Kofi Annan Quotes

…if civilization is to advance at all in the future, it must be through the help of women, women freed of their political shackles, women with full power to work their will in society.

Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex.

Equality for women is progress for all.

There is simply no way our nation can progress if its women population is left behind.

Now that women are persons, what's ahead?

We must do more and with more urgency to empower women.

Empower us women and we will change this whole entire world.

When the history of African development is written, it will be clear that a turning point involved the empowerment of women.

And I think women have come a very, very long way, but they have a long way to go.

The women's movement was always going to work in two parts. With one part, we'd break open the doors that were closed to women, and with the other part, we'd walk through, transforming society for men and women. Turns out it was a lot easier to open the doors.

Women are in positions of power the most radical of activists could only dream of in 1960.

I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.

More countries have understood that women's equality is a prerequisite for development.

Women are called upon to defend every bit of progress we have made against particularly virulent attack. But we must also hold out a vision, put forth a positive agenda of what women need and want and then move forward toward that dream.

Women's progress has been a collective effort.

The extension of women's rights is the basic principle of all social progress.

Women are allowed more freedoms and we're fighting for more freedoms, we're experiencing more freedoms won.

I want to organize so that women see ourselves as people who are entitled to power, entitled to leadership.

It is the rank and file - the average woman - for whom the world has opened up so astonishingly.

[T]he great social changes are impossible without the feminine ferment.

The creation of a peaceful and sustainable world civilization will be impossible without the full participation of women in every arena of human activity.36 While this proposition is increasingly supported, there is a marked difference between intellectual acceptance and its implementation.

A feminist is a person who believes in the power of women just as much as they believe in the power of anyone else. It's equality, it's fairness, and I think it's a great thing to be a part of.

We have to give feminism a shot. Out of sheer self preservation, we have to stand aside and let women run the show.

I believe 'Lean In' has the power to change not only our outlook but also the world and that it will become a touchstone publication for a generation of women.