Bella Abzug

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1920 age 0

   Born

2. 1979 age 59

   CreditManhattan

3. 1998 age 77

   Died

• DKDiane Keaton1 title
• GWGordon Willis1 title
• FCFrances Conroy1 title
• KAKaren Allen1 title
• WSWallace Shawn1 title
• WAWoody Allen1 title
• MBMarshall Brickman1 title
• CJCharles H. Joffe1 title
• MBMel Bourne1 title
• MSMeryl Streep1 title

• When I was a young lawyer, working women wore hats. It was the only way they would take you seriously.

  Bella Abzug, CC BY-SA 4.0

• When I went to represent my law firm anywhere—I was a young kid just out of college—I said, “How do you do? I'm Bella Abzug from the law firm of such and such,” and people would say, “Yes, fine, fine, sit down.” So I'd wait and nothing much would happen, so finally I'd clear my throat and say, “I'm Bella Abzug from the law firm of such and such,” and they'd say, “Yes, we know, but we're waiting.” I'd say, “What are we waiting for?” And they'd say, “We're waiting for the lawyer.” They thought I was the secretary. So I had this identity crisis. I went home and discussed it with my husband, Martin. In those days professional women wore hats—and gloves, so I put on gloves and a hat. And every time I went anywhere for business, with the hat and gloves, they knew I was there for business. And I jokingly often say, as you can see, I've taken off the gloves. But I like wearing hats and I continue to wear it. When I ran for Congress and got to Washington, they made such a fuss about the hat ins

  Bella Abzug, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Just imagine for a moment what life in this country might have been if women had been properly represented in Congress. Would a Congress where women in all their diversity were represented tolerate the countless laws now on the books that discriminate against women in all phases of their lives? Would a Congress with adequate representation of women have allowed this country to reach the 1970s without a national health care system? Would it have permitted this country to rank fourteenth in infant mortality among the developed nations of the world? Would it have allowed the situation we now have in which thousands of kids grow up without decent care because their working mothers have no place to leave them? Would such a Congress condone the continued butchering of young girls and mothers in amateur abortion mills? Would it allow fraudulent packaging and cheating of consumers in supermarkets, department stores and other retail outlets? Would it consent to the perverted sense of priorities

  Bella Abzug, CC BY-SA 4.0

• When it comes to child care, the United States is at a primitive stage compared to countries like Israel, Denmark, Sweden and Russia. (p 39)

  Bella Abzug, CC BY-SA 4.0

• All I say is that anybody who thinks he can take me lightly because I'm fresh and colorful had better watch out. (p 49)

  Bella Abzug, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Ever since my youth I've been a Zionist, and I worked hard for the cause of a Jewish homeland too. I've visited Israel and I raised my kids with a very strong background in Jewish culture. Besides that, I spent a couple of years of my life as a Hebrew teacher! To try to make me out as anti-Israel was nothing but rotten and vicious. (p 70)

  Bella Abzug, CC BY-SA 4.0