Mona Simpson Quotes

It's much more acceptable for men to work and father kids. There's an inherent inequality, because we want to do it all, and I don't know how we can do this all.

Girls shouldn't worry about being the equal of men in the business world.

My mom was sarcastic about men. She would tell me Adam was the rough draft and Eve was the final product. She was a feminist minister, an earth mom who wore a bra only on Sundays.

A lot of people like to ask me, 'Ali, how on earth do you balance family and career?' Men never get asked that question. Because they don't.

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

I'm not telling women to be like men. I'm telling us to evaluate what men and women do in the workforce and at home without the gender bias.

Men make the moral code and they expect women to accept it. They have decided that it is entirely right and proper for men to fight for their liberties and their rights, but that it is not right and proper for women to fight for theirs.

Men are rarely questioned on their spouses or their partners, and nor should they be. And the question to ask is why is this done to women?

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

What I am defending is the real rights of women. A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.

Some women work while they are pregnant, but not me. That was a choice I had made. That's when I took a break. Men can work at whatever stage they are; whether they turn daddy, they still have their own thing. But women can't afford that because by being mothers, they have to be there for their kids.

Men don't have as many difficulties and are more supported to combine the different aspects of their life.

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

Men treat men differently than they would a woman.

You're always going to feel like you're catching up, and part of that is just balancing work and motherhood and the whole feeling of needing to please, which I do think girls and women feel more than men.

People ask why there are so few female artists who succeed. It's because women are not ready to sacrifice as much as men. Women want a man, they want a family, they want to have children, they want to be loved, and to be an artist. And they can't; it's impossible.

Men are mostly raised by women. Most men have not seen an authoritative woman since they were 8. They associate women in authority with childhood.

I'd like to get to the point where I can be just as mediocre as a man.

For 150 years a woman was regarded as some kind of prostitute if she wanted to go into business….Young girls were supposed to have their focus on motherhood and babies.

It is obvious that the role of the father as the central authority in the family has been considerably challenged in Western societies. Parental responsibilities, and I knowingly use the term responsibility instead of the term authority still used in the French Civil code, are nowadays shared equally between both parents.

I have seen these liberal psychologists and sociologists talk about there is no need for the man in the family. The woman can take care of it. A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure. To provide stability. Not that a woman can’t provide stability, I’m not saying that... It does take a father, though

It was seldom suggested that women’s drudgery could be decreased in the meantime by the simple expedient of sharing it with men.

When a father puts in long hours at work, he's praised for being dedicated and ambitious. But when a mother stays late at the office, she's sometimes accused of being selfish, neglecting her kids.

At an ERA fundraiser years ago, one of my favorite buttons was the one that said, 'Every mother is a working mother.'

I do consider myself a postfeminist. I just want women to have choices - they can be CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, or they can be stay-at-home mothers and raise their kids as a job.