Some inspirational quotes for International Women's Day
Emotive exhortations from the women's movement and beyond, courtesy of You Had Better Make Some Noise
"Other people's words are the bridge you use," wrote the British author Zadie Smith, "to cross from where you are to wherever you're going."
On International Women's Day we would like to offer readers a few such bridges courtesy of our book, You Had Better Make Some Noise.
The book brings together the enduring wisdom and urgent advice of citizen activists, artists, writers, politicians, visionaries, and intellectuals - individuals who have contributed to ongoing struggles for progress and freedom.
Some come from post-colonial struggles, others from the civil-rights era, environmental campaigns, and the anti-war movement. Yet a huge number are drawn from the works of writers and activists involved in one of the oldest of human struggles, the fight for gender equality.
The book reproduces the words of the British suffragette Christabel Pankhurst, who did so much to win women the right to vote in Great Britain. There are also lines from Simone de Beauvoir, the 20th century French feminist and existentialist, who did so much to describe and detail contemporary social issues.
It also includes inspiring quotes from American campaigners, such as the co-founder of Ms. Magazine and the Women's Media Center, Gloria Steinem; and the 19th century social reformer, Susan B Anthony.
There are many contemporary voices too, including the Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, and the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as well as the (male) Mexican poet Octavio Paz, who once said "women are the door to reconciliation with the world" - proof, perhaps, that right thinking men's words can also transport the women's movement towards a brighter tomorrow.
To read these quotes and many more, get a copy of You Had Better Make Some Noise here.
