Eleanor Smeal Quotes

Americans of faith should try as hard to save the lives of African women as the lives of unborn fetuses.

There has never been more at stake for women's health and rights.

People ask me a lot, 'Well, can you be pro-life and be feminist? Can you be conservative and be feminist?' And I think that, yeah, maybe personally you can be those things. But I think if you're advocating for legislation, or if you're fighting to limit other women's rights, then you can't really call yourself a feminist.

Your action means that the U.S. government will control what non-governmental recipients of U.S. international family planning assistance do and say with their own funds. You have imposed on the poorest women of the world a halt to information that women in the United States are guaranteed.

I strongly feel about women's rights because I have been working for menstrual hygiene across India.

Victor Hugo said you can stop an invasion of armies, but you can never stop an invasion of ideas. There's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. It wasn't until 1920, four years after my mother was born - and she's still alive and healthy - that women were given the right to vote. Now it's hard even to imagine that for the greater part of the history of our country fifty percent of the population was not allowed to vote.

Let's respect the dignity of women to make their own decisions about the size and timing of their families.

Freedom from discrimination for women, ensuring that female children can learn to read, these are human needs for half the human race, not western values.

In the same way that slavery was a moral challenge for the 19th century and totalitarianism was a challenge for the 20th century, the challenge that women and girls face around the world is the moral challenge of our time.

We think it is in our nation's interest that Afghan women - or any women around the world - not suffer.

I wish we weren't fighting all the time to protect women's rights, to protect women's health.

The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women.

You know, I hear all these things about women's rights.

There must be a remedy even for such a crying evil as this [abortion]. But where shall it be found, at least where begin, if not in the complete enfranchisement and elevation of women?

All men should be feminists. If men cared about women's rights, the world would be a better place

Equality for women is progress for all.

Women's empowerment is intertwined with respect for human rights.

We are here to advance the cause of women and to advance the cause of democracy and to make it absolutely clear that the two are inseparable.

The basic freedom of the world is woman's freedom.

Unfortunately, violence against women is not the only injustice women face globally; it is one of the many inequalities that impede the full development of socially excluded women globally.

UN studies conducted in more than forty developing countries show that the birth rate falls as women gain equality... I believe income-earning opportunities that empower poor women ... will have more impact on curbing population growth that the current system of "encouraging" family planning practices through intimidation tactics.. Family planning should be left to the family.

The slogan of the revolution was dignity, social justice, and freedom. You cannot have dignity or social justice or freedom without women.

But fighting to give women and girls a fighting chance isn’t a nice thing to-do. It isn’t some luxury that we get to when we have time on our hands to spend. This is a core imperative for every human being in every society. If we do not continue the campaign for women’s rights and opportunities, the world we want to live, the country we all love and cherish, will not be what it should be.

When it comes to social policies, I believe women have the right to make their own choices, and inequality is a really important issue.

Women's rights must not be the sacrifice by which peace is achieved.