1. “Feminism is not here to dictate you. It’s not prescriptive, it’s not dogmatic. All we are here to do is give you a choice. If you want to run for Prime Minister, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful too. Both men and women should feel free to be strong. All we are here to do is give you a choice.” –Emma Watson“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
2. “It takes years as a woman to unlearn what you have been taught to be sorry for.” –Amy Poehler
3. “A huge part of being a Feminist is giving other women the freedom to make choices you might not necessarily make yourself.” –Lena Dunham
4.“We raise our little boys to view their bodies as tools to master their environments. We raise our little girls to view their bodies as projects to constantly be improved.” –Caroline Heldman
5.“A feminist is any woman who tells the truth about her life.” –Virginia Woolf
6.“We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back.” –Malala Yousafzai
7.“Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties. Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions, for safety in the streets, for child care, for social welfare, for rape crisis centers, women’s refuges, reforms in the law. If someone says, ‘Oh, I’m not a feminist’, I ask, ‘Why? What’s your problem?’” –Dale Spender
8."A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men." ―Gloria Steinem
9.“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 Angelou10."You don't have to be pretty. You don't owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don't owe it to your mother, you don't owe it to your children, you don't owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked 'female.'" -Erin McKean
11."I’d like every man who doesn’t call himself a feminist to explain to the women in his life why he doesn’t believe in equality for women.”-Louise Brealey
12.“I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.” -Mary Shelly
13.“There’s many women now who think, ‘Surely we don’t need feminism anymore, we’re all liberated and society’s accepting us as we are.’ Which is all hogwash. It’s not true at all.” -Yoko Ono
14.“In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.”-Sheryl Sandberg
15. "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them."-Margaret Atwood
16. “What’s the worst possible thing you can call a woman? Don’t hold back, now. You’re probably thinking of words like slut, whore, bitch, cunt (I told you not to hold back!), skank. Okay, now, what are the worst things you can call a guy? Fag, girl, bitch, pussy. I’ve even heard the term “mangina.” Notice anything? The worst thing you can call a girl is a girl. The worst thing you can call a guy is a girl. Being a woman is the ultimate insult. Now tell me that’s not royally fucked up.”-Jessica Valentini
17.“Equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women, and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now.” –Joss Whedon
18.“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.”-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
All photos by Countless Memories Photography