25 International Women’s Day Quotes That Will Empower and Inspire You
Updated: Feb. 29, 2024
Celebrate the strength and resilience of the important women in your life with the most inspiring and motivational International Women's Day quotes
Share these quotes with the women in your life
You don’t have to change the world to be considered an amazing woman. In fact, we’ve all felt the impact of a strong and empowering mother, sister or friend at some point in our lives. Acknowledging female firsts and accomplishments, big and small, is part of the reason we celebrate International Women’s Day every year on March 8. And whether you’re saluting specific career achievements or personal milestones, fundraising for a female-focused charity, educating and raising awareness for women’s equality or calling for positive change politically, you can mark the special day with these International Women’s Day quotes.
From Maya Angelou and Brené Brown to Meryl Streep and Malala Yousafzai, the women we’ve featured are chock-full of inspirational quotes for women, courageous messages and motivational memos. So scroll along and be inspired by these International Women’s Day quotes, find your next caption or send some words of encouragement or appreciation to the most important women in your life.
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“Today about half the nation’s law students and more than one-third of our federal judges are women, including three of the justices seated on the United States Supreme Court bench. Women hold more than 30 percent of law school deanships in the United States and serve as general counsel to 24 percent of Fortune 500 companies. In my long life, I have seen great changes.” —Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“We clear a woman’s way / We don’t fear the day / She steps into the light / Because we are with her / Every step of the fight. / There’s a lot at stake, but making / A difference always takes great courage. / So we encourage women who dare to stare / Fear square in its face, / Women who’ve always shown / That when one woman stands up / She is never alone.” —Amanda Gorman
“Women’s rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about ‘us’; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us.” —Toni Morrison
“They’ll tell you you’re too loud—that you need to wait your turn; and ask the right people for permission. Do it anyway.” —Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“If one man can destroy everything, why can’t one girl change it?” —Malala Yousafzai
“Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.” —Gloria Steinem
“You may not have signed up for a hero’s journey, but the second you fell down, got your butt kicked, suffered a disappointment, screwed up, or felt your heart break, it started. It doesn’t matter whether we are ready for an emotional adventure—hurt happens. And it happens to every single one of us. Without exception. The only decision we get to make is what role we’ll play in our own lives: Do we want to write the story, or do we want to hand that power over to someone else? Choosing to write our own story means getting uncomfortable; it’s choosing courage over comfort.” —Brené Brown
“No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half of its citizens.” —Michelle Obama
“I love my husband, but there’s nothing like a conversation with a woman who understands you. I grow so much from those conversations. I need my sisters.” —Beyoncé
“For thousands of years, in most cultures, the voices of women did not resound in the halls of justice, or from the pulpit or the podium, in parliament, at senates, at court, or in the very important meetings of very important men where the course of history was set. You could make a case that, along with the technological revolution, the most provocative, upending, destabilizing, thrilling change in the course of human history is that we’re finally in it. We’re here now, women are in the world, and we will not be bullied.” —Meryl Streep
“There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer.” —Rihanna
“Feminism is not a stick with which to beat other women. It’s about freedom, it’s about liberation, it’s about equality.” —Emma Watson
“I’m glad I’m a woman; I’m glad I’m a rapper because I get to speak to these people who did not get spoken for in this genre.” —Lizzo
“Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. / I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size / But when I start to tell them, / They think I’m telling lies. / I say, / It’s in the reach of my arms, / The span of my hips, / The stride of my step, / The curl of my lips. / I’m a woman / Phenomenally. / Phenomenal woman, / That’s me.” —Maya Angelou
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. And I am not free as long as one person of color remains chained.” —Audre Lorde
“As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.” —Sandra Day O’Connor
“Women, whether subtly or vociferously, have always been a tremendous power in the destiny of the world and with so many of them now holding important positions and receiving recognition and earning the respect of the men as well as the members of their own sex, it seems more than ever that in this crisis, ‘It’s Up to the Women!'” —Eleanor Roosevelt
“I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femaleness and my femininity. And I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.” —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Be the woman who fixes another woman’s crown without telling the world it was crooked.” —Amy Morin
“How does a girl become strong? How does she enact change? How does she grow into a strong woman? It begins with a step that sounds simple, but isn’t. She finds her voice. A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman.” —Melinda Gates
“Nothing is impossible to a determined woman.” —Louisa May Alcott
“Women need to know that they can reject the powerful’s definition of their reality—that they can do so even if they are poor, exploited, or trapped in oppressive circumstances. They need to know that the exercise of this basic personal power is an act of resistance and strength.” —Bell Hooks
“Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” —Virginia Woolf
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” —Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
“Girls, come on. Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don’t think so.” —Elastigirl
Sources:
- New York Times: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Advice for Living”
- YouTube: Amanda Gorman, “We Rise”
- Toni Morrison: The Source of Self-Regard, “Cinderella’s Stepsisters”
- Twitter: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
- Malala Yousafzai: “I Am Malala“
- LA Times: “Palin: Wrong Woman, Wrong Message”
- Brene Brown: “Rising Strong“
- White House.gov: “Remarks by the First Lady at the Summit of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders”
- Beyonce: “Beyonce: Life Is But a Dream“
- Youtube: Meryl Streep, “Women are in the world and we will not be bullied”
- Harper’s Bazaar: “Rihanna Takes Flight”
- Daily Mail: BBC interview, “Emma Watson on her bra-less Vanity Fair shoot ‘controversy'”
- Billboard: “Meet Lizzo, the Body-Positive Rapper Opening for Sleater-Kinney”
- Poetry Foundation: “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou
- BlackPast: “(1981) Audre Lorde, The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”
- Sandra Day O’Connor: “Women in Power”
- Eleanor Roosevelt: “It’s Up to the Women“
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “We Should All Be Feminists”
- Amy Morin: “13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don’t Do“
- Gates Foundation: “2003 Powerful Voices Luncheon”
- Louisa May Alcott: “The Abbot’s Ghost“
- Bell Hooks: “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center”
- Project Gutenberg Australia: Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own”
- IMDB: “The Incredibles”
- Charlotte Bronte: “Jane Eyre”
Next: Explore these inspirational books for women.
Originally Published: February 23, 2024
