In any grass-roots campaign, building an ongoing base of support is as important as winning the ultimate goal. – Patricia Ireland
I want to reach young women and to get them involved in the mission of the YWCA, economic empowerment of women and girls, and ending racism. – Patricia Ireland
Women are called upon to defend every bit of progress we have made against particularly virulent attack. But we must also hold out a vision, put forth a positive agenda of what women need and want and then move forward toward that dream. – 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. – Patricia Ireland
I don’t think you lead by pessimism and cynicism. I think you lead by optimism and enthusiasm and energy. – Patricia Ireland
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. – Patricia Ireland
Some of us may just, in one-on-one conversations with our family, with our friends, over the back fence with our neighbors, talk about the reality of our lives and realize that we’re not alone, that we have a right to be physically safe and emotionally safe in our own homes. – Patricia Ireland
And of course we are familiar with the English common law rule of thumb that said a man could in fact use a stick no bigger than his thumb to discipline his wife and family. – Patricia Ireland
The way to be a man if you’re a little boy is to be willing to throw your weight around. – Patricia Ireland
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. – Patricia Ireland
When I hear traditional family values raised, I hear that effort once again to re-establish the man as head and master of his family. Who had the, not only the right, but the obligation to discipline his wife and children to keep them in line? – Patricia Ireland
Stewardesses are still paid so little that in many cases, new hires qualify for food stamps. – Patricia Ireland
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. – Patricia Ireland
Violence may be a good focus to organize around, but we have to look at women’s lives in our entirety. – Patricia Ireland
Extremely strong, effective, tenacious, and powerful political networks can be built when you fight losing battles as well as when you win. – Patricia Ireland
Some of those men in power, we just have to change their faces because we’re not going to change their minds. – Patricia Ireland
I have a very personal interest. I am a Miami-Dade voter. One of the issues is that my vote and so many other votes of women and African Americans in Florida are being discounted or discarded. I want my vote to count. – Patricia Ireland
We always knew when we took on the issue of violence against women that somehow our opposition would come after us. – Patricia Ireland
I want to organize so that women see ourselves as people who are entitled to power, entitled to leadership. – Patricia Ireland
My answer to those who oppose my appointment as CEO is that this is really a decision of the YWCA. They want to strengthen their grassroots to advocate on behalf of women’s and children’s empowerment and ending racism. – Patricia Ireland
I know that it isn’t just violence against women, it’s how do we support ourselves and our families, how do we deal with health care for ourselves and our families? It’s a bigger picture. – Patricia Ireland
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. – Patricia Ireland
I’ve talked to law enforcement officials at the state and local level who say that violence against women is going up. In any case, we think that it’s an important issue whether it’s going up or not. And we are determined to stop it. – Patricia Ireland
They plan to ride into the White House on the Sweet Talk Express. Well, think again. Bush and Cheney are not compassionate conservatives. They are ruthless reactionaries. – Patricia Ireland
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. – Patricia Ireland
