Cecile Richards Quotes

What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren’t supposed to work if they had families. What were they to do when the children were grown — watch raindrops coming down the windowpane?

The common man thinks that the marriage is like appointing one to do his work. The husband thinks so! The husband’s family thinks so. Every one thinks that a girl is coming to the family to do work. Even the girl’s family trains the girl to do the household work

I was raised in the '50s. I was taught by my father that how I looked was all that mattered, frankly.

Women do kids. Women do cooking. Women doing everything. And yet, their position in society is totally unacceptable.

In my generation, if a man washes the dishes, the older women still tend to cluster around and coo and thank him and praise him. But if a woman washes the dishes, it's business as usual, even if both man and woman have tough office jobs.

Why don't we focus on what Afghan women can do? They can cook, bear children and pray. As I recall, that was fine for our grandmothers.

In the beginning, Adam was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow - not Eve. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother's place is in the home!

The worst mistake of a woman is to go to the kitchen, because then she never gets out of there.

Some people are sure to say that women who spend their time with philosophers are bound to become self-willed and arrogant, deserting their households for the company of [other ] men, practicing speeches, talking like sophists, when they ought to be sat at home spinning

Women should do kitchen work and take care of babies.

There's a view in Russian society that there are 'male professions' and 'female professions.' The women should be looking after the home and children. It makes me sad. But the only thing you can do is fight it.

Most people assume that women are responsible for households and child care. Most couples operate that way - not all. That fundamental assumption holds women back.

Women take much the biggest proportion of work in terms of home and childcare. Societally we need a culture change. It's still the case that expectations are different for men and women.

Traditionally, our society has always seen women as homemakers and men as bread-earners. The demarcations are engraved in stone, perhaps.

There's always an assumption that when the girls get married they don't want to work.

I was raised in a very old fashioned Ireland where women were reared to be lovely.

Generally speaking, historically in this country, the care of a child has been thought of as female business.

I think women have long been defined by their roles as procreators and wives, and we're expected to serve, take care of, say 'Yes,' and not ruffle any feathers. Women, in particular, are sometimes not allowed to consider who they are outside of the roles that they play.

Why do otherwise sane, competent, strong men, men who can wrestle bears or raid corporations, shrink away in horror at the thought of washing a dish or changing a diaper?

At times, it seems as if the only women effortlessly balancing their jobs, kids, husbands and homes are the ones on TV.

When my dad needed a shirt ironed, he would yell downstairs to my mother, who would drop everything and iron his shirt.

Growing up in Texas, you were either pretty or smart. Smart didn't get you very far, because there weren't too many job opportunities for women. I wondered why you couldn't be both.

I was not supposed to be in any way a liberated person. I was a female born in the '40s in a patriarchal family; I was supposed to marry and make everyone around me happy.

I grew up with that completely fictive idea of motherhood, where the mother never strayed from the kitchen. All the women in my books are very afraid that if they do anything with their minds they won't be complete women. I don't think my daughters' generation has that feeling.

Once you get married, women are still implicitly expected to do the majority of the housework and take care of any future children.