60 Quotes by Patricia Ireland

When I started law school I was shocked to learn that our legal system traditionally had the man as the head and master of the family. As late as the ’70s and ’80s when we were fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, states like Louisiana still had a head and master law.

The way to be a man if you’re a little boy is to be willing to throw your weight around.

The Young Women’s Christian Association is nourished by its roots in Christianity and, at the same time, over the years, it’s been enriched by beliefs and values from all kinds of places, even, in fact, strengthened by our diversity.

The opposition has moved from a blaming the victim to blaming the victim’s advocate’s statistics. Irrespective of what the numbers are, it’s far too many.

The Violence Against Women Act is so important. It provides money to train the cop on the beat, to train the judges that this is a new day, that we won’t tolerate this violence and to know how to deal with it.

Some of those men in power, we just have to change their faces because we’re not going to change their minds.

All of us knew he was a snake when we voted for him.

We have to stop this violence. We have to make the political nature of the violence clear, that the violence we experience in our own homes is not a personal family matter, it’s a public and political problem. It’s a way that women are kept in line, kept in our places.

Some campaigns are not worth waging if you can’t win; others have to be fought on grounds of principle regardless of the chances for success.