Eleanor Smeal Quotes

#1. It's going to be very important that we as women's rights advocates are involved in redistricting of both the states legislatures and of the House of Representatives and that we not lose seats but we gain seats for talented women and our country, but we're lacking behind.

Eleanor Smeal

#2. Carolyn Maloney is really constantly thinking, "How do we improve things?" You know, sees the glass always half-full, and you have to be an optimist to work in Washington. So that's what I - we admire so much about her.

Eleanor Smeal

#3. We've spent too much on how to destroy and blow up things with the military and too little on our health care, and too little on education, and it goes on.

Eleanor Smeal

#4. Feminist humor raises consciousness. And the reason it's funny is because it stands something on its head. Goodness knows you've got to have a sense of humor if you do feminism full-time, I tell you.

Eleanor Smeal

#5. We have got to have more providers to replace those who are leaving ...

Eleanor Smeal

#6. Nowhere have women been more excluded from decision-making than in the military and foreign affairs. When it comes to the military and questions of nuclear disarmament, the gender gap becomes the gender gulf.

Eleanor Smeal

#7. I mean, how many men would have gone on to the floor of the House as Carolyn Maloney did and wear a burkha to show the fight of Afghan women.

Eleanor Smeal

#8. There's no question in my mind but that rights are never won unless people are willing to fight for them.

Eleanor Smeal

#9. I have been studying women's political behavior since the early 1970s and first identified the gender gap in 1980 with the help of legendary pollster Louis Harris.

Eleanor Smeal

#10. We think it's so important that we get [Carolyne] Maloney in that seat [in Congress]. It's one of the reasons; we also think that she is a unique person that deserves it and would help advance women's rights.

Eleanor Smeal

#11. Since 1996, the Feminist Majority Foundation has been immersed in a campaign to support Afghan women and girls in their fight against the brutal oppression of the Taliban.

Eleanor Smeal

#12. Many family planning clinics and - and programs that service women have refused now to take women's - United State's money because they feel that it would be unethical, and it could injure their clients even more, their patients even more. That has to be changed.

Eleanor Smeal

#13. I mean this is not like a very dry political book. This is - it was a very quick and entertaining and interesting read because there were so many stories, at least for me, of real women and - and sort of the issues that they face, and her commitment to wanting to help them.

Eleanor Smeal

#14. Just think - guns have a constitutional amendment protecting them and women don't.

Eleanor Smeal

#15. [We need to push] for what we want, not just what we can get.

Eleanor Smeal

#16. Carolyn Maloney led the fight to make sure that DNA evidence kits are processed and passed the Debbie Smith Bill. She, when no one almost would listen to us on the whole issue of the Taliban and its treatment of women, she helped pass the Afghan Women's Empowerment Act.

Eleanor Smeal

#17. No one thinks she [Carolyn Maloney] can pass the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act; she passed it through the House. I mean, it's just - she's there. She knows the issues and she makes sure they get done.

Eleanor Smeal

#18. The gag rule is, is that if any program receiving United States funding for Family Planning cannot mention, cannot speak the word "abortion" in the Third World.

Eleanor Smeal

#19. As long as we can be just the sidelight, the side issue, issues that deal with human beings, both men and women and children that should be given more prominence are not.

Eleanor Smeal

#20. Carolyn Maloney has been a consistent fighter for Afghan women but also for International Family Planning Bills.

Eleanor Smeal

#21. One of the problems and the reason why Carolyn [Maloney ] wrote the book, the Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated is that some people think we have made it when we have not and there's much to be done.

Eleanor Smeal

#22. She [Carolyn Maloney] has there day in and day out for us and for women of this country and of the world, but she also never forgets the citizens of New York, and she's been, as you know a trailblazer for 9/11, commission for, you know, the financial district, etc.

Eleanor Smeal

#23. She [Carolyn Maloney] knows the financial issues, that's why we thought she was perfect because we're in a - we're in, as you know, a financial crisis, an economic crisis, and I know that she'll see the whole picture.

Eleanor Smeal

#24. I'm not going to say that all the cabinet appointments of the men and women, you know, obviously we might have some reservations on some, but the women's movement has congratulated them for some of the appointments and is urging and encouraging more women in the Executive Branch and high areas.

Eleanor Smeal

#25. I personally think that people should get the book because it is like a blueprint. It shows you the work that needs to be done if we're ever going to get economic equality, health, reproductive health, violence. I mean, it's every category.

Eleanor Smeal

#26. I'm not a prejudice person, and I've worked with many male legislators and some have been excellent for us, so I'm not speaking against a class of people.

Eleanor Smeal

#27. Carolyn Maloney knows how to get something done, and as I said, it doesn't matter if she's in the majority or the minority. It doesn't matter if she's chair of a committee or not, she can figure out how to get a piece of legislation passed, and that's what is - is a unique quality.

Eleanor Smeal

#28. I've been here a long time working for women. These are long years and this is an unusual legislator.

Eleanor Smeal