Cynthia Ozick Quotes

To me, a feminist belongs in the same category as a humanist or an advocate for human rights. I don't see why someone who's a feminist should be thought of differently.

I keep trying to imagine a universe in which too many public figures declaring themselves feminists would be a bad thing.

I was put out there as a spokesperson for the new feminist revolution. It was very difficult because I was either too feminist or not feminist enough, depending on who you spoke to.

I consider myself a feminist because I believe women should have equal rights. Of course. It's just that the term 'feminism' conjures up other things for people.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.

That there are a lot of women in the United States who are not feminists is not surprising. To be a feminist you have to believe in your equality and rights, which can make your life unpleasant and dangerous if you live in a marriage, a family, a community, a church, a state, that does not agree.

I'lI say this: I recall entering Congress in 1971 and being called a 'feminist' by members of my own party as if it was a dirty word. They didn't realize that I wore that label as a badge of honor.

Women's liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that.

With 'Suffragette,' I felt that a female writer would be good, and considering the subject matter, who would be better to write the script than Abi Morgan? She was the first choice, and she happens to be a woman.

Some people are surprised that the Republicans are waging a war on women, or that they voted against equal pay for women. I'm not surprised at all. In some ways, it may be a good thing. They're defending the patriarchy, which is a wounded beast! And wounded beasts are always dangerous.

I am absolutely stunned how the Democrats were able to somehow say that the Republicans had a war on women... What was the war on women?

I don't know why it's still a taboo to be a feminist.

If feminism wasn't powerful, if feminism wasn't influential, people wouldn't spend so much time putting it down.

The word, and the concept of feminism, was a gift because it gave me a sense of identity and a way of defining how I wished to live my life.

I think every woman in our culture is a feminist. They may refuse to articulate it, but if you were to take any woman back 40 years and say, 'Is this a world you want to live in?' They would say, 'No.'

I think people take the word 'feminist' really seriously, and I think people are scared to use that word.

The main cause is a pernicious falsehood propagated against her being, namely that she is inferior by her nature. Inferior in what? What has man ever done that woman, under the same advantages could not do?

Women say that my election represents a cultural break with the past - a past of sexism, of misogyny.

I do consider myself a feminist, yeah. Totally.

As far as I'm concerned, you're a feminist by default if you're born in the Western world right now.

Certainly, there is a tendency to lump women who write similar types of books together, and it's not just in crime, is it? Women's fiction is supposedly a whole genre of itself. There's no male equivalent.

I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.

The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.

You don't run a feminist agenda and achieve political power.

It is a fight between those who are convinced that women are not qualified to be judges – you’ll hear a hundred justifications for this – and the few that are enlightened, convinced that women can be judges. But they are powerless.