Michelle Obama Quotes

A lot of people like to ask me, 'Ali, how on earth do you balance family and career?' Men never get asked that question. Because they don't.

One of the things I noticed is that if you look up the word ambition you will see that when it's applied to women, it's almost always negative. If a woman is ambitious she's cutthroat, she's seen as more unpleasant. Whereas when its attached to a man it's far less negative.

My biggest struggle being a woman in the workforce has not only been with my mother, my grandmother, and a lot of my girlfriends. When I'm working late hours, I'm almost punished for it by them. It's almost absurd that I would prioritize work over catching up with my girlfriends. If I were a man, that would just come second nature.

Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?

Basically, women have to prove they are strong at all times. And then when they go on the attack, they have to not appear mean because those women often get the label of being catty.

A high-powered, successful woman doesn't necessarily have the same support behind her that a man in that position would. Plus, she's expected to be a domestic goddess, as well as the best wife, mother, friend, and lover. But it's not just in politics: you see it in acting, too, and in journalism.

Men are allowed to have passion and commitment for their work... a woman is allowed that feeling for a man, but not her work.

Confidence in a bloke would be arrogance in a woman. For years, I didn't give interviews because I was scared of people judging me or thinking I was arrogant.

It's much more acceptable for men to work and father kids. There's an inherent inequality, because we want to do it all, and I don't know how we can do this all.

The transparency men have enjoyed for generations, about their ability to frankly work while also reveling in fatherhood, is still complicated for women. Which is not to say that anyone can have everything.

If you're a man and you ask questions, you're a genius; if you're a woman, you're difficult.

I remember once when I was working on a magazine, and one of the male editors was going on a field trip with one of his sons. The office was full of, 'He's such a good dad,' whereas I came in late from a doctor's appointment for one of my children and was asked, 'Where were you? You'll need to make up the time.'

I really feel like females have to go 50 extra miles. Not just one - 50 extra miles to be accepted or taken seriously.

Even now, when I go out people are like, 'What are you doing here? Didn't you just have a baby?' But people never ask a male comic when he's out a week later, like, 'Oh my God, you're so irresponsible! What are you doing out? Who is taking care of the baby?'

Woman is a vulgar animal from whom man has created an excessively beautiful ideal.

It is still more likely that a woman's power would be seen as aggression, and a man's power would be seen as assertion.

When a father climbs a dangerous mountain and dies, we mourn. When a mother does, we question her judgment. How could she?

It is far easier for a woman to lead a blameless life than it is for a man; all she has to do is to avoid sexual intercourse like the plague.

People put stock in someone being in a 'girl group,' but we don't say that a band is a 'man group.'

If a man is a writer, everybody tiptoes around past the locked door of the breadwinner. But if you're an ordinary female housewife, people say, 'This is just something Barbara wanted to do; it's not professional.'

And then also I think it's harder for women because comedy is so opposite of being ladylike.

As usual, there is a great woman behind every idiot.

A man can sleep around, no questions asked, but if a woman makes nineteen or twenty mistakes she's a tramp.

Women are treated as unjustly in poetry as in life. The feminine ones are not idealistic, and the idealistic not feminine.

For centuries the leaders of Christian thought spoke of women as a necessary evil, and the greatest saints of the Church are those who despise women the most.