Ban Ki-moon Quotes

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.

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.

Women are in positions of power the most radical of activists could only dream of in 1960.

More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.

Countries with higher levels of gender equality have higher economic growth. Companies with more women on their boards have higher returns. Peace agreements that include women are more successful. Parliaments with more women take up a wider range of issues - including health, education, anti-discrimination, and child support.

When girls can get an education and women can work and run businesses or even serve as elected officials, the world benefits.

Nations are more successful when their women are successful.

I think maybe it's too bad that our society isn't further along and this is such a big deal. I think it's time...that people realize that women in this country can do any job they want to do.

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

No country can get ahead when it leaves half of its people behind.

When we liberate the economic potential of women, we elevate the economic performance of communities, nations, and the world... There is a stimulative and ripple effect that kicks in when women have greater access to jobs and the economic lives of our countries: Greater political stability. Fewer military conflicts. More food. More educational opportunity for children... By harnessing the economic potential of all women, we boost opportunity for all people.

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.

We do not have many women leaders in the world. But if you look at the current examples, most of those few female leaders that we have today lead their countries under the pressure of difficult political and economic circumstances. They all posses strong personalities and have real political influence on the domestic and international scene.

Sexism is so five minutes ago. I think for the most part, people accept that women are as competent as men.

Workers in the bourgeois countries must fight for equal rights for men and women.

You know, I’m fan of women in general. I don’t want to discriminate.

Three-dimensional, complex women get an audience engaged as much as the men. I’m a feminist in the true sense of the word. It’s about equality.

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.

It is challenging. I have my days where I feel really guilty that I've been here every day if I have to work a lot. But I am so lucky to live in a country where a girl like me can make this kind of living, achieve her dreams and reach her goals. And I don't think anywhere else in the world can girls have the freedom that we do here to have these amazing careers and be mothers.

When women participate in the economy, everyone benefits.

It is by standing up for the rights of girls and women that we truly measure up as men.

So many girls out there say, "I'm not a feminist" because they think it means something angry or disgruntled or complaining or they picture, like, rioting and picketing. It is not that at all. It just simply means that you believe that women and men should have equal rights and opportunities.

If we are going to out-innovate, out-compete, out-educate other countries, it's going to be women who make a difference, it's women who are going to lead the way and you know, until women get that rightful place and decision making and leadership and growth, America won't realize all her potential.

When the history of African development is written, it will be clear that a turning point involved the empowerment of women.

In this society these days, women are widely accepted in all kinds of cross-gender areas. So yeah, it's time!