55 Women's History Month quotes to inspire you and your kids

March is Women’s History Month, and there's no better time to celebrate the accomplishments of the iconic women who shaped our history.

These amazing artists, actors, pilots, poets, athletes, and visionaries have paved the way for generations of women to succeed. No matter your age, you'll be inspired by these wise words.

We’ve rounded up inspirational quotes about women’s empowerment from role models like legendary poet Maya Angelou, trailblazing aviator Amelia Earhart, and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the first female to hold the position.

Share these 55 Women's History Month quotes with the women in your life and with your kids, and let your children know about the impact each of these women had on history.

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55 Women’s History Month Quotes To Share With Kids

• "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." — Helen Keller, author and disability rights activist
• "Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being's suffering. Nothing. Not a career, not wealth, not intelligence, certainly not status. We have to feel for one another if we're going to survive with dignity." — Audrey Hepburn, actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
• "The only real stumbling block is fear of failure." — Julia Child, chef and author
• "The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality." — Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American suffragist and women's rights activist
• "I don't know why I think I can make any kind of difference. All I know is that I want to." — Angelina Jolie, actress and humanitarian

• “This new sport is comparable to no other. It is, in my opinion, one of the most intoxicating forms of sport, and will, I am sure, become one of the most popular. Many of us will perish before then, but that prospect will not dismay the braver spirits. ... It is so delicious to fly like a bird!” — Marie Marvingt, first woman to fly a fighter plane in combat
• "The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day. After all, a movement is only people moving." — Gloria Steinem, journalist and activist
• "I know my worth. I embrace my power. I say if I'm beautiful. I say if I'm strong. You will not determine my story. I will." — Amy Schumer, comedian and actor
• "Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men." — Katherine Johnson, one of the first Black women to work as a NASA mathematician
• "All adventures — especially into new territory — are scary." — Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space

• “To go out there and prove what I can do has taught me a lot about who I am. We can push ourselves further. We always have more to give.” — Simone Biles, gymnast and four-time Olympic gold medalist
• "Find out who you are and do it on purpose." — Dolly Parton, singer, songwriter and philanthropist
• "Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself." — Susan B. Anthony, American women's rights activist known for her role in the women's suffrage movement
• “The longer I live, the more I observe that carrying around anger is the most debilitating to the person who bears it.” — Katharine Graham, first female publisher of a major U.S. newspaper
• "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 us us are held back." — Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient

• "Women need to see other women do well. It empowers them. We in athletics can help be a face of change and be a force. That's the responsibility of all of us." — Billie Jean King, former professional tennis player.
• "When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less important whether or not I am unafraid." — Audre Lorde, writer and activist
• “Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society because that talent wears a skirt.” — Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress
• "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." — Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S. delegate to the United Nations General Assembly and former U.S. first lady
• "Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women." — Maya Angelou, poet and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

• "But if I must say what drove me as a woman to become a rabbi, two elements come to mind: My belief in the godly calling and my love of people. God has placed abilities and callings in our hearts, without regard to gender. Thus each of us has the duty, whether man or woman, to realize those gifts God has given." — Regina Jones, the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi
• "I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them." — Madam C.J. Walker, the first female self-made millionaire
• "Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn't be that women are the exception." —Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court justice
• “Poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for.” — Amanda Gorman, poet
• "Technique and ability alone do not get you to the top; it is the willpower that is most important." — Junko Tabei, Japanese mountaineer and the first woman to reach the summit of Mt. Everest

• "I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them." — Michelle Obama, attorney, author and former U.S. first lady
• “As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it.” — Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve as a Supreme Court justice
• "The only important thing was getting my hands on that car on the race track, and I figured whatever came with the territory, I could deal with." — Janet Guthrie, female race car driver and the first woman to qualify and compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500
• "Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated." — Coretta Scott King, civil rights leader and wife of Martin Luther King Jr.
• "Imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer to be our true individual selves, if we didn't have the weight of gender expectations." —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning Nigerian-American author

• "I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life." — Madeleine Albright, the first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State
• "When somebody tells me I cannot do something, that's when I do it." — Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel
• "I don't have to prove anything to anyone. I only have to follow my heart and concentrate on what I want to say to the world. I run my world." — Beyoncé Knowles, singer and businesswoman
• “As an artist, I feel more strongly than ever that my job on earth is to tell the stories of the invisibles, and women have been invisible on film for a long time.” — Reese Witherspoon, actor and producer
• "We are never assured of justice without a fight." — Angela Davis, activist, author, and scholar

• "Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong." — Ella Fitzgerald, jazz singer
• “It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. The real question is not why she should reject them: the problem is rather to understand why she accepts them.” — Simone de Beauvoir, writer and philosopher
• "I had reasoned this out in my mind. There were two things I had a right to, liberty and death. If I could not have one, I would have the other, for no man should take me alive." — Harriet Tubman, American abolitionist and freedom fighter
• "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood." — Marie Curie, physicist and chemist who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize
• "We need to live in a culture that values and respects and looks up to and idolizes women as much as men." — Emma Watson, actor and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador

• "Never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance in the world to pursue your dreams." — Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State, senator, presidential candidate and first lady
• “We’re all water from different rivers, that’s why it’s so easy to meet; we’re all water in this vast, vast ocean, someday we’ll evaporate together.” — Yoko Ono, musician and peace activist
• "Dream with ambition, lead with conviction ... And we will applaud you every step of the way."— Kamala Harris, first female vice president of the United States
• “Only when our clever brain and our human heart work together in harmony can we achieve our true potential.” — Dr. Jane Goodall, world's foremost expert on chimpanzees
• "Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness." — Oprah Winfrey, talk show host and philanthropist

• “The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.” — Amelia Earhart, the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
• "I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I always knew the woman I wanted to be." — Diane Von Furstenberg, fashion designer
• "Knowing what must be done does away with fear." — Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott
• "I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger." — Serena Williams, professional tennis player
• "A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman." — Melinda Gates, philanthropist and a former general manager at Microsoft

• “You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” — Indira Gandhi, the first female Prime Minister of India
• "My mother did not raise me to ask for permission to lead." — Ayanna Pressley, U.S. Congresswoman and the first Black woman elected to the Boston City Council
• "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." — Ida B. Wells, investigative journalist
• "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." — Virginia Woolf, writer
• “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life — and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” — Georgia O'Keeffe, artist