WOMEN

“National morality never was and never can be preserved without the utmost purity and chastity in women.”

—JOHN ADAMS

“A lady who has been seen as a sloven or slut in the morning will never efface the impression she then made with all the dress and pageantry she can afterwards involve herself in.”

—THOMAS JEFFERSON

“The capacity of the female mind for studies of the highest order cannot be doubted, having been sufficiently illustrated by its works of genius, of erudition, and of science.”

—JAMES MADISON

“Why does it follow that women are fitted for nothing but the cares of domestic life, for bearing children and cooking the food for the family? I say women exhibit the most exalted virtue when they depart from the domestic circle and enter on the concerns of their country, of humanity, and of their God.”

—JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

“A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.”

—ABRAHAM LINCOLN

“Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours.”

—GROVER CLEVELAND

“Female virtue is like a tender and delicate flower; let but the breath of suspicion rest upon it, and it withers and perhaps perishes forever.”

—ANDREW JACKSON

“[I]t’s hard for a mere man to believe that woman doesn’t have equal rights.”

—DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

“If I don’t have a woman for three days, I get terrible headaches.”

—JOHN F. KENNEDY

“To conclude that women are unfitted to the task of our historic society seems to me the equivalent of closing male eyes to female facts.”

—LYNDON B. JOHNSON

“I want to make a policy statement. I am unabashedly in favor of women.”

—LYNDON B. JOHNSON

“I’m not for women, frankly, in any job. I don’t want any of them around. Thank God we don’t have any in the cabinet.”

—RICHARD NIXON

“I don’t think a woman should be in any government job whatever. I mean, I really don’t. The reason why I do is mainly because they are erratic. And emotional.”

—RICHARD NIXON

“If it wasn’t for women, us men would still be walking around in skin suits carrying clubs.”

—RONALD REAGAN

“I wouldn’t restrict myself to having just half the Cabinet be women. I might want more.”

—BILL CLINTON

“[Yale University] went downhill since they admitted women… something had been lost… great camaraderie for the men.… Women changed the social dynamic for the worse.”

—GEORGE W. BUSH