Bella Abzug Quotes
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I've been described as a tough and noisy woman, a prize fighter, a man-hater, you name it. They call me Battling Bella, Mother Courage, and a Jewish mother with more complaints than Portnoy. There are those who say I'm impatient, impetuous, uppity, rude, profane, brash, and overbearing. Whether I'm any of those things, or all of them, you can decide for yourself. But whatever I am -- and this ought to be made very clear -- I am a very serious woman.
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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.
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We are coming down from our pedestal and up from the laundry room.
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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.
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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.
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Abortion doesn't belong in the political arena. It's a private right, like many other rights concerning the family.
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Women will change the nature of power, rather than power changing the nature of women.
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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.
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She (a woman politician) will be challenging a system that is still wedded to militarism and that saves billions of dollars a year by underpaying women and using them as a reserve cheap labor supply.
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I am not being facetious when I say that the real enemies in this country are the Pentagon and its pals in big business.
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The women's movement, not only here in the U.S., but worldwide, is bigger and stronger than ever before and in places where it has never been. It has arms. It has legs. And most importantly, it has heads.
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In Britain the government has to come down in front of Parliament every day to explain its actions, but here the President never answers directly to Congress.
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Maybe we weren't at the Last Supper, but we're certainly going to be at the next one.
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Nixon impeached himself. He gave us Ford as his revenge.
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Women have been trained to speak softly and carry a lipstick. Those days are over.
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All of the men on my staff can type.
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I'm a politician. I run for office. That's my profession.
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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.