Happy International Women’s Day! A day to celebrate all of the strong women in your life … and to love on yourself, too.
By Nicole Fuge, Mama Disrupt® Managing Editor
I am proud to be a woman. A mother. A daughter. And it is on days like this, International Women’s Day, that really bring all of those feel good feelings out.
I never truly understood my strength until I became a mum. Perhaps it’s because I’d never really been tested until now.
Nothing before has ever pushed me physically, mentally and emotionally, quite like motherhood.
And it’s often the testing moments [or seasons] – when you don’t know whether you’re going to have a breakdown or a breakthrough – that become the making of you as a woman.
Because that’s what we are.
Yes, we are mothers. But first and foremost, we are women.
“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.”
We are stronger together. Sharing our experiences so we don’t feel so alone. Supporting each other when we need it most. And helping each other rise above societal expectations to take womanhood and motherhood back.
We need to own it.
15 quotes from strong women to inspire you this International Women’s Day
1. ANGELINA JOLIE
“Figure out who are you separate from your family. Find who you are in this world and what you need to feel good alone. I think that’s the most important thing in life. Find a sense of self. With that, you can do anything else.”
2. KAVITA RAMDAS
“We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational and so disciplined they can be free.”
3. RIHANNA
“There’s something special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness and the nerve to never take no for an answer.”
4. MARILYN MONROE
“One of the best things that ever happened to me is that I’m a woman. That is the way all females should feel.”
5. AMY SCHUMER
“I say if I’m beautiful. I say if I’m strong. You will not determine my story—I will.”
6. MARGE PIERCY
“A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done.”
7. OPRAH
“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
8. DIANE MARIECHILD
“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.”
9. BEYONCÉ
“Power’s not given to you. You have to take it.”
10. MICHELLE OBAMA
“Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts … good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful. That’s not just with somebody you want to marry, but it’s with the friends that you choose. It’s with the people you surround yourselves with.”
11. BRENE BROWN
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it.”
12. EMMA WATSON
“It’s not the absence of fear, it’s overcoming it. Sometimes you’ve got to blast through and have faith.”
13. MAYA ANGELOU
“I am woman phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.”
14. AMY POEHLER
“I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind learning.”
15. MALALA YOUSAFZAI
“I had two options. One was to remain silent and never to speak and then to be killed by the terrorists. The second option was to speak up for my rights and then die. And I chose the second one.”
Happy International Women’s Day! x
