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

Octavia Spencer on Women in Positions of Power

February 22, 2015

Source: The Daily Beast, 2014

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

Taraji P. Henson

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

I don’t want to be good at it, I don’t want to be pretty good at it, I want to be world class at it.

Chris Gardner

So we mustn't run out of steam. Sometimes young women think ‘Dammnnn, I’ve been doing this nine years and I don’t think anything has budged.' But keep plugging away. Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success and then just get a little more.

Maya Angelou

You cannot stop me from dreaming. I'm gon' dream until Jesus comes.

Creflo Dollar

Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. It's hard work that creates change.

Shonda Rhimes

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

Women in corporate settings are more likely to be vocal.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Dream on baby, don't dream on what you can have, dream about what the devil says you can't have. Dream for the best. Dream for the best healing. Dream for the best deliverance, dream for the best house. Dream for the best car, just 'cause the world don't have it doesn't mean you can't have it.

Creflo Dollar

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

Jada Pinkett Smith

I have found that when preparation meets opportunity, nothing is out of reach.

Star Jones

I think he's done well – but it's like, I don't know who Tina Turner's second husband was, but he was better than Ike. Right? Maybe he had faults, maybe he lost his job or whatever, but he was better than Ike.

Chris Rock

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

I had a mom who told me from the very beginning that you can do or be anything you dream to and I believed it.

Chris Gardner

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

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

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

Some people are never going be happy with a black president. That's the bottom line.

Charles Barkley

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

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

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

Dreams do come true, but not without the help of others, a good education, a strong work ethic, and the courage to lean in.

Ursula Burns

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

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

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

I want people to remember me the way they know Nike, that level of impact.

Kanye West

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

You can dream your life away or actually do what you dream of doing.

Shonda Rhimes

They tell you: Follow your dreams. Listen to your spirit. Change the world. Make your mark. Find your inner voice and make it sing. Embrace failure. Dream. Dream and dream big. As a matter of fact, dream and don't stop dreaming until all of your dreams come true. I think that's crap.

Shonda Rhimes

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

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 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

Well, those who have turned against him, it's because they're ignorant or it doesn't serve their own interest, which probably has to do with money.

Stevie Wonder

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

Iyanla Vanzant

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

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

You need to have tunnel vision when chasing your goal.

Star Jones

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