I use SQL not frequently enough, so I'm not really sure about this.

From what I remember, in SQL string delimiter is the single quote, not the double quote, so I think it should be something like this:

SELECT * FROM dbms WHERE 'System Status' = 'active';

If you use placeholders in the statement, you could write it like this:

# ...
my $sth = $dbh->prepare( "SELECT * FROM dbms WHERE '?' = '?';" );
$sth->execute('System Status', 'active');
# now get the results...
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Also see What are placeholders in DBI, and why would I want to use them? for this.

It would also be helpful to see your piece of code which is currently in use.