Clara Zetkin Quotes

Freedom for woman … can only be freedom for the middle-class woman … Socialism and feminism if they can be parallel social tendencies, cannot be one cause.

The proletarian woman fights hand in hand with the man of her class against capitalist society.

To make an omelette, you need not only those broken eggs but someone 'oppressed' to beat them: every revolutionist is presumed to understand that, and also every woman, which either does or does not make 51 percent of the population of the United States a potentially revolutionary class.

There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.

Emancipation of women has made them lose their mystery.

Real freedom for women is possible only through Communism.

Let every woman ask herself, Why am I the slave of Man? Why is my brain said not to be equal of his brain? Why is my work not paid equally with his? Why must my body be controlled by my husband, giving me in exchange what he deems fit?

Women constitute a cheap labor force and above all a submissive one that only in the rarest of cases dares to kick against the thorns of capitalist exploitation, the capitalists multiply the possibilities of women’s work in industry. As a result of all this, the proletarian woman has achieved her independence. But verily, the price was very high and for the moment they have gained very little.

I got personal satisfaction from making trouble for high-placed sexists and helping less lucky women fight the establishment

I believe that the influence of woman will save the country before every other power.

Women in most countries may take their aspirations for freedom for granted, but for many of us, it is brand new.

The Proletariat cannot achieve complete liberty until it has won complete liberty for women.

In the women's world, as well as in the men's world, there exists the class law and the class struggle, and it appears as fully established that sometimes between the socialist working women and those belonging to the middle class, there may be antagonisms.

Women are the cowards they are because they have been semi-slaves for so long. The number of women prepared to stand up for what they really think, feel, experience, with a man they are in love with is still very small.

A few British suffragettes everybody laughed at started the cause of equality between men and women.

I'm fascinated by how much we, as women, have to subjugate and hide ourselves in order to get on in the world.

There will never be a new world order until women are a part of it.

Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke. That's their natural and first weapon. She will need her sisterhood.

I demanded more rights for women because I know what women had to put up with.

The sight of women talking together has always made men uneasy; nowadays it means rank subversion.

I remember becoming aware of women's issues and inequality. It became glaringly clear to me when I was living in America that women are regarded as less intelligent than men.

Nature says women are human beings, men have made religions to deny it. Nature says women are human beings, men cry out no!

Who laughs less than feminists?

The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history.

Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.