A collection of this year’s most inspiring and infuriating things said by and about women.
Best
“With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”
—Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s foreboding response to the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. United States that presidents cannot be prosecuted for criminal actions related to their office.
“For 248 years, this nation has waited to have its first woman president. While this wait continues, we know that it’s a matter of if—not when—we get the chance to break this glass ceiling.”
—Teresa C. Younger, president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women.
“Today in Kabul a female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face, she may chase a squirrel in the park. A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban. A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not in public.”
—Meryl Streep at an event on Afghan women’s rights at the U.N. General Assembly.
“I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too. I don’t want them to be ashamed any longer. It’s not for us to have shame—it’s for them.”
—Gisèle Pelicot testifying against her husband and 50 other men on trial for drugging and raping her. Pelicot waived anonymity and chose an open trial to be able to share her story publicly.
“Who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those ‘Black jobs’?”
—Michelle Obama at the DNC, referencing Trump’s recent comment that “Black jobs” are being taken by undocumented immigrants.
“It’s not a coincidence that these truly awful men have targeted abortion medication, specifically. Our ability to end a pregnancy with just a few pills—safely, privately, at home and without shame—was too much for them to take. At least when we went to clinics they could stand outside and call us ‘sluts’. Abortion medication robbed the men who hate us of their most treasured birthright: the ability to degrade women who do things they don’t like.“
—Feminist author and columnist Jessica Valenti.
“What was really at stake was the status of American women, who now have to beg before the courts not to face legally enforced medical negligence that will kill and maim them.”
–Moira Donegan in The Guardian on the EMTALA Supreme Court case.
“I was losing so much blood, the security guard put me in a wheelchair. The standard treatment for a miscarriage—what I was experiencing—is exactly the same treatment as a medication abortion. Yet in the second hospital, the staff told me that ‘we’re not doing that now’ and told me to go home and wait. Ultimately, it took weeks for me to pass my pregnancy—at home, and I was absolutely terrified. This experience has made me see how Black women die without proper maternal care.”
–Louisiana resident Kaitlyn Joshua, who experienced a miscarriage at 11 weeks and faced the grim realities of the state’s near-total abortion ban.
“People would ask me, ‘Are you proud to be the first Mexican American woman elected to the Texas Senate?’ I would say, ‘Well, yes, but I’m also disgusted. I’m disgusted because it took so long.’ … In the entire history of the state of Texas, only 24 women have served in the Texas Senate—only 24, including the eight who serve today. Twenty-four women have served with 952 men during 88 legislative sessions … so it’s bittersweet. You celebrate because you did it, but you’re sad and disappointed that it took so long.”
—Texas state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, now the first woman dean of the Texas Senate.
“We have to know that sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open. Sometimes they won’t, and then you need to kick that fucking door down.”
–Vice President Kamala Harris speaking at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) Legislative Leadership Summit.
“I am the woman who took my rapist to court and won. I am the woman who took action against my rapist’s lawyer for traumatizing me in court and won. I am the woman who is now going to receive compensation from said lawyer for what he did. The lesson: Don’t underestimate women.”
–Ellie Wilson, who sued her rapist’s defense attorney after he asked inappropriate questions while cross-examining her, said his client simply “fell in love with the wrong person” and refused to apologize.
“I have treated these cases, and that moment hangs on a knife’s edge. Women can go from stable and bleeding to unstable or dead within minutes. Uninformed anti-choice lawmakers with no medical knowledge are creating these laws. They have not seen what I have seen.”
—Dr. Nadija Rieser, an emergency medicine physician.
“Young people do not have some fantasy that they are going to vote and then everything is going to be fine. … Young people see the failure of our institutions, the inadequacy of what is truly an inspirational democracy, not a full democracy that it should be. Young people are voting anyway. They see states making it hard for young people to vote—targeting Black and Indigenous, disabled and rural voters—and they are voting anyway. … Young people are informed, engaged, intersectional, pissed off, and they’re voting anyway.”
—Kimberly Inez McGuire at a panel discussion hosted by the Guttmacher Institute.
“If a child came into the ER and was having kidney failure, no hospital would require that his mother donate one of her kidneys to him. Hospitals don’t require that a parent donate blood to their child. They don’t require that a parent who dies in a tragic accident donate their organs to a surviving but in-need child, or to anyone at all. It is only pregnant women who are consigned to a special, sub-standard category of person not entitled to a standard level of health-preserving care.”
—Jill Filipovic, “Do Pregnant Women Have the Same Rights Under the Law as Everyone Else?”
Worst
“For 54 years [sic] they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it and I’m proud to have done it. We did something that was a miracle.”
—Former President Donald Trump, during a Fox News town hall.
“The Bayer company invented aspirin. Put it between your knees.”
—Arizona Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli (R) suggests women wouldn’t need contraceptives if they weren’t so promiscuous
“If you dress like that and you get raped and I’m on the jury, he’s going to go free. … A man’s a man.”
—Rev. Bobby Leonard, a pastor in North Carolina, criticizing women for wearing shorts, in a sermon that went viral in late February.
“I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it, whether the women like it or not.’ I’m going to protect them.”
—President-elect Donald Trump doubling down on his campaign trail claim of being a “protector of women,” even without our consent.
“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check.”
—JD Vance at the vice presidential debate, after moderators clarified that the Haitian immigrants in Ohio he continues to demonize do have legal status.
“I do believe the Texas laws are working as designed.”
–Amy O’Donnell, director of communications for the Texas Alliance for Life, reinforced her support of abortion bans after Samantha Casiano was forced to carry and give birth to a daughter with a fatal condition, and then struggled to afford a funeral for her.
“Abortion in this country is not about protecting the lives of mothers. It is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”
–North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s comments featured in a campaign ad for his governor race rival, Attorney General Josh Stein.
“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you. Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
–Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker, using his commencement address at Benedictine College as an opportunity to spread misogynistic, homophobic and antiabortion views.
“Birth control really screws up female brains, by the way. … It creates very angry and bitter young ladies.”
—Right-wing activist and Turning Point USA founder and executive director Charlie Kirk.
“A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females. …‘Don’t drink beer, don’t watch football, don’t eat hamburgers, this is not good for you.’ The message is too feminine: ‘Everything you’re doing is destroying the planet. You’ve got to eat your peas.’”
—Democratic strategist James Carville, blaming women for President Biden’s low support.
“Know what I like about 16 [weeks]? It’s even. It’s four months.”
—Donald Trump, according to an anonymous source. According to two sources, Trump supports a national abortion ban at 16 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
Finally, we weren’t quite sure how to categorize this one, but it deserves recognition. You know what they say about the enemy of my enemy…
“I’ll give you the truth why I’m not speaker. It’s because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old.”
—Kevin McCarthy, referring to the ethics investigation against Matt Gaetz that remains in limbo after Gaetz withdrew from consideration as Trump’s attorney general.
