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Who really said it

I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce

Attributed to Margaret Mead 1901–1978 · American cultural anthropologist
Attributed In copyright

Widely credited to Mead, and consistent with a position she demonstrably held — but the polished one-liner is cited only as it appears in a 1977 quotation anthology, not in anything Mead is known to have written. The closest primary text anyone has produced is her own “Remarks about the Military Draft” (June 1968), collected in Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views (1979), which looks back on having said that women in combat “might be too fierce.”

Last verified 17 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce” attributed to Margaret Mead (1901–1978). Widely credited to Mead but not pinned to any of her own writings; documented as quoted in Lloyd Cory, comp., Quote Unquote (1977), p. 364. Mead's own "Remarks about the Military Draft" (June 1968), in Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views, ed. Rhoda Métraux (New York: Walker, 1979), 35–36, does say: "That is what I meant by saying that women in combat might be too fierce." Via Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The Margaret Mead estate; Walker and Company (Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views, 1979)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Margaret Mead — American cultural anthropologist, museum curator and magazine columnist. Theme: "I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The closest thing to a source

Nearest primary text
Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views
Piece & date
“Remarks about the Military Draft,” June 1968 — collected 1979, ed. Rhoda Métraux, pp. 35–36 (Walker, New York)
One-liner’s only citation
As quoted in Quote Unquote (1977), comp. Lloyd Cory, p. 364 — a quotation anthology, not a Mead work
Status of the wording
Not pinned to any Mead original

Women should be permitted to volunteer for non-combat service… the evidence of history and comparative studies of other species suggest that women as a fighting body might be far less amenable to the rules that prevent war from becoming a massacre… That is what I meant by saying that women in combat might be too fierce. Excerpt

This is the longer, primary-sourced statement — not the circulating one-liner. Ellipses mark omitted text; Wikiquote’s own transcription also carries a bracketed cut after “non-combat service.” Note the last sentence: Mead is looking back on a remark she had already made, which is why the compact version feels authentic even though no one has produced its original.

Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views (Walker, 1979) on Open Library

Provenance trail

In copyright

Nothing on this page is public domain. The nearest primary text — Mead’s June 1968 “Remarks about the Military Draft,” collected in Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views (Walker, 1979) — is a twentieth-century work still in copyright, and the compact one-liner is documented only in a 1977 quotation anthology. Since no pre-1931 publication of this wording exists, treat the sentence as in-copyright: quote it briefly, with attribution.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Nobody stole this one — but it still travels wrong

No rival author is claiming this sentence. The problems are subtler: it circulates with no source at all, and it is quoted to mean roughly the opposite of what Mead argued.

“Margaret Mead” — and nothing else Unsourced

The big aggregators print the line bare. Goodreads gives no book, no date and no source ↗, adding its standard note that community-submitted quotes are not verified; LibQuotes lists it — and the longer 1968 statement — with no citation either ↗.

“Women are fierce” motivational lists Inverted

Passed around as a compliment, it reads as praise for female ferocity. Mead’s documented argument runs the other way: women as a fighting body might be “far less amenable to the rules that prevent war from becoming a massacre” ↗ — a reason to keep them out of combat, not a tribute.

Mead really did say something very close to this — her own June 1968 remarks look back on “saying that women in combat might be too fierce” — but the polished one-liner is documented only as quoted in a 1977 quotation anthology ↗, never in a Mead text anyone has produced.

Context

What Mead was actually arguing

Mead was the best-known anthropologist in America — the anthropologist Paul Shankman calls her anthropology’s most significant public voice of the twentieth century ↗ — and by the late 1960s she was also answering readers’ questions every month in Redbook alongside Rhoda Métraux. The military draft was the argument of the moment, and her documented position was that women should be able to volunteer for non-combat service.

The reasoning is the part the meme drops. Mead was not paying women a compliment. Her June 1968 remarks argue that a fighting body of women might be far less bound by the restraints that stop a war from becoming a massacre — a line of thought she had been circling since the introduction to Male and Female (1949), where she observed that female animals defending their young are “notoriously ferocious” and lack the mock-combat playfulness of males (both passages on Wikiquote ↗).

That is what I meant by saying that women in combat might be too fierce.

Why the slogan and the sourced passage are not the same claim

The sourced 1968 passage is conditional and hedged: women as a fighting body might be less amenable to the rules that limit war, and Mead concedes there is no real way of knowing whether training that teaches men courage and restraint would work the same way for women. The circulating one-liner strips out the conditional and the caveat and leaves a flat declaration.

It also strips out the policy Mead was actually defending — that women should be admitted to national service in non-combat roles. Read whole, the passage is an argument for including women in the system; read as a slogan, it reads as an argument for keeping them out of it.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Power Courage

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Margaret Mead — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Carries the one-liner cited only to Quote Unquote (1977), p. 364, plus the primary-sourced June 1968 draft remarks and the 1949 Male and Female passage.
Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views (1979)openlibrary.org

Catalog record for the volume Wikiquote cites: Walker, New York, 286 pp., collecting Q&A first published in Redbook from 1963 to January 1979.
The quote on Goodreadswww.goodreads.com

The bare, sourceless form of the line — tagged combat/war/women, with Goodreads’ own warning that community quotes are unverified.
Mead quotes about womenlibquotes.com

Lists both the one-liner and the longer 1968 statement, neither with any citation attached.
Margaret Mead — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography: born 16 December 1901, died 15 November 1978; American Museum of Natural History curator; the monthly Redbook column with Rhoda Métraux.
Male and Female (book)en.wikipedia.org

The 1949 William Morrow book (subtitled A Study of the Sexes in a Changing World) whose introduction carries Mead’s “notoriously ferocious” passage about female animals — the argument the 1968 remarks return to.

The attributed author

Who was Margaret Mead?

Margaret Mead

1901–1978 · American cultural anthropologist, museum curator and magazine columnist

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist who became, in the anthropologist Paul Shankman’s phrase, anthropology’s most significant public voice of the twentieth century. She spent most of her career at the American Museum of Natural History — assistant curator from 1926, curator of ethnology from 1946 to 1969 — while teaching at Columbia, Fordham and the University of Rhode Island. From the 1960s she also wrote a monthly Redbook column with Rhoda Métraux, which is where most of her short, quotable public pronouncements come from, and which is why so many “Mead quotes” circulate today with no book attached to them.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Cite this page

Margaret Mead, as quoted in Lloyd Cory, comp., Quote Unquote (1977), 364 — the only citation attached to this wording; no Mead original has been produced. Compare Margaret Mead, “Remarks about the Military Draft” (June 1968), in Margaret Mead, Some Personal Views, ed. Rhoda Métraux (New York: Walker, 1979), 35–36.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce’?” Last verified 17 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-do-not-believe-in-using-women-in-combat-because-females/

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