Claim your dignity, find your voice and stand up
for what is right, true, just and beautiful!
For our reflection today, we have some short, inspiring quotes from today’s feminine leaders.
Susannah Heschel
“I think that if you’re born a woman with a mind and an independent spirit and a sense of courage, you’re a feminist. I took myself seriously, so I felt that it wasn’t right that I should be excluded from things that are important, both religiously and secularly.” Susannah Heschel is an American scholar, public intellectual, and professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College.
Indra Nooyi
“I grew up in a Hindu household but went to a Roman Catholic school. I grew up with a mother who said, ‘I’ll arrange a marriage for you at 18’, but she also said that we could achieve anything we put our minds to and encouraged us to dream of becoming prime minister or president.” Indra Nooyi is an Indian-born American businesswoman who is Chairman of the Board of PepsiCo.
Ursula Burns
“I realized I was more convincing to myself and to the people who were listening when I actually said what I thought, versus what I thought people wanted to hear me say.” Ursual Burns is the Chairwoman and CEO of Xerox. She is the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company.
Michelle Bachelet
“During my lifetime, I realized that discrimination was not accidental, that there were structural roots and causes to it. So if we wanted to change women’s lives, we need to deal with those root causes.” Michelle Bachelet has been the President of Chile since March 2014 and previously president of Chile from 2006 to 2010. In 2013, she was appointed the director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
Mary McAleese
“It is absolutely no accident that the peace and reconciliation, and indeed the economic progress that eluded us generation after generation for hundreds of years has at last come to pass in an Ireland where the talents of women are now flooding every aspect of life as never before.” Mary McAlese is the President of the Republic of Ireland.
Angela Merkel
“To exclude groups of people because of their faith, this isn’t worthy of the free state in which we live. It isn’t compatible with our essential values. And it’s humanly reprehensible; xenophobia, racism, extremism have no place here. We are fighting to ensure that they don’t have a place elsewhere either.” Angela Merkel is currently the Chancellor of Germany.
Oprah Winfrey
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