Nicola Sturgeon Quotes

A woman my age is not supposed to be attractive or sexually appealing. I just get kinda tired of that.

How insulting is it to suggest the best thing women can do is raise other people to do incredible things?

Certainly, I am writing as a 21st-century woman, so I am much more inclined to view her as a three-dimensional woman. I think we keep coming up with this stubborn problem of a woman being judged by her appearance rather than her accomplishments. We are much more inclined to ask: was Cleopatra beautiful?

The industry is quite chauvinistic generally. Expectations of women, girls, what they should look like, how they should be, what they should say, what they should wear, how their hair should be, what colour their skin should be.

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

Men are very tough, very critical of me. I think they expect you to basically just be a picture. They don't want to hear you speak.

No matter what a woman's appearance may be, it will be used to undermine what she is saying and taken to individualize - as her personal problem - observations she makes about the beauty myth in society.

A political woman loses her beauty within a year.

When we get married or interviewed for a job or play professional sports or run for president of the United States, we encounter a whole set of standards and expectations. We can be shamed for an outfit that's too slutty, too dowdy, too pricey--take your pick. That's the burden women carry into the fitting room.

All sorts of articles and letters appear in the papers about women. Profound questions are raised concerning them. Should they smoke? Should they work? Vote? Marry? Exist? Are not their skirts too short, or their sleeves? Have they a sense of humor, of honor, of direction? Are spinsters superfluous? But how seldom similar inquiries are propounded about men.

What works for a man, still does not work for a woman - both in terms of how they see themselves and how we see them.

Sadly, in any industry and in any work-related environment, females always strive to achieve a certain amount of perfection, whether that be skinny or pretty. It's a constant, in our society.

There are some strong female performers out there. But the industry's pre-occupation with the packaging of how a woman looks has gone completely the other way, back to almost the 60s, early 70s.

What is frustrating is being told that no matter how hard I've worked, it counts less than my appearance. Although if you're not considered conventionally attractive, that also becomes an issue: you know, you're a feminist because you couldn't get a man.

It's not fair the emphasis put on beauty, or on sexuality.

Whenever a female takes a strong stand for herself, the majority of the time they have to really, really narrow it down to being feminine and wearing dresses and just being lipstick chic.

Women always feel like they're being stared at and judged, and rightfully so.

Men are allowed to get older and women are not.

Bad behaviour makes men more glamorous. Women get destroyed, thrown out of society and locked up in institutions.

Confidence in a bloke would be arrogance in a woman. For years, I didn't give interviews because I was scared of people judging me or thinking I was arrogant.

It's more acceptable for guys to get old and craggy and become wonderful character actors as they get older, but women aren't allowed to get old and craggy in the same way.

Now, since I'm a husband and father, discrimination against women isn't just political, it's personal.

I think men are allowed to be fat and bald and ugly and women aren't. And it's just not - there is no equality there.

Old women should not seek to be perfumed.

The men resent a woman getting any honour in what they consider is essentially their field. Men painters mostly despise women painters. So I have decided to stop squirming, to throw any honour in with Canada and women.