The Top 12 Literary Quotes About Women

The Top 12 Literary Quotes About Women

In this post from Writers Write, your comprehensive resource, we share a selection of our favourite literary quotes about women.

To celebrate Women’s Day, I have compiled a list of some of my favourite literary quotations about women.

  • International Women’s Day is celebrated on 8 March.
  • National Women’s Daycelebrated on 9 Augustis an annual public holiday in South Africa.

Women’s Day – South Africa: Now You Have Struck A Rock

On 9 August 1956, more than 20 000 women of all races marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest pass laws that required Black South Africans to carry a ‘pass’. This pass restricted where the bearer was allowed to live, work, and travel. Black South Africans had to carry their ‘pass’ at all times, and were often arrested if they could not produce it.

After dropping off petitions with more than 100 000 signatures at the Prime Minister’s offices, the women stood in silence for 30 minutes. A song was composed in honour of the occasion, Wathint’ Abafazi Wathint’ imbokodo! (Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock!)

The march was led by Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, and Sophia Williams. This display of solidarity and inner strength showed how women were an integral part of the freedom struggle. It reminds us that women were at the forefront of change in South Africa and they shaped the future of South Africa.

The Top 12 Literary Quotes About Women

  1. Every word a woman writes changes the story of the world, revises the official version. ~Carolyn See
  2. I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves. ~Mary Wollstonecraft
  3. The domestic career is no more natural to all women than the military career is natural to all men. ~George Bernard Shaw
  4. It is only rarely that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman. ~Alexandre Dumas, fils
  5. Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them. ~Margaret Atwood
  6. Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.” ~Clare Boothe Luce
  7. How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself. ~Anaïs Nin
  8. It’s wonderful to watch a pretty woman with character grow beautiful. ~Mignon McLaughlin
  9. Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim. ~Nora Ephron
  10. A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it. ~D. H. Lawrence
  11. If you have any doubts that we live in a society controlled by men, try reading down the index of contributors to a volume of quotations, looking for women’s names. ~Elaine Gill
  12. I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass. ~Maya Angelou

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Posted on: 9th August 2014
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