Doris Lessing Quotes

I am a feminist, although I always worry saying that because you then get people asking you about the 1970s.

I was in college in the '60s, and the whole feminist movement had swept me up.

Feminism is very much a part of a lot of my student's lives, but they're not going to march about it or take a public political stance. And I think more and more young women are claiming that they're not feminists - even though they are.

Well, you know, I was raised by a 1970s feminist. My mom had a consciousness-raising group. I used to sit at the top of the stairs and listen to them.

I'm a feminist; I grew up with feminism, but I also think there's a way in which we need to shake things up so that we can push it further and in other directions.

When I was growing up, the current of feminism was strong. You just had to step off the bank, and you'd be swept up. There was an active women's movement. My mother was a part of it.

We're never going to come to a moment where all of us who claim to be feminists can agree about what the first priority of feminism is.

There was an angry wave in the '70s, a strong feminist angry wave. I remember thinking - oh my God - I thought it was the beginning of something, and it all went quiet.

There is no question I consider myself a feminist, but I also think the term 'feminist' has become a topical thing to say without backing it up with any real action.

I realize now that I was a feminist and the minute I heard the word I certainly knew it meant me, but at that time I don't think we had the label yet. But there's no doubt about it that I was born a feminist.

I am a feminist and I have no problems being called that.

So, when the discussion about not using the term feminist came up at a conference workshop, I couldn't believe it. The more I listened, the more I felt the need to express my passion about my identity as a feminist.

If we value what we've inherited for free - from other women - surely it's right morally and ethically for us to wake up and say, 'I'm a feminist. '

It is living, not thinking, as a feminist that has become the challenge.

Feminism is just an idea. It's a philosophy. It's about the equality of women in all realms. It's not about man-hating. It's not about being humorless. We have to let go of these misconceptions that have plagued feminism for 40, 50 years.

Gone are the days when reality fed the feminist movement.

Most days I struggle just to be accepted into the camp of plain old feminists. This is mainly because I am not by nature ideological and generally suspicious of people who are.

I got more and more politically active and just followed the course of feminism and sexual liberation.

To be a feminist is to be alive.

Sexist anarchists do exist, but only by virtue of directly contradicting their own anarchism …. Anarchism must be feminist if it is to remain consistent.

I think I was a feminist before being born. I had a feminist chromosome somewhere.

I've always considered myself a feminist. But, like a lot of women of my generation, I didn't think we had to fight for it. I thought it was all done. I took so much for granted.

I don't disown feminism, but I don't believe in such labels.

I think a lot of divisions of perspective and experience that happen within feminism are very natural. Any movement that represents the interests of 51 percent of the population is covering such divergent experiences, perspectives, and priorities that, if you're doing it right, people are going to be arguing within it.

I remember my dad saying to me, 'But Fiona don't you want to go and do the dramatic society. You can still do your women's groups as well.' And I said, 'Dad, feminism is a way of life! It's not a hobby!'