Bella Abzug

We are coming down from our pedestal and up from the laundry room.

I began wearing hats as a young lawyer because it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before that, whenever I was at a meeting, someone would ask me to get coffee.

Imperfect though it may be, the Beijing Platform for Action is the strongest statement of consensus on women's equality, empowerment and justice ever produced by governments.

Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel.

I'm a politician. I run for office. That's my profession.

The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.

A woman's place is in the house - the House of Representatives.

We are affirming human rights for all women and girls, acknowledging the full range of diversity that exists, and detailing actions to prevent violence.

Our struggle was political, ideological and economic, and we felt we couldn't make something of ourselves unless we bettered society. We saw the two together.

I spend all day figuring out how to beat the machine and knock the crap out of the political power structure.

When I first became a lawyer, only 2% of the bar was women. People would always think I was a secretary. In those days, professional women in the business world wore hats. So I started wearing hats.

As women, we know that we must always find ways to change the process because the present institutions want to hold on to power and keep the status quo.