“I have two children. Dickens had ten -- I think Tolstoy did, too. Did anyone for one moment worry that those men were becoming too father-ish to be writer-esque? ... The idea that motherhood is inherently somehow a threat to creativity is just absurd." (Zadie Smith) "The key is not having one child, it is living in a place where there is excellent daycare and a social world that allows fathers to have the time and the motivation to fully share in raising kids." (Jane Smiley) "I think I have become a better writer since having children. It improves creativity, particularly because once you have children it makes you realise the story isn’t about you." (Louise Doughty) ”
—Acclaimed women writers respond to a recent opinion piece arguing that in order to be successful, female writers should have no more than one child.
Meanwhile, some female writers proudly choose to have none, while an infographic look at the data suggests a grim gender disparity.
“Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me. But they all seem to. It doesn't matter what country they're in or what religion they claim. They want to control women. They want to control how we dress, they want to control how we act, they even want to control the decisions we make about our own health and bodies. Yes, it is hard to believe but even here at home we have to stand up for women's rights and reject efforts to marginalize any one of us because America needs to set an example for the entire world." ”
—Hillary Clinton
“And since we all came from a woman Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman I wonder why we take from our women Why we rape our women, do we hate our women? I think it's time to kill for our women Time to heal our women, be real to our women And if we don't we'll have a race of babies That will hate the ladies, that make the babies And since a man can't make one He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one So will the real men get up I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up.”
—Keep Ya Head UpTupac
