Girl Boss: 19 Empowering Quotes From Strong Women of 2016

With Donald Trump running for president, abortion clinics closing, rape cases getting dismissed, women making unequal pay...well, it can seem at times like the world is against women. But if you're out there doing your thing and being a boss despite owning a vagina, fear not, these women are also strong and will empower you along the way.

1. Beyoncé - Who Talks About Raising A Generation Who Understands Equality

We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.

2. Hillary Clinton - Who Believes Our Country Has Some Unfinished Business

Whether I am meant to or not, I challenge assumptions about women. I do make some people uncomfortable, which I’m well aware of, but that’s just part of coming to grips with what I believe is still one of the most important pieces of unfinished business in human history — empowering women to be able to stand up for themselves.

3. Amy Poehler - Who Thinks Women Should Stop Having To Apologise For Their Ambition

It takes years as a woman to unlearn what you have been taught to be sorry for. It takes years to find your voice and your real estate.

4. Tina Fey - Who's Over Men Trying To Control Women's Bodies

If I have to listen to one more grey-faced man with a $2 haircut explain to me what rape is, I'm going to lose my mind.

5. J.K. Rowling - Who Believes Women Have The Choice To Stay At Home Or Not

Very early on in writing the series, I remember a female journalist saying to me that Mrs. Weasley, Well, you know, she’s just a mother. And I was absolutely incensed by that comment. Now, I consider myself to be a feminist, and I’d always wanted to show that just because a woman has made a choice, a free choice to say, Well, I’m going to raise my family and that’s going to be my choice. I may go back to a career, I may have a career part time, but that’s my choice, doesn’t mean that that’s all she can do. And as we proved there in that little battle, Molly Weasley comes out and proves herself the equal of any warrior on that battlefield.

6. Emma Watson - Who Empowered A Little Girl With A Dream And A Doubter

Become an engineer. – Watson tweeted this in response to a woman who asked her, My dad says I can’t be an engineer because it’s a ‘man’s profession’, what do I do to change that?

7. Michelle Obama - Who Believes A Girl Should Never Dumb Herself Down For A Guy

You don't want to be with a boy who's too stupid to appreciate a smart young woman.

8. Lena Dunham - Who Believes Women Don't Have To Be Docile And Submissive

There’s a sense that we need to be amenable and pleasing and give people what they want, and also when you’re a woman and you’re successful you feel like you want to apologise for it, and you want to give everyone a piece of what you have lest they think that you don’t deserve it. So for me this year’s been about saying ‘no.’

9. Ellen Page - Who Is So Over Living In A Patriarchal Society

I don't know why people are so reluctant to say they're feminists. But how could it be any more obvious that we still live in a patriarchal world when feminism is a bad word?

10. Miley Cyrus - Who Recognizes Feminism Does Not Mean Man-Hating, Just Equality

I’m just about equality, period. It’s not like, I’m a woman, women should be in charge! I just want there to be equality for everybody. I still don’t think we’re there 100 percent. I mean, guy rappers grab their crotch all fucking day and have hos around them, but no one talks about it. But if I grab my crotch and I have hot model bitches around me, I’m degrading women? I’m a woman—I should be able to have girls around me! But I’m part of the evolution of that. I hope.

11. Malala Yousafzai - Who Fights To Allow Girls' Progress So That The World May Progress

We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.

12. Meryl Streep - Who's Over Seeing Women In Weaker Or Supporting Roles

People will say to me, You’ve played so many strong women, and I’ll say, Have you ever said to a man, ‘You’ve played so many strong men?’ No! Because the expectation is [men] are varied. Why can’t we have that expectation about women?

13. Jennifer Lawrence - Who Thinks Women Need The Freedom To Speak Their Minds

A few weeks ago at work, I spoke my mind and gave my opinion in a clear and no-BS way; no aggression, just blunt. The man I was working with - actually, he was working for me - said, Whoa! We’re all on the same team here! As if I was yelling at him. I was so shocked because nothing that I said was personal, offensive, or, to be honest, wrong. All I hear and see all day are men speaking their opinions, and I give mine in the same exact manner, and you would have thought I had said something offensive.

14. Cecile Richards - Who Fights For Women To Have Rights When It Comes To Their Own Bodies

It's better to be a corporation today than to be a woman in front of the Supreme Court.

15. Mindy Kaling - Who Knows Women Can Be And Are Independent

I don't need marriage. I don't need anyone to take care of all my needs and desires. I can take care of them myself now.

16. Viola Davis - Who Stands Up For All Too Often Marginalized Women Of Colour

The one thing I feel is lacking in Hollywood today is an understanding of the beauty, the power, the sexuality, the uniqueness, the humor of being a regular Black woman.