Charlotte Bunch Quotations

Sexual, racial, gender violence and other forms of discrimination and violence in a culture cannot be eliminated without changing culture.

America is like an unfaithful love who promises us more than we got.

Feminism is an entire world view or gestalt, not just a laundry list of women's issues.

As a human rights issue, the effort to end violence against women becomes a government's obligation, not just a good idea.

There is no private domain of a person's life that is not political, and there is no political issue that is not ultimately personal.

Women have a lot to say about how to advance women's rights, and governments need to learn from that, listen to the movement and respond.

People learn to lead because they care about something.

Our very strength as lesbians lies in the fact that we are outside of patriarchy; our existence challenges its life.

We need women leaders. But we need them to have a vision for something.

I'd make a comment at a meeting and nobody would even acknowledge me. Then some man would say the same thing and they'd all nod.

What is being called the UN 'gender architecture' is more like a shack. Women need a bigger global house if equality is ever to become a reality.

The beginning point at both conferences must be that everything is a woman's issue. That means racism in a woman's issue, just as is anti-Semitism, Palestinian homelessness, rural development, ecology, the persecution of lesbians, and the exploitative practices of global corporations.

We do not need, and indeed never will have, all the answers before we act ... It is often through taking action that we can discover some of them.

The full implications of feminism will evolve over time, as we organize, experiment, think, analyze, and revise our ideas and strategies in light of our experiences. No theory emerges in full detail overnight; the dominant theories of our day have expanded and changed over many decades. That it will take time should not discourage us. That we might fail to pursue our ideas - given the enormous need for them in society today - is unconscionable.

You Can't Kill the Spirit resonates with the voices and power of women around the globe who have refused to be either passive or violent but instead act firmly and imaginatively to oppose oppression in its many guises. A wonderful tonic for activists and a treasure for those who teach, these stories bring women's history to life.

We have to start looking at the world through women's eyes' how are human rights, peace and development defined from the perspective of the lives of women? It's also important to look at the world from the perspective of the lives of diverse women, because there is not single women's view, any more than there is a single men's view.

There is no issue that is not a women's issue.

Whether there are innately female leadership styles... is not really the right question. It is more important to ask why there has been so little attention paid to women leaders over the years as well as why the styles of leading more often exhibited by women are particularly useful at this critical moment in history.

If you think that you are where you are just because you worked hard, it is easy to become self-righteous and make classist moral judgments about others.

We know that priorities are amiss in the world when a man gets a military medal of honor for killing another man and a dishonorable discharge for loving one.

The state of the world today demands that women become less modest and dream/plan/act/risk on a larger scale.

Leadership is people taking the initiative, carrying things through, having ideas and the imagination to get something started, and exhibiting particular skills in different areas.

Feminism is a transformational force, an individual and social force. It is a way of looking at the world-a questioning of power/domination issues, an affirmation of women's energy.

We need to see a lot more than these 'concessions' from the US if they are serious about wanting to ensure the success of the Summit. Contrary to their claims, they are not negotiating with urgency and in a spirit of compromise. Women's organizations call on the US to stop wasting time of governments and the UN.

The state of the world today demands that women become less modest and dream/plan/act/risk on a larger scale.

They turned me into a feminist because I was so frustrated. I'm grateful to them.