Wild Words from Wild Women. Autumn Stephens

Bird Johnson, wife of the thirty-sixth president of the United States of America.

      Behind every successful man is a surprised woman.

      —Maryon Pearson, former Canadian prime minister's wife.

      The position of First Lady has no rules, just precedent, so its evolution has been at a virtual standstill for years. If Martha Washington didn't do it, then no one is sure it should be done.

      —Paula Poundstone, social satirist with no political or marital ambitions whatsoever.

      I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.

      —Hillary Clinton, wife of the forty-second president of the United States of America.

      One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; besides, the extreme thing is generally the true thing.

      There's never been a good government.

      —Emma Goldman. Often arrested for anarchy, “Red Emma” had plenty of solitary time to contemplate the numerous sins of the state.

      If American politics are too dirty for women to take part in, there's something wrong with American politics.

      —Writer Edna Ferber, an ornery “old maid” who called them like she saw them.

      There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.

      —Shirley Chisholm, professor and practitioner of political science, and the first black woman to battle her way into Congress.

      I'm no lady; I'm a member of Congress, and I'll proceed on that basis.

      —Mary Norton, the first Democrat with breasts ever elected to Congress entirely on her own merits, rather than creeping in on the coattails of a deceased spouse.

      I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.

      When people ask me why I am running as a woman, I always answer, “What choice do I have?”

      —Patricia Schroeder, veteran Colorado congresswoman who coined the term “Teflon-coated presidency,” also known as Mom.

      The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.

      Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel.

      I'm no Joanna come lately, believe me, I've been here all along—outside. (Upon being elected to US House of Representatives in 1971.)

      All the men on my staff can type.

      —Bella Abzug, three-term US Congresswoman from New York known both for the unconventional contents of her cranium and her penchant for placing ladylike chapeaux on it.

      Dr. Kissinger was surprised that I knew where Ghana was.

      —Shirley Temple Black, former ambassador to Ghana. (“The Good Ship Lollipop,” all-grown-up Shirley once noted diplomatically, “is now in drydock.”)

      Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it.

      —Senator Dianne Feinstein, the only powerhouse politico to dress for success in blouses with built-in bows.

      You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.

      As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.

      —Jeanette Rankin, first woman to serve in Congress, and the sole member of either house to vote against US entry into World War II.

      Man has been given his freedom to a greater extent than ever and that's quite wrong.

      Everybody should rise up and say, “Thank you, Mr. President, for bombing Haiphong.”

      —Infamous Watergate wife Martha Mitchell, who demonstrated the inherent nonviolent nature of womankind.

      I wouldn't be satisfied with a life lived solely on the barricades. I reserve my right to be frivolous.

      —Frolicsome Betty Friedan, the mother of modern American feminism.

      I don't notice that I'm a woman. I regard myself as the Prime Minister.

      In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.

      One of the things that politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.

      —Margaret Thatcher. The “Iron Lady” who served as the United Kingdom's first female prime minister was capable of almost anything—including, on occasion, irony.

      War is menstrual envy!

      —Feminist anti-war slogan. (So what's the cure—radical hysterectomy?)

      A woman is like a teabag—you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

      —The astrologically aware Nancy Reagan, an old hand at the heated H₂O experience.

      I would not have gotten [to Congress] if I had not been more persistent than a hound dog worrying a bone.

      —Idaho Congresswoman Gracie Pfost. Note: In most sexist states, an ambitious woman must not only worry the bone, but actually cause it to have a nervous breakdown.

      Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think.

      It is well known that the most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.