Quotessence
Home / Topics / Womanhood Quotes

Womanhood Quotes

Browse 590 quotes about Womanhood.

Related topics

Womanhood Quotes

“I feel different, better, about my personal life as well as my professional life. So much confidence comes simply because I have reached this very good age. Women my age today are forging new ground. Society stops defining us by our reproductive capacity, sexual attractiveness, or other traditional measures, so we become liberated from stereotype. We are freed to grow into our full selves. I couldn’t have allowed myself to feel so positive in the past. When I was at the height of my film career, I didn’t have the kind of respect I now have from the theatrical community. I hadn’t yet proved that I have the chops for the stage. But now I have a stature I’ve never before enjoyed. Virginia Woolf herself observed that when her Aunt Mary left her enough money to live on, her financial independence meant she “need not hate” or “flatter any man.” She said this was of even more value to her freedom and autonomy than the right to vote.”

“By late afternoon I'm ready to strangle Riva Chirenko's daughter. I don't know her name. Nobody calls her Mrs. Tomanovich. She's Mr. Tomanovich's wife. Riva's daughter. Irena Tomanovich's mother. She's what's wrong with all of us women, that schleppe from the steppe. But at other times it is this same woman, Riva Chirenko's daughter, that I respect, revere. If I could only accept as she has done, just accept. Acceptance is faith, Henry Miller said. I could strangle him too.”

“I watch Maya sipping her tea and I wonder how many women carry the memory of a child nobody knew but them. How many women grieve alone and in silence, without sympathy or ceremony, too afraid or ashamed to speak of their loss? And why should they feel ashamed, or afraid, or alone? Why are there so many others, when this is common, why isn't it something we talk about? And when it happened to my friend, why didn't I know what to do?”

“She stampeed. “I am making him run late.” She gave a resolution of exact 60 seconds to herself to see if she can find her diamond necklace or else she would attend the party with out it. She suddenly turned, as if her memory shouted out loud- Its on the chest right there! To her bewilderment, he was standing just a few inches away holding a big mirror in hand. That perplexed her. Not Adam. Not even the fact that her neck was already hosting the necklace. But seeing herself that way, her very own self. As if, she was unapprehended she existed. Adam was expecting a smile on her face, and that she would touch the necklace and say- “Oh my foolish self” but she touched her face and said- “Oh my self...” That was foolish!”

“For the first time in my life, I feel like I am being strong for the two of us, like I have broken free from those chains of lipstick and perfect hair and can take pride in my worn feet and the hair around my nipples. And I know that one day we will go shopping together and she will finally be proud of this body we both used to hate so much. I'm sure of it, because recently I have found it in my heart to forgive her. And because all of this is so very lonely sometimes, I have started to wear some of her old clothes, her cardigans and scarves--I was always too fat for everything else--and I think that's a sign that I have started to miss her in that place where I should have loved so long ago. And I admire nothing more than people who have found a way to love their mothers; I think it's the biggest challenge in life, the one thing that would make the world a better place.”

“For every woman you know who has been given substandard treatment by her parents, used by her friend or boyfriend, abused by her husband, discriminated by her employers and ridiculed by society, I know a man who has been burdened with family responsibility since childhood, humiliated by his girlfriend, bullied by his employers, pushed by society and harassed by his wife. Everybody is fighting their own battle.”

“Looking back on that conversation, Rina asked herself if what he had said was true, She had been shiny once as a young girl, when they'd first met, as one if before decisions are made and opportunities are lost. She would never be that way again, but then Sato had never really believe in her shine, had he? He had seen through it from the very beginning, through her to the woman waiting, the fighter beneath.”

“Let us question why we are losing so many teenage girls and young women to an ideology that encourages them to discard all things that represent womanhood and motherhood. Moms are often thrown out, along with the young women’s healthy breast tissue. Being a woman is a gift if not rejected.”

“Both man and woman have their own parts to play in bringing faith to the next generation, and the woman's role is particularly important. How can we ever think that the female sex is inferior when we see the essential responsibility God has given women in this world? Their sensitivity to spiritual concerns seems to be farm more innate and natural than a man's. Mothers and wives often are the medium for our intercourse with the heavenly world, the faithful repositories of spiritual knowledge and wisdom. We should all be careful to avail ourselves of the benefits they have to offer both the present generation and the one that will follow us.”

“I mean it, it’s another gap in your education. Until you can learn to understand her, you’ll get nowhere as a detective. She’s everybody’s conscience, Bob—the universal maiden aunt, cousin or sister. Humanity’s backbone. Throughout history, she’s gone to the stake for you again and again; not with any sense of heroism, but as a matter of principle and because it would never occur to her to do anything else.”

“She had never spoken that way with her cousin before, or with any other male member of her family or community. This wasn’t the kind of village where girls spoke freely in the presence of men. It wasn’t even the kind of village where girls and women walked in public with men; the small back alleys and streets that lined the houses were how they got about, staying out of the men’s way as much as possible.”

“Repensei no corpo em desordem da professora, no corpo desgovernado de Melina. Sem uma razão evidente, comecei a olhar com atenção para as mulheres ao longo da estrada. De repente me veio a impressão de ter vivido com uma espécie de limitação do olhar: como se só fosse capaz de focalizar nosso grupo de meninas, Ada, Gigliola, Carmela, Marisa, Pinuccia, Lila, a mim mesma, minhas colegas de escola, e jamais tivesse realmente notado o corpo de Melina, o de Giuseppina Peluso, o de Nunzia Cerullo, o de Maria Carracci. O único corpo de mulher que eu tinha examinado com crescente preocupação era a figura claudicante de minha mãe, e apenas por aquela imagem me sentira perseguida, ameaçada, temendo até agora que ela se impusesse de chofre à minha própria imagem. Naquela ocasião, ao contrário, vi nitidamente as mães da família do bairro velho. Eram nervosas, eram aquiescentes. Silenciavam de lábios cerrados e ombros curvos ou gritavam insultos terríveis aos filhos que as atormentavam. Arrastavam-se magérrimas, com as faces e os olhos encavados, ou com traseiros largos, tornozelos inchados, as sacolas de compra, os meninos pequenos que se agarravam às suas saias ou queriam ser levados no colo. E, meu Deus, tinham dez, no máximo vinte anos a mais do que eu. No entanto pareciam ter perdido os atributos femininos aos quais nós, jovens, dávamos tanta importância e que púnhamos em evidência com as roupas, com a maquiagem. Tinham sido consumidas pelo corpo dos maridos, dos pais, dos irmãos, aos quais acabavam sempre se assemelhando, ou pelo cansaço ou pela chegada da velhice, pela doença. Quando essa transformação começava? Com o trabalho doméstico? Com as gestações? Com os espancamentos? Lila se deformaria como Nunzia? De seu rosto delicado despontaria Fernando, seu andar elegante se transmutaria nas passadas abertas e braços afastados do tronco, de Rino? E também meu corpo, um dia, cairia em escombros, deixando emergir não só o de minha mãe, mas ainda o do pai? E tudo o que eu estava aprendendo na escola se dissolveria, o bairro tornaria a prevalecer, as cadências, os modos, tudo se confundiria numa lama escura, Anaximandro e meu pai, Fólgore e dom Achille, as valências e os pântanos, os aoristos, Hesíodo e a vulgariadade arrogante dos Solara, como de resto há milênios acontecia na cidade, sempre mais decomposta, sempre mais degradada?”