Women's Equality Day on Aug. 26 marks the anniversary of when the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote was finally certified and adopted into the Constitution. It's a day that is meant to celebrate women's empowerment, and if you are looking for some inspiring women's equality quotes to share on your social media news feeds, you've come to the right place. These wise words stand the test of time, and feel especially potent during a time when women's rights continuously seem to be in jeopardy.
Because, while women have certainly come a long way in the fight for equality since the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920, there is still so much more work that needs to be done. Even in 2017, women only hold one-fifth of seats in Congress; access to basic reproductive health care is becoming ever more tenuous as more states choose to defund Planned Parenthood, and that pesky little "gender wage gap" thing you keep hearing about? It exists — and it's not going away any time soon. (For women of color, this gap becomes even more devastating.)
All of this is to say that while, yes, we should certainly commemorate women's fight for suffrage, it's also imperative that women rally together to fight the injustices still happening on a daily basis. Let these quotes inspire you.
1. "The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving." — Gloria Steinem
2. "When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit." — Hillary Clinton
3. "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." — Margaret Thatcher
4. "We have to organize. We have to build up coalitions across all of these people who are considered 'the other.' If we all banded together and built coalitions that were truly intersectional, we would be in power. I believe in the power of the people." — Janet Mock
5. "We're all under the same sky and walk the same earth; we're alive together during the same moment." — Maxine Hong Kingston
6. "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." — Eleanor Roosevelt
7. "I knew then and I know now, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it." — Claudette Colvin
8. "It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences." — Audre Lorde
9. "My own definition is a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better." — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
10. "In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders." — Sheryl Sandberg
11. "When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful." — Malala Yousafzai
12. "Women will only have true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation." — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
13. "I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance." — bell hooks
14. "I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves." — Mary Shelley
Women's Equality Day happens once a year, but keep the messages shared here with you always. They resonate now more than ever.
