How make up brushes turn into pivotal thank you…
Blog
Transform Your Story
We are super pleased to announce, in association with Vault Co-Working in Cedar Rapids… “Transform Your Story”
An invitation to slow down, to rest…
When you were a little girl, you dreamed about life as an adult, if you could just get there… everything would be roses and caviar. But something changed along the way. We traded our passions for a tentative idea of safety, for money, for what we thought was love. Somewhere along the way, we forgot who we were meant to be and gave everything up to our jobs, our kids, or our spouses/boyfriends/girlfriends.
Join us as we sit down with Cat and her friends and talk through going from where you are, to where you are meant to be. We will give you a gentle hand backward to your old idea of yourself and pull that into your now.
A meeting of friends…
This gathering will be for women only. Let the men take the kids out that day, this time is for you.
We will sit down at the Whipple Auditorium in the New Cedar Rapids Library on Saturday, August 13, 2016 from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM and have a series of deep discussions. Cat Cantrill will lead the afternoon, but we will also have several of her friends deliver their approach to transformation. Our goal is to give you space for some new questions, some new tools for transforming yourself into who you were meant to be, and to give you some new power-women as friends.
In addition to Cat, we are honored to have the following speakers:
Erin McGuire E-RYT 500 has been teaching Kundalini and Hatha yoga extensively all over the world for almost a decade. She has a passion for being a Soul on Fire and lighting up people’s lives. Her programs involve showing others how to go beyond their perceived limitations and into unlimited possibilities. Her work as a Spiritual Navigation Coach has lead hundreds of people from fear, doubt and anxiety to living their truth and loving themselves. She has earned a degree in Psychology from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA. She is the Creator of Soul on Fire Workshops and Retreats, an International Inspirational Speaker, Reiki Master, Theta Clearer (clearing beliefs in the subconscious mind) and is nearly completed with her first book Peace Reborn. www.purelightwellness.com
The remaining speakers will be announced SHORTLY! Thank you, Cat
I want to join you!
Celebrating confidence and beauty through burlesque: The Va Va Voom! to perform at ‘Bohemian Boudoir’ opening event
Jazz, cocktails, and burlesque are just a few of the things you’ll find at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s Roaring Twenties-inspired opening party for Bohemian Boudoir: Czech Vanity Glass. The exhibit itself celebrates beauty and self-expression while also revealing peculiar (and less-peculiar) details about both perfume creation and the relationship between Czech glass producers and the average American woman’s vanity table. To bring the essence of the 1920s boudoir to life, the Bohemian Cabaret will end with a burlesque show by The Va Va Voom! Burlesque Troupe.
We caught up with Cat Cantrill, the owner of Vitality Fitness & Dance Studio, to ask her about this upcoming performance and her passion for building confidence in her students.
NCSML: We are looking forward to our very first burlesque show! What were your thoughts when you were first approached about performing at a museum?
CC: I was thrilled to be asked by the museum to perform! It is such an honor to be a part of this celebration of the cabaret era. I always enjoy the opportunity to perform at new venues and for new crowds who might not know what The Va Va Voom! is all about.
NCSML: What about the art of burlesque initially drew you in, and what inspired you to share this experience with other women?
CC: Burlesque can mean different things to different people. Burlesque to me is celebrating the woman’s body in the present form. Burlesque embraces women’s sensuality, confidence, and beauty. Everyone usually thinks burlesque is about sex or pleasing men. They are dead wrong. Burlesque is a celebration of a woman who is celebrating for herself.
I know there is a lot of power behind the art, and I knew I could teach it to other women. I had been on a long, painful journey of rediscovering who I was before I opened Vitality. I knew that, if I combined my knowledge from my own journey and used the power of burlesque, I could help so many women. I have been dancing, teaching, and coaching the majority of my life.
NCSML: Building confidence through dance seems to be very central to your teaching philosophy. Why is this so essential? What other positive things do women experience after spending time in your classes at Vitality?
CC: Most students who come to Vitality are very “shy.” Our students never know what to expect when they walk in the door. Within just a few weeks, students slowly start coming out of their shells and start to go through the process of rediscovering who they are. Dance is a tool that most people can relate to. There is a sense of accomplishment for our students when they learn a burlesque routine from start to finish. Not only are they tapping into their sensuality, but the power of looking in the mirror and embracing their body as they are moving to the music is therapy in more ways than one. Vitality’s studio is designed with mirrors all around. Students have no choice but to look at themselves in the mirror so they can see the beauties that they are. When they are told from me on a continuous basis how important, beautiful and special they are – they start to believe it.
Not only does Vitality offer burlesque and fitness classes, I have also developed a confidence course called Secret Wardrobe. I have had 4 graduating classes go through this program with huge success. I took the tools that I teach at Vitality and put them into a program for those who don’t want to take the journey to confidence by dancing. I saw the need for it in our community and developed it over a year ago. All women can benefit from coming to Vitality.
Vitality is a way of life. It is an escape from all our duties as women. Women get so lost in their day-to-day roles that they forget who they are. Burlesque gives women permission to find themselves again. Women who have come through my doors have made some life changing decisions due to the confidence they receive. They finally ask for that promotion, go back to school, leave the toxic relationship, seek out new hobbies and interests, and start taking care of themselves. My students come to my classes to recharge – not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. I’ve been told that Vitality is their “soft place to land”. Vitality is one big permission slip for women to self-invest. Women always need permission from other women – and I am that woman 
NCSML: What do you think is the most important thing people should know before coming to see your troupe perform?
CC: It isn’t what you expect, so come with an open mind. Remember, it takes a lot of confidence to do what these women do.
NCSML: Do you have any favorite moments from past performances?
CC: Every show is special and unique in its own way. I used to just perform with The Va Va Voom! in our shows in the beginning . Now I have graduated to being our emcee. I realized the importance of telling the audience there is so much more to Vitality than burlesque, and the perception of what burlesque is. I know the women who are coming on stage for the first time. I know their back stories and what brought them to Vitality. I remember who they were when they came to their first burlesque class. All these women on stage have been through amazing transformations and I get to tell their stories. After each show I get emails and messages from audience members telling me what I am doing is so important and how I have touched their lives. I feel so lucky not only to be able to dance and choreograph for these women, but I get to be on stage telling their stories. I cry during almost every show because I realize how blessed I am. These women trust in me to help them – and our sold out shows are proof of that.
NCSML: What is your best life advice in one sentence?
CC: Women think that being self-invested is selfish, but the opposite is true.
NCSML: Why should our blog readers come see you at Bohemian Cabaret: An Opening Evening forBohemian Boudoir?
CC: Because we are awesome! You won’t see anything else like this in the state of Iowa. The Va Va Voom! will leave you thinking. We will leave it at that
Don’t miss Bohemian Cabaret: An Opening Evening for Bohemian Boudoir at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library on Saturday, April 23 from 6:00 – 9:00pm. Find more details about the party here! Tickets must be purchased online by April 22 and may not be available at the door.
Lipstick: Rebel Ritual
Do you remember being a little girl and digging in your mother’s purse to find her lipstick? You rummaged past her wallet and keys to unearth a treasure. You pulled that shiny metal tube from her bag and looked at it, a tiny gateway to a new realm you couldn’t yet understand. But you knew it gave her power…
You watched her, time and again, put it on in the rearview mirror of the car. She transformed, right before your eyes. When she opened the tube, it made a satisfying click, like she was unsheathing a sword or banging a gavel. She would lift her chin to expose her lips and slip into a moment of complete metamorphosis. When she started lining her mouth with that holy substance, the world seemed to slow down, her breathing became a zen-song. She looked at herself for another second, made a small kissing motion and emerged as Wonder Woman, Cleopatra, Katharine Hepburn, and Joan of Arc all rolled into one. Something changed in that small span of time and all I knew was that it had something to do with lipstick.
Once I found the golden tube in her purse, I rushed to find a private mirror. Staring at my reflection, I would copy my mother’s movements, lifting my chin to expose my lips. I leaned towards the mirror to get a better view. I tried to line my lips with the smooth movements that my mother employed, yet I couldn’t help color outside the lines. It was then that my mother opened the door to the bathroom. I stood there caught red-handed, looking at the woman I wanted to be and immediately wiped my lips with my forearm, leaving a bright red streak toward my hand. She looked at me and held out her hand. I put the top on the lipstick with a click, and put the case in her palm.
She smiled like a devil in in Rebel Rouge lipstick and said, “Some day, little one… Some day.”
When I turned 13 my mother gave me my first tube. It was not red but a blushing pink, the color of the sky, embarrassed by the night and marching into daytime. She told me I needed to work up to red tints.
“One does not simply begin wearing red lipstick at 13”, she quipped.
Over the years I taught myself the secrets of lipstick.
Then I got married and for a long time, I wasn’t able to wear lipstick without causing chaos. After my divorce, I was free to take a deep-dive back into the mysterious ways of lipstick. But I was broke, living in a trailer park with my two kids. I would pull myself up and go to the dollar-store to buy a cheap lipstick. I sat in the dollar-store parking lot and put it on in the rearview mirror. It took me back to the moments watching my mother apply lipstick from the back seat of her car. It reminded me of the power-shift I saw in her when she evolved from who she was into a new woman, with a straight spine and a beaming, confident smile.
The first time I put on lipstick after my divorce, I cried. Tears bloomed on my cheeks because I was returning to my power, remembering the strength of a Kick Ass Red Lipstick.
Applying lipstick is a ritual for rebels. It’s a ritual that can transport you, again and again, to a place of empowerment, a place of vast past victories.
There is a term in hypnosis called ‘anchoring’. Essentially it is an association between something you feel and some type of trigger, like a touch. For example, a therapist would encourage the patient to think about a time when they felt a certain way, for instance, a calm place or a time when you were in-control. Once a person is in that state, they are instructed to create an anchor by touching a certain part of their body for five seconds, like pressing on the side of the knee or pressing two fingers together. If the patient wants to go back to that state, they simply recreate the touch.
Think about it, when you apply lipstick, you are applying an anchor to an empowered state which is triggered, over and over, by applying lipstick. Every time you apply lipstick and feel empowered, you deepen this anchor state.
Picture this in your mind. You are preparing for your day. Your hair and makeup are done. You are dressed in a way that makes you feel powerful. You look through your lipstick collection and find the perfect shade. You turn the tube around in your palm and read the snappy title on the bottom… Perfect.
You pull the lipstick free from it’s tube. You hear the satisfying click and your heart-rate slows a few beats. You turn the base and the cylinder emerges from its secret hiding place, a rocket you climb onto and prepare for the ride.
You lean into the mirror and lift your chin a bit. And there it is, the first touch of lipstick to skin. Something inside you gives you permission to be the person you were meant to be. Something inside you breathes life into your true-self, your meta-woman. You line your lips with this magical substance and you feel as though there are new possibilities forming. You feel like your mother felt, all those years ago in the rear view mirror.
A new woman.
You are anchored to all those times in the past when you applied kick ass red lipstick. You are anchored to you, in the best possible state.
Until tomorrow, when you will begin the ritual all over again.
Did you like this? Leave comments below or share!
200 Women Empowerment Quotes
We spent days pulling together our favorite Women Empowerment quotes from women you love (and some you haven’t heard of yet).
Table of Contents
Women Empowerment
- “Your smaller self is never ready to be more. Your higher self is already more.Your fear is the only bridge between the two.Cross it.” –Andréa Balt
Andrea Balt - “When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it.” -Madonna
- “I don’t think of myself as a rebel; I just say what I think.” –Susan Choi, My Education
- “I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.” -Angelina Jolie on her double mastectomy
- “A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.” –Diane Mariechild
- “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” -Anne Frank
- “We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.” –Virginia Satir
- “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” -Maya Angelou
- “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
- “When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” –Audre Lorde
- “If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.” -Margaret Thatcher
- “Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.” –Oprah
Diana Nyad - “This journey has always been about reaching your own other shore no matter what it is, and that dream continues.” –Diana Nyad
- “It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” –Agnes Repplier
- “I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.” –Mary Wollstonecraft
- “If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.” –Maya Angelou
- “I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” -Audrey Hepburn
Cat Cantrill - “Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” –Anais Nin, author
- “So be free, but don’t be free to pretend you are a dolly. You are not a princess. You do not need saving. You are not here to find happiness in others. You are here to find the happiness in yourself.” –Cat Cantrill, Founder Kick Ass Red Lipstick
- “I’ll go across the country, I’ll race to the Moon… I’ll never look back.” –Edna Gardner Whyte
- “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” -Anais Nin
- “Is there a better quality in a leader than humility when he might soon be granted enormous power to do good for his country and the world — or harm?” -Jane Fletcher Geniesse, author
- “Well, it seems to me that the best relationships – the ones that last – are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is… suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with.” –Gillian Anderson
- “African women in general need to know that it’s OK for them to be the way they are – to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence.” –Wangari Maathai
Marianne Williams - “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” –Alice Walker
- “And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” –Marianne Williamson
- “It’s probably not just by chance that I’m alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless he’s terribly strong. And if he’s stronger than I, I’m the one who can’t live with him. … I’m neither smart nor stupid, but I don’t think I’m a run-of-the-mill person. I’ve been in business without being a businesswoman, I’ve loved without being a woman made only for love. The two men I’ve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness. I’ve done my best, in regard to people and to life, without precepts, but with a taste for justice.” –Coco Chanel
- “If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place.” –Margaret Mead
- “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.” -Margaret Fuller
- “Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade.” –Constance Baker Motley (First Black Woman in the U.S. to become a Federal Judge)
- “Next time, ask: what’s the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it’s personal. And the world won’t end … And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don’t miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you … And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.” -Audre Lorde
- “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
Business
- “Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as a survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative
Nellie McClung thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading: buying and selling.” –Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
- “Women who set a low value on themselves make life hard for all women.” –Nellie McClung
- “All careers go up and down like friendships, like marriages, like anything else, and you can’t bat a thousand all the time.” – Julie Andrews
- “Don’t waste a single second. Just move forward as fast as you can, and go for it.” -Rebecca Woodcock, Cake Health
- “Our emerging workforce is not interested in command-and-control leadership. They don’t want to do things because I said so; they want to do things because they want to do them.” –Irene Rosenfeld, CEO of Mondelēz International
- “I became successful due to several reasons. I never gave up and I never let anyone or anything get in my way. I use the power of positive thinking to tackle obstacles and challenges so they don’t defeat me.” –Lillian Vernon, founder Lillian Vernon Corporation
- “You can and should set your own limits and clearly articulate them. This takes courage, but it is also liberating and empowering, and often earns you new respect.” Rosalind Brewer, President and CEO of Sam’s Club, a
Erica Nicole division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc
- “The glass ceiling that once limited a woman’s career path has paved a new road towards business ownership, where women can utilize their sharp business acumen while building strong family ties.” – Erica Nicole, who left Corporate America to start YFS Magazine.
- “Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.” –Margaret Sanger
- “I wake up every morning and think to myself, ‘How far can I push the company forward in the next 24 hours?’” -Leah Busque, TaskRabbit
Achievement
- “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.” – Helen Keller
- “Be first and be lonely.” – Ginni Rometty
- “You can fall, but you can rise also.” – Angelique Kidjo
- “It isn’t where you come from; it’s where you’re going that counts.” – Ella Fitzgerald
- “There is nothing like a concrete life plan to weigh you down. Because if you always have one eye on some
Gail Blanke future goal, you stop paying attention the the job at hand, miss opportunities that might arise, and stay fixedly on one path, even when a better, newer course might have opened up. ” Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo
- “Walt Disney told his crew to ‘build the castle first’ when constructing Disney World, knowing that vision would continue to serve as motivation throughout the project. Oftentimes when people fail to achieve what they want in life, it’s because their vision isn’t strong enough.” – Gail Blanke, President and CEO, Lifedesigns
- “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” –Beverly Sills
- “Most of us have trouble juggling. The woman who says she doesn’t is someone whom I admire but have never met.” -Barbara Walters, broadcast journalist and author
- “I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.” Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!
- “There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.” – Indira Gandhi
- “If you have to force it, it doesn’t Fit! Accept the error, Change it and Try again!” –Vicklyn “Vix” Ritchie
- “The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.” -Amelia Earhart
- “You’re not in competition with other women. You’re in competition with everyone.” – Tina Fey
- “There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls.” -Amelia Earhart, aviator
- “A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want.” -Madonna
Health
- “If you think taking care of yourself is selfish, change your mind. If you don’t, you’re simply ducking your
Fit Bottom Girls responsibilities.” – Ann Richards
- “Don’t live life in the past lane.” – Samantha Ettus
- “Fit bottoms come in all shapes and sizes.” –Jennipher Walters
- “The challenge is not to be perfect…it’s to be whole.” – Jane Fonda
- “Breath. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” -Oprah Winfrey
- “I am always busy, which is perhaps the chief reason why I am always well.” – Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Success
- “The road to success is always under construction. -Lily Tomlin
Anne McKevitt - “Success doesn’t come to you…you go to it.” –Marva Collins
- “Keep working hard and you can get anything that you want. If God gave you the talent, you should go for it. But don’t think it’s going to be easy. It’s hard!” -Aaliyah
- “Successful people understand that you don’t need to make things complicated.” Anne McKevitt, entrepreneur, TV personality, author and philanthropist
- “You have trust in what you think. If you splinter yourself and try to please everyone, you can’t.” – Annie Leibovitz
- “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
- “People think at the end of the day that a man is the only answer [to fulfillment]. Actually a job is better for me.” -Princess Diana
- “You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness.” -Diane von Furstenberg
- “You are the designer of your destiny; you are the author of your story.” — Lisa Nichols
- “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” Indira Gandhi, first Indian female prime minister
Wilma Rudolph - “Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” –Wilma Rudolph
- “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that He didn’t trust me so much.” -Mother Teresa
- “Now, get out there and kick ass!” Stella McCartney, fashion designer
- “The best protection any woman can have … is courage.” -Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- “I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” -Oprah Winfrey
- “There is no royal flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.” – Madam C.J. Walker, America’s first female entrepreneur millionaire
- “It is our choices, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” — J.K Rowling, author
- “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the
Dr. Laura Miranda defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou
- “Being strong is not defined by a set of attributes that you have or don’t have. It’s an attitude. It is a collection of choices that you make day to day, and sometimes, minute to minute. Being STRONG isn’t something you are or aren’t. It is a practice and it can be learned, and MUST be repeated, daily.” –Dr. Laura Miranda
Beauty
- “There is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don’t need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much sex appeal, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.” –Audrey Hepburn
- “If you are sad, if you are heartbroken, make yourself up. Dress up, add more lipstick and attack. Men hate women who weep.” -Coco Chanel
- “Taking joy in living is a woman’s best cosmetic.” -Rosalind Russell
- “Well, I always tried to look nice and be feminine even in the worst tragedies and crisis, there’s no reason to add to everyone’s misery by looking miserable yourself. That’s my philosophy. This is why I always wore makeup and jewelry into the jungle-nothing too extravagant, but maybe just a nice gold bracelet and some earrings, a little lipstick, good perfume. Just enough to show that I still had my self-respect.” –Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
Poppy King - “Lipstick was an easy answer to boredom. It was the most exciting thing you could do in the shortest amount of time because for a second, you got to convince yourself that you were the kind of gal who wears lipstick every day. You got to pout to yourself, and trick yourself that you were glamorous. Then in a second it was over, time to wipe it off and start again.” –Ainslie Hogarth, The Lonely
- “My dream is to make Lipstick Angels a program that is accessible to all hospital patients nationwide. Providing a comforting, healing touch while restoring a sense of dignity through beauty has a potent effect on the mind, body and spirit.” -Renata Helfman, founder, Lipstick Angels
- “For me, nothing is as glamorous or as empowering as lipstick.” –Poppy King
Leadership
- “Do not wait on a leader…look in the mirror, its you!” -Katherine Miracle, speaker
Katherine Miracle - “Presenting leadership as a list of carefully defined qualities (like strategic, analytical and performance-oriented) no longer holds. Instead, true leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed… Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.” -Sheryl Sandberg, COO Facebook
- “Whenever you are blue or lonely or stricken by some humiliating thing you did, the cure and the hope is in caring about other people.” – Diane Sawyer
- “Women are leaders everywhere you look—from the CEO who runs a Fortune 500 company to the housewife who raises her children and heads her household. Our country was built by strong women, and we will continue to break down walls and defy stereotypes.” -Nancy Pelosi
- “You manage things; you lead people.” -Grace Murray Hopper, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral
Marillyn Hewson - “Leaders are made by the situations they are involved in. I think that some rise to the occasion and some do not. –Madeleine Albright
- “Good leaders organize and align people around what the team needs to do. Great leaders motivate and inspire
people with why they’re doing it. That’s purpose. And that’s the key to achieving something truly transformational.” -Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin - “A woman is like a tea bag – you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn’t.” — Dee Dee Myers, former White House Press Secretary
- “Women are the real architects of society.” – Cher
- “Sometimes questions are more important than answers.” -Nancy Willard
- “I don’t go by the rule book. I lead from the heart, not the head.” -Princess Diana, Princess of Wales
- “Sometimes you can gradually improve things. But sometimes, they don’t work, and you’ve just got to just say: Let’s grind this baby to a halt.” -Abigail Johnson, Fidelity Investments
Himanshu Bhatia - “I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.” -Golda Meir
- “As a leader, it’s a major responsibility on your shoulders to practice the behavior you want others to follow.” -Himanshu Bhatia, Rose International Inc.
- “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady
- “My father had a simple test that helps me measure my own leadership quotient: When you are out of the office, he once asked me, does your staff carry on remarkable well without you?” — Martha Peak, AMA magazines
Love
- “If you find someone you love in your life, then hang on to that love.” – Princess Diana
Peggy O’Mara - “The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.” – Peggy O’Mara
- “The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing — and then marry him.” -Cher
- “The greater your capacity to love, the greater your capacity to feel the pain.” -Jennifer Aniston
- “Don’t take too much credit for your children -or too much blame!” – Debora Spar
- “You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” –Barbara De Angelis
- “A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.” -Diane Mariechild
Barbara De Angelis - “Love comes when manipulation stops; when you think more about the other person than about his or her reactions to you. When you dare to reveal yourself fully. When you dare to be vulnerable.” -Dr. Joyce Brothers
- “A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” –Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
- “Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.” -Louisa May Alcott
Equality
- “Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.” – Marilyn Monroe
- “We’ve chosen the path to equality, don’t let them turn us around. -Geraldine Ferraro
- “I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.” –Anaïs Nin
Robin Morgan - “Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?” Barbra Streisand
- “Women are not inherently passive or peaceful. We’re not inherently anything but human.” –Robin Morgan
- “I raise up my voice-not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” –Malala Yousafzai
- “In passing, also, I would like to say that the first time Adam had a chance he laid the blame on a woman.” -Nancy Astor
- “I am probably 1 of 25 black women who fly for a major airline.” –Nia Wordlaw
Nia Wordlaw - “Can you imagine a world without men? No crime and lots of happy, fat women.” –Nicole Hollander
- “I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” -Eleanor Roosevelt
- “A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.” -Gloria Steinem
- “I want to organize so that women see ourselves as people who are entitled to power, entitled to leadership.” -Patricia Ireland
- “Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.” -Joseph Conrad
- “Women are always saying, ‘We can do anything that men can do.’ But Men should be saying, ‘We can do anything that women can do.’” -Gloria Steinem
- “I hope the fathers and mothers of little girls will look at them and say, ‘Yes, women can.” -Dilma Rousseff
- “Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.” –Pearl S. Buck, Of Men and Women
- “Societies in which women have lots of autonomy and authority tend to be decidedly male-friendly, relaxed, tolerant, and plenty sexy. Got that, fellas? If you’re unhappy at the amount of sexual opportunity in your life, don’t blame the women. Instead, make sure they have equal access to power, wealth and status. Then watch what happens.” –Cacilda Jethá, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
- “Women have got to make the world safe for men since men have made it so darned unsafe for women.” -Nancy Astor
- “When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bitch.” -Bette Davis
- “I learned compassion from being discriminated against. Everything bad that’s ever happened to me has taught me compassion.” – Ellen DeGeneres
- “We cannot afford to be separate… We have to see that all of us are in the same boat.” -Dorothy Height
- “Until women learn to want economic independence, and until they work out a way to get this independence without denying themselves the joys of love and motherhood, it seems to me feminism has no roots.” –Crystal Eastman
- “I’d much rather be a woman than a man. Women can cry, they can wear cute clothes, and they are the first to be rescued off of sinking ships.” -Gilda Radner
- “Here’s all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.” –George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?
- “You don’t have to be anti-man to be pro-woman.” -Jane Galvin Lewis
- “I do not think, sir, you have any right to command me, merely because you are older than I, or because you have seen more of the world than I have; your claim to superiority depends on the use you have made of your time and experience.” –Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
- “Virtue can only flourish among equals.” -Mary Wollstonecraft
- “The day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race.” -Susan B. Anthony
- “If society will not admit to woman’s free development, then society must be remodeled.” –Elizabeth Blackwell
- “I believe that it is as much a right and duty for women to do something with their lives as for men and we are not going to be satisfied with such frivolous parts as you give us.” -Louisa May Alcott
- “I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do
Linda Ellerbee things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.” Amelia Earhart
- “The house does not rest upon the ground, but upon a woman.” Old Mexican proverb
- “Women often tear each other down and compete with each other. But ideally you create an environment where you embrace a woman’s inherent femininity and sensuality.” –Leigh Kelley entrepreneur and photographer
- “Justice is better than chivalry if we cannot have both.” -Alice Stone Blackwell
- “People are pretty much alike. It’s only that our differences are more susceptible to definition than our similarities.” –Linda Ellerbee
- “A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. A woman must do what he can’t.” –Rhonda Hansome
Hard Work
- “Nothing will work unless you do.” – Maya Angelou
Erica Jong - “There are three types of people in this world: Those who make things happen, those who watched things happen and those who wonder what happened. We all have a choice. You can decide which type of person you want to be.” -Mary Kay Ash
- “There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” -Beverly Sills
- “I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.” -Madonna
- “I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.” -Estée Lauder
- “Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.” –Erica Jong
- “You can have unbelievable intelligence, you can have connections, you can have opportunities fall out of the sky. But in the end, hard work is the true, enduring characteristic of successful people.” -Marsha Evans
- “If you think you’re too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.” -Betty Reese
Nikki Giovanni - “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” –Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
- “I really don’t think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don’t mind the failure but I can’t imagine that I’d forgive myself if I didn’t try.” –Nikki Giovanni
- “My best successes came on the heels of failures.” -Barbara Corcoran, businesswoman
- “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” —Margaret Thatcher
- “If you’re not making some notable mistakes along the way, you’re certainly not taking enough business and career chances.” – Sallie Krawcheck
- “Take responsibility for yourself because no one’s going to take responsibility for you. I’m not a victim. I grow from this and I learn.” -Tyra Banks
- “Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth.” Julie Andrews, actress, singer, author
- “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” -Harriet Beecher Stowe
Style
- “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” – Rachel Zoe
- “Cherish forever what makes you unique, cuz you’re really a yawn if it goes.” – Bette Midler
- “Though I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn’t changed who I am. My feet are still on the ground. I’m just wearing better shoes.” -Oprah Winfrey
- “Whatever you do, be different – that was the advice my mother gave me, and I can’t think of better advice for an entrepreneur. If you’re different, you will stand out.” Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
- “The reason women don’t play football is because 11 of them would never wear the same outfit in public.” -Phyllis Diller
- “A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.” -Coco Chanel
Confidence
- “A surplus of effort could overcome a deficit of confidence.” – Sonia Sotomayor
- “Success breeds confidence.” -Beryl Markham
- “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.” – Maya Angelou
- “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” – Audre Lorde
- “Most people who meet my wife quickly conclude that she is remarkable. They are right about this. She is smart, funny and thoroughly charming. Often, after hearing her speak at some function or working with her on a project, people will approach me and say something to the effect of, you know, I think the world of you, Barack, but your wife, wow!” -Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope
- “Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can’t figure out what from.” –Mae West
- “I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading.” -Amy Poehler, actress
- “You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to suffer.” –Byron Katie
- “I think the key is for women not to set any limits.” -Martina Navratilova
- I have something to prove, as long as I know there’s something that needs improvement, and you know that every time I move, I make a woman’s movement. –Ani DiFranco
- “I learned a long time ago that there is something worse than missing the goal, and that’s not pulling the trigger.” – Mia Hamm
- “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
- “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends.” -J. K. Rowling
- “Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.” -Janis Joplin
Purpose
- “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” -Dolly Parton
- “If you don’t understand yourself you don’t understand anybody else.” -Nikki Giovanni
- “Goals are dreams with deadlines.” -Diana Scharf Hunt
Margaret Cho - “There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” -Anais Nin
- “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall
- “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.” –Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
- “A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman.” -Melinda Gates
- “When I was 14, I told my mother I was going to drop out of high school and go do stand-up comedy. All she said was ‘Oh maybe it’s better if you just die,’ because it was killing her that I was doing this.” –Margaret Cho
- “One is not born a woman, but becomes one.” – Simone de Beauvoir
- “Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.” -Alice Walker
- “Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.” -Mary Jean Irion
- “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” -Marianne Williamson
Travel
- “If you don’t get out of the box you’ve been raised in, you won’t understand how much bigger the world is.” – Angelina Jolie
- “My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong.” -Mother Jones
Revolution
- “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will nothold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation. -Abigail Adams
- “When you embrace your difference, your DNA, your look or heritage or religion or your unus
Marge Piercy ual name, that’s when you start to shine.” – Bethenny Frankel
- “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” -Rosa Parks
- “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” – Madeleine Albright
- “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” – Katharine Hepburn
- A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done.” –Marge Piercy
- “Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from.” – Jodie Foster
- “I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.” -Mae West
- “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” -Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
- “In every crisis there is a message. Crises are nature’s way of forcing change — breaking down old structures, shaking loose negative habits so that something new and better can take their place.” — Susan L. Taylor
Shonda Rhimes - “She’s strong! And scary…I bet she’s single…I’d put money on it..” –Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto, Vol. 18: Tsunade’s Choice
- “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” -Katharine Hepburn
- “You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.” – Tina Fey
- “You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.” – Shonda Rhimes
- “Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations can never effect a reform.” – Susan B. Anthony
- “If I stop to kick every barking dog I am not going to get where I’m going.” – Jackie Joyner-Kersey
- “We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.” -Queen Victoria, Former Queen of the United Kingdom
- “Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great.” -Cher
Legacy
- “I want to leave something behind when I go: some small legacy of truth, some word that will shine in a dark place.” -Nellie McClung
- “No one changes the world who isn’t obsessed.” – Billie Jean King
- “Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.” -Mary Kay Ash, founder Mary Kay Cosmetics
- “One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody.” -Mother Teresa
- “You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe.” –Leymah Gbowee
- “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” – J.K. Rowling
- “Dying seems less sad than having lived too little.” – Gloria Steinem
- “If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.” -Tallulah Bankhead
Sarah Ban Breathnach - “Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences.” -J. K. Rowling
- “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!” -Maya Angelou, African American Poet
- “What if you began to expect the best from any situation? Isn’t it possible that you could write new chapters in your life with happy endings? Suspend your disbelief? Take a leap of faith? After all, what have you got to lose but misery and lack?” Sarah Ban Breathnach, author
- “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist
Thank you for reading our list of Women Empowerment Quotes. If you would like to join us on our mission to empower women, please see our Facebook page. Think someone else needs to be added or disagree with a selection? Leave a comment below!
