In every school, community center, city hall, and state capitol, there are women who are making their voices heard and standing up for the people they serve - women who aren't just demanding change but finding ways to create it. They are making an impact, and along the way, they're inspiring others to do the same.
It seems women are expected to be so much more than men, which means we have to work that much harder. We're the ones under the microscope. We're expected to sound perfect. We're expected to look perfect all the time. We're expected to be style-setters, whereas the boys roll onto the stage in their jeans, T-shirts and baseball caps.
It's great we have a female Thor. It's great we have a black Captain America. But those are just optics; it's optics of change... Unless you have the structural diversity, the structural change behind the scenes - more women, more people of color actually calling the shots and editing these books - those optics won't last.
I will go back to my life when women in captivity go back to their lives, when my community has a place, when I see people accountable for their crimes.
The same men who are placing all these outrageous restrictions on women's freedoms in southern Somalia - that type of mentality - that's what I had to deal with in captivity.
I love the idea of being part of a campaign that captures the spirit of New York and the stories of women here, passionate about their dreams.
In less enlightened times, the best way to impress women was to own a hot car. But women wised up and realized it was better to buy their own hot cars so they wouldn't have to ride around with jerks.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in women.
I'd gone to Wellesley College, an amazing women's college where the students were encouraged to follow our dreams. However, after I graduated and had a historical romance published, more than a few people indicated that, in some way, my career choice was a 'waste' of so much education.
The biggest message I have for young women is, Don't start cutting off branches of your career tree unnecessarily early. Sometimes women say, I know I want to have a family or play in the local symphony, and they start pulling themselves out of their career path. You don't have to take yourself out of the running before you even start.
The women that inspire me are the ones who have careers and children; why would I want to limit myself? I've always wanted to have children, and I would never give up that experience for a career. I want to have it all.
I am drawn to women who are independent and creative, which is problematic because it's a struggle, a competition of careers. There's jealousy.
Women have seldom sufficient employment to silence their feelings; a round of little cares, or vain pursuits frittering away all strength of mind and organs, they become naturally only objects of sense.
I think women are natural caretakers. They take care of everybody. They take care of their husbands and their kids and their dogs, and don't spend a lot of time just getting back and taking time out.
Women shouldn't be expected to only play nurturing, kind caretakers.
There is a part of 'Wonder Woman' inside me and inside every woman, kind of that secret self that women share. We are all caretakers, giving birth, caring for our children and companions and loved ones.
As women, our identity becomes subsumed by the fact that we are wives, daughters and mothers, and that becomes our all-encompassing identity. It happens with women because we are naturally driven towards being caretakers and being sacrificing.
I grew up idolizing Madeline Kahn and Lily Tomlin and Carol Burnett, Ruth Gordon, Rosalind Russell, Amy Irving, women who were stylish and real actresses who did real work and could not be replaced with anyone else. You cannot cast anyone else in Madeline Kahn's roles.
I always wanted to be a young mom, but generations of women have worked so hard so we can have a career and wait to have children. So I say carpe diem - take advantage of that.
I always wanted to have a scenario where the guy didn't have my number, but I had his. What if women make the first move, send the first message? And if they don't, the match disappears after 24 hours, like in Cinderella, the pumpkin and the carriage? It'd be symbolic of a Sadie Hawkins dance - going after it, girls ask first.
