Billie Jean King Quotes

You come across words all the time that are everyday sexism. I was described as 'competently bossy' and 'bossily competent' by a male journalist, and I thought, 'Gosh, 'bossy' is never used of a man.'

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes.”

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.

I think, being a woman, we got to prove ourselves twice.

If you talk to a woman, she will give you at least five incidents in a day, 5-10 in a month, where she had to work harder to prove herself because she is a 'woman,' maybe at a male-dominated work place or when she has to come across as a smarter woman if she is good-looking.

I've been called pushy and aggressive and all the negative words that are rarely applied to men with the same traits. But it doesn't bother me.

Often, women as little girls are sent off on a track for them to live a perfect life and be a perfect woman. Not for boys, who can be themselves with their mood and their temper.

I think that there's a tendency for actors who play strong women to have them take on all the worst characteristics of men, to become cold and detached and hardened.

Two phrases I hate in reference to female characters are 'strong' and 'feisty.' They really annoy me. It's the most condescending thing. You say that about a three-year-old. It infantilises women.

If a man is a writer, everybody tiptoes around past the locked door of the breadwinner. But if you're an ordinary female housewife, people say, 'This is just something Barbara wanted to do; it's not professional.'

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly.

I noticed in the past, a lot of guys who like strong women, they really freak out if you're not strong 24/7. Or they complain about you being strong, then the moment you're not strong, they're like, 'Oh, no, no, no.'

And then also I think it's harder for women because comedy is so opposite of being ladylike.

Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?

I hate how box-office failures are blamed on an actress, yet I don't see a box-office failure blamed on men.

Basically, women have to prove they are strong at all times. And then when they go on the attack, they have to not appear mean because those women often get the label of being catty.

There's still a massive inequality between the genders. If you look at the trajectory of a male actor's career, there's no hesitation or hiatus. But women after the age of 35 to 40 are rarely placed in the centre of the story.

When I started out, there were three things that made film people look at me with condescension, I was young, I was black, and I was female. I have won a certain respect, but I think the film community still sees directing as a male job.

I think women get labeled a lot as being crazy. But I think men make us crazy.

It is rare that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman.

The great and almost only comfort about being a woman is that one can always pretend to be more stupid than one is and no one is surprised.

If it's a woman, it's caustic; if it's a man, it's authoritative.

You become tyrannized by this notion that women must not only be treated equally, but they must never fail.

Men are allowed to have passion and commitment for their work... a woman is allowed that feeling for a man, but not her work.

Women in leadership cannot cry without raising a storm of commentary.