’s best cosmetic." - Rosalind Russell

26. "Sometimes you just have to put on lip gloss and pretend to be psyched."  - Mindy Kaling

27. "Confidence is 10 percent hard work and 90 percent delusion." - Tina Fey

28. "It was never a dress."

29. “We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.” —Beyoncé

30. "We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women's voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored." — Sheryl Sandberg

31. "I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody's passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn't mind leading." —Amy Poehler

32. "A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and herself only." —Maya Angelou

33. “Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.” —Ruth Bader Ginsburg

34. “​Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world.” —Hillary Clinton

35. "I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it." —Margaret Thatcher

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Estee Kahn is a writer and amateur photographer who writes all about love — dating, relationships, friendships, yourself, and family. Follow her on Instagram.