And I say 'we' because it is my belief that we do this together. Any achievement that any woman makes is an achievement for us all. Any slight that any of us takes is a slight to us all and when we still have to read headlines in prominent magazines that the surge of people of color on TV may be too much of a good thing, we know we got a long way to go.

Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith on womanhood

April 6, 2015

Source: BET’s “Black Girls Rock” via the LA Times, 2015

Women must begin to write more truthfully about the profound mystery of sex. I think that race is also a mystery. Which is to say that neither can be fully comprehended except as deeply mysterious expressions through which we can learn profound lessons about life. It is almost impossible not to learn something about yourself in the sexual act. So it's important for women to be alert to the spiritual growth and self-discovery they can attain by paying close attention to their sexuality.

Alice Walker

I found that women who choose to be stay-at-home moms deal with a set of critics. I have found women who go into the workplace and try to be a mom have a set of critics. I think as women, we just seem to have a set of critics. And so you work your way through.

Admiral Michelle J. Howard

I encourage young women who are caught up in their careers to get a family! At the end of the day, women need a warm hug.

Wendy Williams

As Black women we sacrifice. We stand by our man, through thick and thin, through whatever. But if you feel like, 'Maybe I am getting the short end of the stick,' that's when a change has to take place.

Kim Porter

I need you to understand [that] we are the women that marched from cotton fields into fields of medicine, politics, law, education, entertainment. We even found a way to march our way into the White House as the first lady of the United States of America.

Jada Pinkett Smith

I bring something to the table as a woman; I bring something to the table as a woman of color. So I feel like, if it’s the only thing you focus on, then it’s a danger, and if you never talk about it then it’s a danger.

Kerry Washington

Women in corporate settings are more likely to be vocal.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

With Obama, the glass ceiling has been broken with what men can aspire to, and now we need to do the same for women and what women can aspire to.

Octavia Spencer

I was always taught to celebrate education and achievements. It was engrained in me that no opportunity was hindered by the fact that I was a racial minority, woman or also raising a family.

Teresa Sebastian

If you’re the CEO of a company and want to drive innovation, return shareholder value, improve operational efficiencies and have better customer satisfaction, the best and most efficient way to do that is by hiring more women.

Star Jones

You cannot be part of a couple until you're a whole person first. It is a lifelong journey, but a lot of people don't take that step: I'm spending all this energy taking care of men - what would happen if I spent that time on myself?

Kim Coles

Women never know their full worth. Or sometimes they’re in denial about it. Or sometimes they’re afraid to have the right to it. That’s just a thing about us. But I find that men know their worth and their limits and they stick to that, it’s very simple.

Rihanna

There are a lot of things that I really wanted to be a part of... but I wasn't the specific look of what's 'beautiful' or 'exotic' or 'ethnically ambiguous.' I'm a black woman, undeniably.

Naturi Naughton

Women have made a lot of progress in the workplace but if we are ever going to get to a point where women make equal money and are afforded equal opportunity, women have to help women.

Star Jones

Nonetheless, increasingly, as a black woman in America, I do not feel alive. I feel like I am not yet dead.

Roxane Gay

As a woman, especially a Black woman, you’ve got to keep fighting.

Taraji P. Henson

Something that my mother instilled in me, as a biracial woman herself, and me being biracial, was that the world was going to view me as a black woman, no matter what I decided to do.

Misty Copeland

We all go through hard times, I've even been through some hard times but you just gotta work through it and try to stay positive. Yes, go ahead be sad and cry. Yes, be angry and scream…But move past it!

Tamala Jones

Very often women think that they have to take care of everyone else except themselves.

Iyanla Vanzant

It's an amazing trick that a Black woman can be struggling to make ends meet and still put on some heels and come into a room and turn heads. Don't nobody have that walk. Black women have to raise families by themselves, be the sole breadwinner. Black women have to withstand the shortcomings of us Black men and settle for subpar positions to make ends meet. And then to top it all off, you got the nerve to be sexy. How'd y'all manage that?

Steve Harvey

I started Black Girls Rock! to honor the many amazing women of our past and present whose unique leadership, strength, resolve, wisdom, talent and spirituality has catalyzed the advancement of humanity, yet who are often left uncelebrated or have gone under the radar in mainstream media and history.

Beverly Bond

Women want to be fearless and sometimes all it takes is to see that it’s possible. Once you see it can be done, you think “I could do it, too.”

Rihanna

I want the public to understand what’s going on, and the sacrifices, when you see a female comic, she has made many more sacrifices, I feel, than a lot of men have.

Loni Love

Women are frustrated by the obstacles they encounter in the business environment, but every one of us already possesses the wisdom she needs to turn obstacles into options.

Franne McNeal

So in order for you to be able to execute all of those different qualities as a woman and as a person, you have to take care of yourself.

Tia Mowry-Hardrict

As women of color, we're constantly feeling like we have to make choices for other people. What will make "him" happy? What will make "them" happy?

Kerry Washington

We can validate each other and say you're enough as you are, because we are enough as we are.

Jada Pinkett Smith

The one thing I know about women is women don’t really want to just date. They want to date with the hope that it leads to a relationship.

Steve Harvey

People are always making suggestions to me. Like. ‘We love you, but why don't you do this or do that with your makeup and you'd be a knockout.' If they love me, why do they want me to change?

Whoopi Goldberg

When women do say something, not only is it more likely to be ignored, but the women themselves are accepting of it being ignored. So they're less likely to push back.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie