As we grieve the passing of Gloria Steinem, Ms.‘s co-founder and feminist visionary, we’re looking back at some of our favorite quotes from her 50+ years of speaking and activism across the U.S. and around the world. Steinem was sharp, funny and infinitely quotable, and many of her interviews from over the years combine deep feminist insight with some snappy one-liners.
The two most famous quotes attributed to Steinem are probably, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” and, “If men could get pregnant, then abortion would be a sacrament.” However, while Steinem said and popularized both, she made it clear that neither quote originated with her: The first is attributed to Australian writer and activist Irina Dunn, and the second, according to Steinem, was originally said by her frequent speaking partner Florynce Kennedy.
Still, Steinem had no end of wise, funny, inspiring sayings of her own that other feminists will keep quoting for years after her death. Below are some of our favorites.
On Feminism
“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.”
From Steinem’s 1983 book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
“We are the women our parents warned us against, and we are proud.”
1978 speech at ERA March
“Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.”
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
“Men should think twice before making widowhood woman’s only path to power.”
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
“Many of us have raised our daughters more like our sons, but too few have raised our sons more like our daughters.”
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
“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 sisterhood.”
New York magazine, 1971
“People talk to me about white feminism, and I say, ‘Are you kidding me?’ If it’s white, it can’t be feminism. I mean, hello? It either includes all women or it’s not feminism. …There is just no such thing as defeating sexism without also being anti-racist, and no such thing as defeating racism without also being a feminist.”
When asked about the term “white feminism” in a 2017 interview with TheGrio
“If feminism means anything, it means taking responsibility for ourselves: for our own lives and actions. It is not ‘women as victims’ but women refusing to be victims.”
From Steinem’s 2017 book The Trouble With Rich Women
“Women are always saying, ‘We can do anything that men can do,’ but men should be saying, ‘We can do anything that women can do.’”
National Women’s Conference, 1977
On Marriage
“If I had married when I was supposed to get married, I would have lost my name, my legal residence, my credit rating, many of my civil rights. That’s not true anymore. It’s possible to make an equal marriage.”
From a 2019 interview with National Geographic
“A liberated woman is one who has sex before marriage and a job after.”
From a 1969 article for New York magazine
On Reproductive Freedom
“We know sexism is not inevitable. It’s only about controlling reproduction and therefore controlling women. If we have reproductive freedom, that is the ability to decide for ourselves when and whether to have children and what happens to our bodies, it can be reversed.”
“It’s obviously ridiculous to say somebody is ‘pro-abortion.’ Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I think I’ll have an abortion. It’s a pleasurable experience.’ The question is not pro-abortion or anti-abortion, the question is who makes the decision: a woman and her physician, or the government.”
Interview with the Associated Press, 2017
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade
“Women have always taken power over our own bodies, and we will keep right on. An unjust court can’t stop abortion, but it guarantees civil disobedience and disrespect for the court.”
Interview with the Associated Press, June 2022
“If Men Could Menstruate”
“If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn’t it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?”
“If Men Could Menstruate,” Ms., 1978
On the lack of a woman U.S. president and Trump
“We live in a democracy that’s one of the few in the world that’s never had a female elected leader. That’s kind of ridiculous. I mean, we’re choosing from half the country’s talent”
Interview, March 2026
“Remember, the Constitution doesn’t begin with, ‘I, the president.’ It begins with, ‘We, the people.’ ”
From her 2017 Women’s March speech
On the beginning of the women’s rights movement:
“When people were saying, ‘You’re all bra-burners and all that,’ we had to work very hard to be taken seriously. We were still having to prove that women were being discriminated against.”
Interview with the Associated Press, August 1987
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off!”
Title of her 2019 book
“Revolutions that last don’t happen from the top down. They happen from the bottom up.”
Interview magazine, 2011
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