Women's empowerment

“ However, the long years of conflict in my country has resulted in a large number of Women Headed Households. Making special arrangements for this vulnerable social group is one of my government’s priorities. ”

“ Leaders across all levels of government, the private sector, and academia are in agreement that empowering all women, while understanding and addressing the unique challenges facing women of color, is a social, moral, and economic imperative. In a country that increasingly depends on the strength, creativity, and wisdom of our women -- it is in everyone’s best interest to ensure no one is left behind, and all women are in position to lead and succeed. ”

“ Broadly speaking, that for which we are fighting now is the emancipation of woman; her social freedom; her intellectual freedom; her economic freedom; her political freedom; and we believe that it is through the attainment of the rights of citizenship that all these doors will be opened to us.
I wish now, briefly, to show what, as I believe, the effect would be on society generally and on woman primarily if these her demands were granted; what, in fact, woman will be in the new era. ”

“ If the world were mine, and I could educate but one sex, it should be the girls. I could make a greater and better [Pg 87] world of the next generation by educating the girls of this. It is not half so important that our legislators be wise, as that our mothers be so. It is not half so important that our men be brave, as that our women be so. Strengthen the women-heart, and you strengthen the world. Give me a nation of noble women, and I will give you a noble nation. Cultivate the woman-mind if you would cultivate the race. ”

“ These, then, are the forces which have pushed women forward in America: European political and religious persecution, the forest necessities of colonial life, the American Revolution, the struggle with slavery and intemperance, the Civil War, the industrial struggle and the need to protect women and children from capitalistic exploitation. Possibly women have now reached a point in their development where they can turn to public service and to a full realization of their powers and responsibilities without the goading necessity of a great wrong. ”

“ On Women's Equality Day, as we look back on what we have accomplished, we also recognize how far we have to go before we complete the journey that began so long ago. As women continue to distinguish themselves in boardrooms, classrooms, courtrooms, and family rooms across America, we must renew our efforts to empower all women with the rights and opportunities promised by our founders and fought for by the heroic women and men whose achievements we honor today. ”

“ Only through our commitment to these principles can we forever end discrimination and injustice based on gender, promote women's full participation in all aspects of American life, and join people everywhere who seek true equality. ”

“ And while we have made much progress, until all women have an equal opportunity to develop their full potential and to make contributions that are accepted and welcomed by our society, our freedom as a Nation will be incomplete. ”

“ Go and look at the legislation initiated or supported by women in every country where women vote—and you will see one unbroken line of social service. Not self-interest—not mercenary profit—not competition; but one steady upward pressure; the visible purpose to uplift and help the world.
This world is ours as much as man's. We have not only a right to half its management but a duty to half its service. It is our duty as human beings to help make the world better—quickly! It is our duty as Women to bring our Motherhood to comfort and help humanity—our children every one! ”

“ The road to civic, economic, and social equality for women in our Nation has been long and arduous, marked by frustrations and setbacks, yet inspired by the courageous actions of many heroic Americans, women and men alike. ”

“ But to see the three chief figures of this great movement of Woman's Rights sitting upon a stage in joint council, like the three Parcæ or Fates of a new dispensation—dignity and the ever-acceptable grace of scholarly earnestness, intelligence, and beneficence making them prominent—is assurance that the women of our country, bereft of defenders, or injured by false ones, have advocates equal to the great demands of their cause. ”

“ The extraordinary enthusiasm now sweeping through womanhood reveals behind its immediate feverish expression a great power of emotional and spiritual initiative. Wide and radically sweeping are the changes in women’s outlook. So much stronger is the promise of a vital force when they have refound their emancipation. To this end women must gain economic security, and the freedom for the full expression of their womanhood. The ultimate goal I conceive—at least I hope—is the right to be women, not the right to become like men. There can be no gain for women except this. ”

“ When the seed time of the movement has been lived through by anxious and inspired women, the government may step in to reap the harvest of a nation's gratitude.
The mobilization of woman-power on the farm is the need of the hour, and the wise and devoted women who are trying to answer the need, deserve an all-hail from the people of the United States and her Allies. ”

“ What line of education should women pursue? What lines of work could they best undertake? How could they combine an independent professional or industrial career with the life of a home and the responsibilities of a mother? How far must older social restraints be modified in the interest of intellectual and industrial freedom? It was a time for constructive statesmanship, rather than for revolution; and each woman knew she was under criticism, and that her success or failure was vastly more than her own personal concern. In her all free women were being judged. ”

“ So the era of Feminine Reconstruction resulted in the working woman and the thinking woman; and on these lies much of the hope of our country's future. Thus the Civil War at the last brought us a blessing instead of a curse, and in the halls of labor American womanhood once more joined hands in amity and became a unit in its aims and influence. ”

“ Important as are the economic interests of a country, the interests of the race are more vital. And, since by virtue of our womanhood, these interests are to us of greater sanctity and value, women must have a voice in the governments of all countries. ”

“ We must build on the legacy of the millions of women, whether renowned or anonymous, who have contributed so much to the strength and character of our Nation. We must ensure that women have equal access to the education and opportunities they need to excel. ”

“ There must be a deeper principle than usually lies at the root of female education, to induce women to acquiesce in the plan, which, assigning to them the responsibility, has denied them the éclat of being reformers of society. Yet it is, probably, exactly in proportion to their reception of this truth, and their adoption of it into their hearts, that they will fulfil their own high and lofty mission; precisely because the manifestation of such a spirit is the one thing needful for the regeneration of society. ”

“ Has there ever been a more revolutionary conversion than this to the Woman's Cause? For the first time in history, the woman movement is underwritten by Government. It is with this support that it's going strong all over the world to-day. ”

“ She has educated from three to seven girls yearly in the all-round education, the higher education, or in the profession of medicine. Her interest in humanity naturally makes her an ardent advocate of woman suffrage. With a keen realization of the possibilities of organized womanhood, in a quiet way she has started movements that are far-reaching in their results. A modest, home-loving, conservative, but progressive in thought, she has used her wealth, social position and even accepted offices to encourage the organization of women for the betterment of humanity. ”

“ And when in the progress of civilization the time had fully come for the recognition of the feminine element in humanity, women, in every civilized country unknown to each other, began simultaneously to demand a broader sphere of action. Thus the first public demand for political equality by a body of women in convention assembled, was a link in the chain of woman's development, binding the future with the past, as complete and necessary in itself, as the events of any other period of her history. The ridicule of facts does not change their character. ”

“ Who were trained by women at the fountain sources and household shrines? The very men whom they now see in "authoritative dictation." And so well did they train them that when both are called upon to nerve the nation's heart for generous deeds, they act together—the trainer and the trained—moved by the same magnetic impulse of a noble devotion. It is purely gratuitous to assume, because women generally have discredited the dogma of Woman Suffrage, that they have therefore no just conception of rights. Women are as ambitious, as self-assertive, as are men. ”

“ These modest, retiring Sisters and Nuns, who have no new theories and schemes of social reform, and upon whom a certain class of women look down with haughty contempt, as weak, spiritless, and narrow-minded, have chosen the better part, and are doing infinitely more to raise woman to her true dignity, and for the political and social, as well as for the moral and religious, progress of the country, than the Woman's Rights party, with all their grand conventions, brilliant speeches, stirring lectures and spirited journals. ”

“ In that way alone could perfect liberty of choice and action be secured for women; and she held it just that women should so be provided for, because the mothers of the community fulfil in the state as important and necessary a function as the men themselves do. ”

“ Like that, the boards of trustees in all countries are capitulating to the Great Push of the new woman movement. All over the world to-day the hammers and chisels are ringing in reconstruction. It is the new place in the sun that is being made for woman. ”

“ I take it that dignity of character, power of action, resolute will, commanding judgment, steady temper of mind, strong inward resources, are as essential in a good wife and mother as in a good husband and father. In a word, I take it that all that is noble, dignified, useful, and beautiful in character and life, is as essential in women as in men. If so, then why not give woman opportunities such as are necessary to develop her powers and form her character? Those opportunities can not be given without Employment. We can not make men without Employment; how can we expect to make women? ”

“ Thus the victory of the allied nations will mean the fruition of much of the feminism that is a phase of humanism. It will mean freeing women from outgrown custom and tradition, from unjust limitations in industrial, social and political life. It will mean men and women working together, on a plane of moral equality, with free initiative and voluntary co-operation, for the fruition of democracy. ”

“ And it is the pride and honour of our country, that woman holds a commanding influence in the domestic and social circle, which is accorded to the sex in no other nation, and such as will make her wishes and efforts, if united for a benevolent and patriotic object, almost omnipotent. ”

“ This hope should attain its amplest fruition in our own country, and will do so if the principles from which sprang our national life are adhered to.
Women should now be the best helpers of women. Of men, we need only ask the removal of arbitrary barriers. ”

“ And nothing can be effectually done in the way of moral and physical improvement without the assistance of women.* I feel the necessity of a constant appeal on this point, and am not for treating women as the mere breeding machines for the human race, and men as the directing lords of the aggregate machinery. There is no kind of equality more deniably advantageous for the welfare of the human race than the equality of the sexes. ”

“ Finally, I urged him not to shut his eyes to the fact that the women's demand to share in self-government was a vital and living movement, a development of the basic principle of democracy, and was founded on the growth of education and the wider industrial and professional opportunities which women had won for themselves during the last two generations. ”

“ A glance at any account of the mobilization of woman-power in Great Britain, Miss Fraser's admirable "Women and War Work," for instance, will reveal the printed page dotted thick with the names of volunteer associations. A woman with sympathy sees a need, she gets an idea and calls others about her. Quickly, there being no red tape, the need begins to be met. ”

“ No one recognizes more thankfully than I do the progress that the woman's movement has made during what have been to me years of inaction and suffering. The ever-increasing activity in all agencies for the elevation of women; the multiplication of preventive institutions and rescue societies ”

“ In other words, have American women [Pg 423] any vital share or interest in this grand, free Government of ours? With all the emphasis of a profound conviction, I, answer, Yes. Such a touching and intimate interest as no women ever had before in any Government under the sun. And why?
Because the principles embodied in and represented by it have made her what she is, and they alone can make her what she hopes to be.
If it be true that the position of woman in society is a sure test of its civilization, then is our American society already in the van of progress. ”

“ Today, women faithfully shoulder responsibilities at all levels of government and in every area of employment and education and are opening up new opportunities every day. On this occasion, it is fitting that we honor the contributions women have made to every aspect of our development as a Nation and rededicate ourselves to maintaining a society in which the rights of all citizens are protected. ”