Thanks to the countless real-life women who have changed the course of feminism, it is easy to look past the fictional characters who have also empowered women.
From classic authors such as Jane Austen and Sylvia Plath to modern writers like Zadie Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, there's a plethora of books out there with strong female protagonists who continue to inspire us with their wisdom.
Click through to see our favourites. Go forth and feel inspired...
Grazia Feminist Quotes From Fiction
1 of 11‘When you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worthwhile.’
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
2 of 11‘If you don't understand, ask questions. If you're uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It's easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more. Sometimes people just want to feel heard. Here's to possibilities of friendship and connection and understanding.’
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
3 of 11‘She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.’
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
4 of 11‘There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.’
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
5 of 11‘I don't ask myself what did I live for, said Carlene strongly. That is a man's question. I ask whom did I live for.’
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
6 of 11‘I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.’
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
7 of 11‘I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.’
Charlotte Brontë by Jane Eyre
8 of 11‘Don't let the bastards grind you down.’
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
9 of 11‘The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.’
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
10 of 11‘Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt you can set upon the freedom of my mind.’
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
11 of 11‘When you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worthwhile.’
Borderlands La Frontera by Gloria E. Anzaldua