Margaret Mead Quotes

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 don't think women are dumb.

Men aren't asked about age. Men aren't asked about their children. Not that these things aren't important, but I do feel like it becomes reductive when a woman's life becomes, 'Talk to me about your kids and how you feel about plastic surgery.'

Boys don't make passes at female smart asses.

Being a gal, people can be a bit patronizing. 'Oh, look at you using the computer.' They would never say that to a boy. And I don't let them do it to me.

I'd say I am partial to women.

To generalize on women is dangerous. To specialize on them is infinitely worse.

I remember becoming aware of women's issues and inequality. It became glaringly clear to me when I was living in America that women are regarded as less intelligent than men.

Some boys accepted me, some didn't. And my family had comments made to them. Brazil is still a very macho society, and sports are mainly for boys, so people would say to them: 'What is this girl doing? Why is she always out there in the soccer games with the boys?'

As a woman, I know that if I write about another woman, it will be perceived as a catfight.

The much vaunted male logic isn't logical, because they display prejudices against half the human race that are considered prejudices according to any dictionary definition.

Girls have an unfair advantage over men: if they can't get what they want by being smart, they can get it by being dumb.

If I want to dislike women, I should be allowed to. As it happens, I love them. Women to me are privately worshipped and publicly disdained.

My experiences with gender bias are probably the norm. What I found was that expectations of women were simply lower, and this resulted in being overlooked for certain opportunities.

I was in fact pretty much - by the larger culture, by the local culture, by people around me, by people on TV - encouraged to imagine women as something slightly inferior to men.

Women are very intelligent and not appreciated. We try to pretend that we are not clever, and it's such a pity that we can't show how clever we are.

If you're a man and you ask questions, you're a genius; if you're a woman, you're difficult.

This woman's work is exceptional. Too bad she's not a man.

I think society, in general, is hard on women, period.

Very few women are creative. I would not send a daughter of mine to study physics.

The relative positions assumed by men and women were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence.

I'd like to get to the point where I can be just as mediocre as a man.

If you are a man, you have to be like Joe McCarthy to be called “ruthless”. For a woman, all you have to do is put somebody on hold.

Why are women always described as 'desperate,' while men are just... irrational?

I swear, if anyone near me even so much as whispers the sentence 'Women probably don't want to direct,' my fist will fly as a reflex action.