Bella Abzug

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

“I am not a centrist.”

“I prefer the word 'homemaker' because 'housewife' always implies that there may be a wife someplace else.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“We are bringing women into politics to change the nature of politics, to change the vision, to change the institutions. Women are not wedded to the policies of the past. We didn't craft them. They didn't let us.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“All of the men on my staff can type.”

“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.”

“The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.”

“Working women wore hats. It was the only way they would take you seriously.”

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

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

“Maybe we weren't at the Last Supper, but we're certainly going to be at the next one.”