Hilary Mantel Quotes

I'm interested in what happens to people when they get into that publicity machine. We tend to think things have changed, but there's still a deep sexism underlying the way women are treated publicly.

The very qualities that make it harder for women to get elected - not being part of the old boy's network - gives them the advantage of having fresh, and yes, clean faces.

You get elected, often, if you're a woman, on the strength of the women's vote; then you get into office, and you have to adapt to an overwhelmingly male environment.

Feminists don't honor successful women. You never hear them talking about Margaret Thatcher. Take Condoleezza Rice. She's a remarkable, successful woman. You don't hear the feminists talk about her or Carly Fiorina or Jeanne Kirkpatrick.

If Hillary's the first woman president, well, in England we already know what a Margaret Thatcher is. It's not an end unto itself to be the first woman president.

The common denominator of the great women leaders in the world - Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir - is that they're dramatically nonsexual.

I think - everything just in the political realm - women are usually perceived to be more trustworthy and compassionate. And they usually fare well against their male counterpart.

I'd rather see a woman elected...They understand they can't spend more money than the old man brings home.

I believe this was [Margaret Thatcher] estimate of the voter: "These people are so stupid that they will vote for me because they think I know how to run the household."

To put a woman on the ticket would challenge the loyalty of women everywhere to their sex, because it would be made to seem that the defeat of the ticket meant the defeat for a hundred years of women's chance to be truly equal with men in politics.

I am convinced that this country is ready to have a woman in the White House, but I also think there's still a lot of hidden sexism.

Hopefully with a woman President the double standard will slowly begin to wane.

Archie was an expert at dividing the affairs of life into men's business and women's business. An empty cupboard and a full plate were the man's business, a full cupboard and an empty plate the concern of the woman.

There is a certain expectation of girls to eventually grow up and behave and fall in line. I've always bucked against that.

The students were staring at her in the manner of those who have heard of the species 'female' but have never expected to get this close to one.

Politics is traditionally a male domain in Russia.

[Ronald Reagan] appealed to that group of [working American] people and we can do it again, because they've had, now, eight years of [Barak] Obama. Things have not gone well.

Liberals have managed to eliminate the idea of manly honor. Instead, all they have is womanly indignation.

The whole idea of the first female president is not nearly as momentous or exciting as the first African-American.

We weren't meant to have futures, we were meant to marry them. We weren't meant to have politics, or careers that mattered, or opinions, or lives; we were meant to marry them. If you wanted to be an architect, you married an architect.

I probably have more male friends that talk about us in a way that doesn't thrill me. I sometimes get a bit surprised when females talk like that around men.

I support equality. Everyone should feel free to live out the parts of their personality that correspond to the classic male or female image.

Something you hear a lot is that feminism dead. But if feminism is dead, why do people try so hard to kill it?

Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly

There's no benefit to saying that you're a feminist. But you do kind of get a nice patriarchal pat on the head if you say, oh, I'm not like that, like I'm not one of those crazy feminists, which is something that happens a lot, where young women or young men will express some sort of feminist ideal, will say, you know, I think it's crap that Wal-Mart won't give out emergency contraception, but I'm not one of those crazy feminists.