Michelle Obama Quotes

Women's health is one of WHO's highest priorities.

A focus on people's health and well-being must be the core of family planning research and policy. This may seem self-evident, but the realities of program implementation in third world countries has often shown that the health and well-being of individuals is not a priority.

The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women. If it's educating its girls, if women have equal rights, that country is going to move forward. But if women are oppressed and abused and illiterate, then they're going to fall behind.

So much research has been done showing that the woman is the most vulnerable but also the biggest strength leading to economic progress.

Women are emerging as a major force for change. Countries that have invested in girls' education and removed legal barriers that prevent women from achieving their potential are now seeing the benefits.

Women are a dynamic economic force. We represent the largest consumer market in the world and are drivers of GDP. More and more companies recognize that when they support women as customers, employees, leaders, future investors and partners, they are adopting sound business strategies and advancing social progress.

It's long past time we started focusing on the solutions that actually keep women healthy, instead of using basic aspects of women's health as a tool of cultural, moral, and political control.

There is certainly a growing body of data that correlates investments in women with a country's general prosperity; a recognition that no country can get ahead if half its people are left behind.

Women are half the population and they know how to take care of themselves, if they are only given access to health care.

Investing in women and girls may once have been considered a radical notion or even a waste of resources, but in most places in the world today, women and girls are increasingly recognized as a critical link to greater prosperity, political stability, better health and public policy.

We simply can no longer afford to deny the full potential of one half of the population. The world needs to tap into the talent and wisdom of women. Whether the issue is food security, economic recovery, health, or peace and security, the participation of women is needed now more than ever.

When the health of a woman is involved I think the government has to be respectful.

Contraceptives unlock one of the most dormant but potentially powerful assets in development: women as decision makers.

I want to help put women at the center of global health and development work, and better contraceptives are one of their top priorities. Listening to women shouldn’t be a revolutionary idea in 2012, but it is.

As a Global Maternal Health Advocate, I get to travel the world quite a bit, meeting individuals and visiting programs with tremendous potential and incredible vision to improve the quality of life for countless others.

When we lift women up, our communities thrive.

I think we can all agree that women deserve access to life saving, early detection procedures.

It's a proven fact that when you raise the status of girls and women in a country, that country does much better economically.

A country cannot make progress while leaving half of its population behind.

If you are in a country that is progressive, the woman is progressive. If you're in a country that reflects the consciousness toward the importance of education, it's because the woman is aware of the importance of education. But in every backward country you'll find the women are backward, and in every country where education is not stressed its because the women don't have education.

I firmly believe that if you help a woman, then you educate a child, you help the family. Because women are very focused on health care and education and on the family. So if you help a woman, you help the family, you help the village, you help the country. And so empowering women is a very important part of moving, not just women forward, but the economy of the nation forward. Particularly in very substandard nations.

There is no greater pillar of stability than a strong, free and educated woman, and there is no more inspiring role model than a man who respects and cherishes women and champions their leadership.

The most poor and backward areas in the world are those in which women are subjugated and exploited. Improving the situation of the woman improves the family, the community, and by extension the whole country.

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.