U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave the commencement address at Barnard College yesterday. Here’s an excerpt:
And women’s progress is more than a matter of morality. It is a political, economic, social and security imperative for the United States and for every nation represented in this graduating class. If you want to know how stable, healthy, and democratic a country is, look at its women, look at its girls.
When I went to the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing back in 1995, I made the point, which seemed to me to be pretty obvious, that women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights. Well, I was gratified but somewhat shocked at the reaction it produced. And as I have traveled in the years since, I have met so many women who took such heart from that simple statement. They understood deep in their gut that they had to be supported, that their struggles had to be acknowledged for them to gain a foothold, to gain that space, whether it be on the subway or back in a marketplace.
There are signs of hope and progress. Just this weekend, the people of Kuwait elected women to their parliament for the first time in history. (Applause.) This did not come easily or quickly. Starting in the 1990s, I supported the women who were brave enough to stand up and say women should be able to serve. It took a long struggle. But the election of four women this Saturday is a major step forward for Kuwait, the region, and I would argue, the world.
And yet the marginalization of women and girls goes on. It is one of humankind’s oldest problems. But what is different today is that we have 21st century tools to combat it. Think of the women in Eastern Congo, a place of such violence, despair and chaos, who are using radio airwaves to warn other women and to send out the message to the world how this war, these militias are destroying their communities. Think of the women in Afghanistan who, against such great odds, started a single school that has grown into a network of schools, or the domestic violence center they began, which now serves thousands of women and girls. Or the women in Cambodia who were sold into sex slavery as girls, but who escaped and are now organizing raids of brothels throughout Southeast Asia to rescue girls and give them a chance at an education and a new life. [emphasis mine]
You can find links to more excerpts, the full text and photos at the cross-post at Writes Like She Talks.
Nancy Scola noted Clinton’s mention of social media as well at techPresident.