1. Amelia Earhart : “Everyone has oceans to fly, if they have the heart to do it. Is it reckless? Maybe. But what do dreams know of boundaries?”

One thing that Amelia Earhart represents like no other is courage and determination. Gone missing while flying over the ocean during what was meant to become the longest flight between continents, Amelia Earhart still is a role model for numerous women and young girls, embodying fearlessness and ambition. One way or another, like many others, I like to think that Amelia is somewhere… looking over our shoulders.

Photo by Richard R Schünemann on Unsplash

2. Shulamith Firestone : “Power, however it has evolved, whatever its origins, will not be given up without a struggle.”

3. Hillary Clinton : “There cannot be true democracy unless women’s voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own lives. There cannot be true democracy unless all citizens are able to participate fully in the lives of their country. We all owe so much to those who came before and tonight belongs to all of you. [July 11, 1997]”

Throughout her political career, Hillary Clinton never failed to inspire and empower women of all generations. Insisting fiercely on women’s talent, instinct and future, she defends equal rights for men and women and political fairness. In view of recent political events, Hillary is still standing strong defending LGBTQI+ and women’s rights loud and proud.

4. Eleanor Roosevelt : “I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”

5. Anne Lister : “I love and only love the fairer sex and thus beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any love but theirs.”

6. Virginia Woolf : “There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”

Virginia Woolf is one of the most eminent feminist essayists and figures. Her many works on the emancipation and freedom of women shaped the aspirations and motivations of generations of young ladies everywhere. From her epodic narration and description of. “The Waves” crashing on the shore or the journey we all take to our lighthouse; Virginia always depicted womanhood and sisterhood like a sacred love, an unbeatable concept.

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

7. Malala Yousafzai : “I raise up my voice — not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”

Malala Yousafzai is only twenty-one years old but she is the most influent political militant for Women’s Rights in her country, Pakistan. She directly opposed Talibans who wanted to prohibit access to school for girls. She is an empowering figure for many muslim communities facing extremism and millions of women around the world.

8. Simone de Beauvoir : “On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in her strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself — on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of life and not of mortal danger.”

9. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez : “It’s not just that I’m a woman of color running for office. It’s the way that I ran. It’s the way that my identity formed my methods.”

10. Ruth Bader Ginsburg : “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made… It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

Legally, as Women, we owe a lot to RBG. She fought against the legal discrimination on the basis of sex one law at a time and is still fighting. Recently adapted in a major motion picture, her life is an inspiration to us all. Her will to elevate women’s rights and create a fair world for all of us is precious and admirable.

Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

11. Michelle Obama : “Women, we endure those cuts in so many ways that we don’t even notice we’re cut. We are living with small tiny cuts, and we are bleeding every single day. And we’re still getting up.”

12. Dolly Parton : “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.”

13. Agnes Varda : “Rebelliousness is part of being a woman. (…) It’s the margin that holds the pages of the book together. We shouldn’t suffer to be at the margin.We’re on the side that holds.”

“I’m interested in people who are not exactly the middle way, or who are trying something else because they cannot prevent themselves from being different, or they wish to be different, or they are different because society pushed them away.”

Agnes Varda just passed away and she is getting the unique privilege of the double quote. Fierce feminist and only feminine figure of the Nouvelle Vague in French Cinema, Agnes Varda always paved the way for other women directors and artists, awakening that sparkle of rebellion and creativity we all need.

14. Billie Jean King : “No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.”

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15. Tina Fey : “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.”

16. Françoise Sagan : ”Curiosity is the beginning of wisdom.”

17. Angela Davis : “I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever, but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement.”

18. Frida Kahlo : “At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”

19. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie : “We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you would threaten the man. Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. Now marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support but why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? We raise girls to see each other as competitors not for jobs or accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.”

Photo by Daan Huttinga on Unsplash

20. Jeanne d’Arc : “One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”

21. Chantal Akerman : “I will not attempt to show the disintegration of a system, nor the difficulties of entering into another one, because she who seeks shall find, find all too well, and end up clouding her vision with her own preconceptions.”