Feminist Authors Quotes

“It’s not all men, and yet, statistically, it will be a man.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“There is every chance that someone in your everyday life is someone else’s monster.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“In order to achieve real change, more than half the population needs to give a shit.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“The thing about reckonings is that for them to truly occur, all that came before has to be burnt to the ground.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“You shouldn’t get a cookie for telling people not to sexually assault other people. And, yet, here we are.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“But this is not a ‘women’s issue’ and it is not for women to solve.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“None of us are equal until all of us are.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“Anger can be destructive, but it can also be transformative.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“Our history is stained with injustices and rage that took too long to be acknowledged.”
― Amy Remeikis, On Reckoning

“I believe this “perfect or bust” mentality is a big part of why women are underrepresented in C-suites, in boardrooms, in Congress, and pretty much everywhere you look.”
― Reshma Saujani, Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder

“There’s a running theme in movies and on television about the nerdy guy who gets rejected and goes on to become Mark Zuckerberg, but there’s no similar narrative for girls.”
― Reshma Saujani, Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder

“What if, instead of feeling intimidated by an assertive woman and bitching about her behind her back, we talked about how we admire her instead?”
― Reshma Saujani, Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder

“Generosity and bravery are intertwined – especially when it comes to women supporting other women.”
― Reshma Saujani, Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder

“Yet this is an illusion that assumes we have power over how other people view and respond to us.”
― Reshma Saujani, Brave, Not Perfect: Fear Less, Fail More, and Live Bolder

“It takes one person to make change happen.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“There are so many African women who are sources of feminist inspiration. Because of what they have done and because of what they have refused to do.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“She can counter ideas about static ‘gender roles’ if she has been empowered by her familiarity with alternatives.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Feminism saved my mind.”
― Mariam Khan, It's Not About the Burqa

“I will forever be the enemy of patriarchy, whichever language it speaks or God it worships.”
― Mariam Khan, It's Not About the Burqa

“It was overwhelmingly white men held the keys to the doors that I needed to get through.”
― Mariam Khan, It's Not About the Burqa

“What is the point of being represented if it is only our image that is invited to the table?”
― Mariam Khan, It's Not About the Burqa

“I would accept nothing less than substantive, transformative and unconditional equality, for myself and for others.”
― Mariam Khan, It's Not About the Burqa

“I read about how freedom requires upheaval and must be fought for, not romanticised. It was during this period that I realised that feminism was not simple. There were no pre-given solutions. The ‘answer’, if there was one, required us to place different feminisms in conversation and necessitated a radical flexibility in our organising. Feminism was complicated and messy in ways that made me reconsider my foundational political beliefs: equality versus liberation, reform versus abolition. Feminism meant hard work, the kind done without reward or recognition, the kind that requires an unshakeable belief in its importance, the kind that is long and tiresome, but that creates a sense of purpose. It proposed a new way of being that transformed the way I looked at the world.”
― Lola Olufemi, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power

“We all begin somewhere. A feminist understanding is not inherent; it is something that must be crafted. Theory does not only mean reading dense academic texts. Theory can be lived, held, shared. It is a breathing, changeable thing that can be infused in many political and artistic forms. Learning requires the patience and empathy of those around you and an investment in the importance of radical education.”
― Lola Olufemi, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power

“Perhaps a hopeful pessimism is our best chance — we organise across difference not because it solves our problems, but because the visions we seek to enact must be able to account for everyone. We are too involved in one another’s lives, for better or worse. Chandra Mohanty argued ‘the practice of solidarity foregrounds communities of people who have chosen to work and fight together.’ She cites Jodi Dean, who argies that ‘reflectice solidarity’ is crafted by an interaction involving three persons: ‘I ask you to stand by me over me and against a third.’ Solidarity is a belief in one another that should be extended and rescinded accordingly. At the very least, it helps sharpen our focus on that third, who threatens our attempts to build a feminist future.”
― Lola Olufemi, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power

“Solidarity has always been at the heart of feminist practice.”
― Lola Olufemi, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power

“Feminism can no longer remain a rhetorical tool; it must have teeth. It must fight back by providing us with a way of analysing global violence and laying the foundations to combat it.”
― Lola Olufemi, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power

“We do a disservice to the power of art and artistic creation when we assume it less important than political intervention, likewise, we do ourselves a disservice when we assume that art alone can liberate us.”
― Lola Olufemi, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power

“But art can abstract us from the demands placed on our bodies at any given time. It can remind us that we do not only exist in relation to our gendered responsibilties: we are not only someone’s mother or sister, or carer — we are individuals brimming with sophisticated ideas. Creativity is at the heart of any new world we seek to build.”
― Lola Olufemi, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power

“The divide between politics and art is not real. It is politics that dictates who creates art, how it is consumed and sold, the conditions in which it is created, the subjectivities that dominate it.”
― Lola Olufemi, Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power