Women’s History Month 2016

Women’s History Month begins March 1 in the United States, offering a period to reflect on the role of women in the nation’s history. From suffragettes to second-wave feminists to transgender activists, women have frequently led the charge in the fight for equality and freedom.

Here are some of the most empowering quotes from women throughout history.

1. “On the day when it will be possible for woman to love not in her weakness but in strength, not to escape herself but to find herself, not to abase herself but to assert herself – on that day love will become for her, as for man, a source of life and not of mortal danger.”– Simone de Beauvoir, philosopher and author of “The Second Sex”

2. “When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity she finally began to enjoy being a woman.” – Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique”

3. “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” – Gloria Steinem, activist and journalist

4. “Women will have achieved true equality when men share with them the responsibility of bringing up the next generation.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court justice

5. “We are not what other people say we are. We are who we know ourselves to be, and we are what we love. That’s OK.” – Laverne Cox, actress and transgender activist, in a 2014 interview with Rookie magazine.