In 63 BCE the city of Rome was a vast metropolis of more…

I receive something we might euphemistically call an 'inappropriately hostile' response - that is to say, more than fair criticism or even fair anger…

— Mary Beard

We have never escaped a certain male cultural desire for women's silence.

— Mary Beard

“defend women’s right to be wrong, at least occasionally.”

— Mary Beard

You don't overturn x-thousand years of patriarchy in a generation.

— Mary Beard

“we have no template for what a powerful woman looks like, except that she looks rather like a man.”

— Mary Beard

“(In the Afghan parliament, apparently, they disconnect the mics when they don’t want to hear the women speak).”

— Mary Beard

I've chosen to be this way because that's how I feel comfortable with myself. That's how I am. It's about joining up the dots…

— Mary Beard

People who exploit others come to spend an enormous amount of energy wondering about and justifying that exploitation.

— Mary Beard

Wherever possible, I try to see things from the other side of the dividing line and to read civilisation 'against the grain.'

— Mary Beard

I remember plastering the kitchen with Black Power pictures of Angela Davis.

— Mary Beard

“thinking about power as an attribute or even a verb (‘to power’), not as a possession.”

— Mary Beard

If women are not perceived to be fully within the structures of power, surely it is power that we need to redefine rather than…

— Mary Beard

When it comes to silencing women, Western culture has had thousands of years of practice.

— Mary Beard

I think that what will help women get into positions of power - well, day nurseries, equal pay, family-friendly working hours. And I think…

— Mary Beard

“One of its (civilisations) most powerful weapons has always been 'barbarity': 'we' know that 'we' are civilised by contrasting ourselves with those we deem…

— Mary Beard