For some reason the term ‘feminist’ is still a taboo so we’ll try our best to use it as much as possible. From Malala Yousafzai, Amal Clooney and Emma Watson to Caitlin Moran and Helen Mirren, we’ve rounded up the some of the best feminist quotes of all time, to leave you feeling empowered.

Make sure you also checkout our article on Male Celebrities Who Are Proud Feminists.

Best Feminist Quotes

“I’m a feminist. I’ve been a female for a long time now. It’d be stupid not to be on my own side.”

Maya Angelou

“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”

Jane Austen

“If men don’t have to be aggressive in order to be accepted women won’t feel compelled to be submissive. If men don’t have to control, women won’t have to be controlled. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong… It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideals.”

Emma Watson

“I raise up my voice – not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard… We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.”

Malala Yousafzai

“You could make a case that, along with the technological revolution, the most provocative upending destabilizing thrilling change in the course of human history is that we’re finally in it… We’re here now, women are in the world, and we will not be bullied.”

Meryl Streep

“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”

Mary Wollstonecraft

“What is feminism? Simply the belief that women should be as free as men, however nuts, dim, deluded, badly dressed, fat, receding, lazy and smug they might be. Are you a feminist? Of course you are.”

Caitlin Moran

“I think every woman in our culture is a feminist. They may refuse to articulate it, but if you were to take any woman back 40 years and say, ‘Is this a world you want to live in?’, they would say ‘No.'”

Helen Mirren

“Women are still treated as secondary issues. It is still far too easy and accepted for leaders to ignore uncomfortable truths. Women, we know, are the first to be affected by war, and the last to be taken into account when it ends.”

Angelina Jolie

“It’s hard not to be a fighter when you’re constantly under siege.”

Cassandra Duffy

“Where there is a woman there is magic. If there is a moon falling from her mouth, she is a woman who knows her magic. She can share or not share her powers. This woman is a consort of the spirits.”

Ntozake Shange

“We are complete with or without a mate, with or without a child. We get to decide for ourselves what is beautiful when it comes to our bodies. That decision is ours and ours alone. We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.”

Jennifer Aniston

“No woman should be told she can’t make decisions about her own body. When women’s rights are under attack, we fight back.”

Kamala Harris

“When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bitch.”

Bette Davis

“Do not let this defeat you – let this enrage you. Let it motivate you! Let this be the fire you didn’t have before… don’t be afraid, be loud.”

Jennifer Lawrence

“I hear a lot of people – when speaking about girls and women’s empowerment – you’ll often hear people say, ‘well, you’re helping women finding their voices’ and I fundamentally disagree with that. Women don’t need to find a voice, they have a voice, and they need to feel empowered to use it, and people need to be encouraged to listen.”

Meghan Markle

“To all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.”

Hilary Clinton

“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”

Maya Angelou

“Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong, it’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.”

G.D. Anderson

“I want to build a community where women of all races can communicate and… continue to support and take care of each other. I want to give women a space to feel their own strength and tell their stories. That is power.”

Beyoncé

“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”

Michelle Obama

“There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer.”

Rihanna

“Women need a seat at the table, they need an invitation to be seated there, and in some cases, where this is not available, they need to create their own table. We need a global understanding that we cannot implement change effectively without women’s political participation.”

Meghan Markle

“I am a woman with thoughts and questions and shit to say. I say if I’m beautiful. I say if I’m strong. You will not determine my story – I will.”

Amy Schumer

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

Virginia Woolf

“Every woman’s success should be an inspiration to another. We’re strongest when we cheer each other on.”

Serena Williams

“The worst thing that we can do as women is not stand up for each other, and this is something we can practice every day, no matter where we are and what we do – women sticking up for other women, choosing to protect and celebrate each other instead of competing or criticising one another… Holding back women is holding back half of every country in the world.”

Amal Clooney

“Do you have a vagina? And do you want to be in charge of it? If you said ‘yes’ to both, then congratulations – you’re a feminist!”

Caitlin Moran