It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and tune out the political sphere. It’s also fairly easy to mute the breaking new alerts and stick to “polite” subjects in conversation (i.e., anything but politics!). Here’s the thing, though. The policies that legislators enact have very real consequences for ordinary Americans. And society functions best when we’re all civically engaged. Are you sitting it all out? Well, that’s just giving more power to someone else to call the shots.
But, we know you’re not that type of person. You’re curious about the world and want to make it a better place. Nottaking action isn’t an option. Yet, sometimes you just need a little inspiration to get more involved in politics.
And that’s why we’ve rounded up some of our favorite political quotes from 18 remarkable women on the importance of taking political action.
Read on for the best political quotes from women like Angela Davis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
18 Women, 18 bits of wisdom…
Examine how you might oppress others
“Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and every one of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and for each other.”
—Laverne Cox, American actress and LGBTIQ rights’ advocate
Go where you’re needed
“We do need women in civic life. We do need women to run for office, to be in political office. We need a feminist to be at the table when decisions are being made so that the right decisions will be made.”
—Dolores Huerta, American labor activist and co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association
Be part of something greater
“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.”
—Angela Davis, American political activist, academic, and author
Keep your feet moving
“The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.”
—Gloria Steinem, American feminist, journalist, and activist
Don’t worry about being ‘extraordinary’
“It doesn’t take an extraordinary person to do extraordinary things. It takes one person to have the courage to stand up and to really say no.”
—Jasilyn Charger, Lakota Sioux activist
Check how you use your privilege
“Inherently, having privilege isn’t bad, but it’s how you use it, and you have to use it in service of other people.”
—Tarana Burke, American civil rights activist
Demand change, don’t ask for it
“It’s not about supplication, it’s about power. It’s not about asking, it’s about demanding. It’s not about convincing those who are currently in power, it’s about changing the very face of power itself.”
—Kimberlé Crenshaw, activist and professor at UCLA and Columbia University
Remember—you deserve a seat at the table
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”
—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Refuse to stay silent
“In the cause of silence, each of us draws the face of her own fear—fear of contempt, of censure, or some judgment, or recognition, of challenge, of annihilation. But most of all, I think, we fear the visibility without which we cannot truly live… And that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.”
—Audre Lorde, American writer, feminist, and civil rights activist
Make space for marginalized stories
“Some women get erased a little at a time, some all at once. Some reappear. Every woman who appears wrestles with the forces that would have her disappear. She struggles with the forces that would tell her story for her, or write her out of the story, the genealogy, the rights of man, the rule of law. The ability to tell your own story, in words or images, is already a victory, already a revolt.”
—Rebecca Solnit, American writer
Acknowledge your power
“One thing I believe profoundly: We make our own history. The course of history is directed by the choices we make and our choices grow out of the ideas, the beliefs, the values, the dreams of the people.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt, American political figure, diplomat and activist
Don’t underestimate your strength
“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”
—Frida Kahlo, Mexican artist
Use your anger for good
“I am angry. We should all be angry. Anger has a long history of bringing about positive change.”
—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian novelist
Think of the future
“Let future generations say we were the ones who stood up. Let them say we were the first to live in a world where all girls can learn and lead without fear.”
—Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist and Nobel Prize laureate
Don’t apologize for your activism
“I would much rather be the ‘obnoxious feminist girl’ than be complicit in my own dehumanization.”
—Kathleen Hanna, frontwoman of Bikini Kill and pioneer of the punk riot grrrl movement
Don’t wait for permission
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
—Shirley Chisholm, American politician, educator, and author
Stand up for what’s right
“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, American author, feminist, and social activist
Stay busy
“Action is the antidote to despair.”
—Joan Baez, American folk singer and activist
