Updated: Hillary Clinton addresses women leaders at Bryn Mawr College

Former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed a cheering capacity crowd Tuesday afternoon in Thomas Great Hall at Bryn Mawr College, including women leaders from three dozen countries around the world emerging from conflict.

As the keynote speaker in a two-week session of the Women in Public Service Project Institute meeting at the college, Clinton said inspiring and encouraging more women to ?step up and put themselves on the line? to be leaders in their communities and nations is not only the goal of the project she launched two years ago. It may be the path to peace-building and positive development in ?this complicated, difficult, dangerous and threatening world.?

Toward that end, the Women in Public Service Project, a collaboration between the Department of State and the academic community, with women?s colleges like Bryn Mawr taking the lead, has set a goal: to see 50 percent of public service positions worldwide held by women by the year 2050.

That is an ambitious goal, given some well-known statistics: Tens of millions of girls denied attendance in school; only about 20 percent of seats in legislatures and parliaments worldwide held by women. In many parts of the world, ?deeply-ingrained prejudices and cultural taboos? stand in the way.

Continued

But it is a goal Clinton is convinced is achievable, given the example of the 44 delegates to this second annual institute. ?In 2050, I will be 103 years old,? she told the predominantly female crowd of faculty, staff and students. Not only does she intend to still be around. ?I intend to see that we have succeeded,? she said.

In that respect, Bryn Mawr College, whose Welsh name, loosely translated, means ?big hill,? was the perfect place for this year?s delegates to meet, Clinton noted.

?We know we have a big hill to climb. If this were easy, it would already have been done. . . . Let?s keep our eye on the goal. Let?s continue to collect the evidence, and encourage more women and girls to put themselves on the line? to be leaders.

The ?evidence? she referred to is out there to indicate that women in leadership make a difference in events, and gathering it should be one goal of the project. ?I?m a big believer in evidence,? Clinton said. ?It?s not enough in today?s world to say we should do something because it is the right thing to do.? Continued...

When she took her most recent office, Clinton said she stood by her famous words at a women?s conference in Beijing in 1995: that ?human rights are women?s rights, and women?s rights are human rights.? ?But I knew that a speech is not policy, and a speech by itself does not create change. I was determined that women and girls be integrated into our policy because the evidence was compelling: that if women participate in their economies, their economies grow, more people are employed, more children have better futures.?

On the other hand, ?If women are kept out of politics by legal restraints or cultural taboos, their countries lose the benefits of their participation. If women are not at the table, the discussion can?t be fully representative of the needs of all the people.?

?In peace-building and development, we have seen over and over again the difference women can make,? she went on to say, recounting with compelling emotion the example of the long and devastating civil war in Liberia, a country from which some of this year?s delegates come. It was women of all stations of life coming together to say, ?Finally, enough,? that changed that country?s course to end the violence.

But another goal of the Women in Public Service Project, Clinton said, should be ?to expand what we mean by women?s leadership.? ?Of course, I and all of you want to see more women as heads of state and government,? she said, adding, in her only bow to speculation that she will again be a presidential candidate, ?I get in trouble when I say that.? But she finished by saying that ?just having a woman as head of government may or may not change what happens below that woman.?

Directing her comments to the delegates specifically, she said, ?We need more people supporting leaders who themselves are leaders. We need more leaders who will stand against corruption. We need more leaders who will say no to business as usual, who will wake up each day and say, ?What can I do this day to help more people live up to their God-given potential.? We need leaders in every aspect of society.?

That will require ?a lot of courage and persistence. It will take building coalitions with people you think you have nothing in common with, . . . to break down the lines that divide us.?

So, yes, the Women in Public Service Project is about the delegates as members of a new generation of women leaders.

?But it is so much more,? Clinton said. ?It is about laying down a marker that in this complicated, difficult, dangerous and threatening world, we can do better in so many places.?

Former Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed a cheering capacity crowd Tuesday afternoon in Thomas Great Hall at Bryn Mawr College, including women leaders from three dozen countries around the world emerging from conflict.

As the keynote speaker in a two-week session of the Women in Public Service Project Institute meeting at the college, Clinton said inspiring and encouraging more women to ?step up and put themselves on the line? to be leaders in their communities and nations is not only the goal of the project she launched two years ago. It may be the path to peace-building and positive development in ?this complicated, difficult, dangerous and threatening world.?

Toward that end, the Women in Public Service Project, a collaboration between the Department of State and the academic community, with women?s colleges like Bryn Mawr taking the lead, has set a goal: to see 50 percent of public service positions worldwide held by women by the year 2050.

That is an ambitious goal, given some well-known statistics: Tens of millions of girls denied attendance in school; only about 20 percent of seats in legislatures and parliaments worldwide held by women. In many parts of the world, ?deeply-ingrained prejudices and cultural taboos? stand in the way.

Continued

But it is a goal Clinton is convinced is achievable, given the example of the 44 delegates to this second annual institute. ?In 2050, I will be 103 years old,? she told the predominantly female crowd of faculty, staff and students. Not only does she intend to still be around. ?I intend to see that we have succeeded,? she said.

In that respect, Bryn Mawr College, whose Welsh name, loosely translated, means ?big hill,? was the perfect place for this year?s delegates to meet, Clinton noted.

?We know we have a big hill to climb. If this were easy, it would already have been done. . . . Let?s keep our eye on the goal. Let?s continue to collect the evidence, and encourage more women and girls to put themselves on the line? to be leaders.

The ?evidence? she referred to is out there to indicate that women in leadership make a difference in events, and gathering it should be one goal of the project. ?I?m a big believer in evidence,? Clinton said. ?It?s not enough in today?s world to say we should do something because it is the right thing to do.?

When she took her most recent office, Clinton said she stood by her famous words at a women?s conference in Beijing in 1995: that ?human rights are women?s rights, and women?s rights are human rights.? ?But I knew that a speech is not policy, and a speech by itself does not create change. I was determined that women and girls be integrated into our policy because the evidence was compelling: that if women participate in their economies, their economies grow, more people are employed, more children have better futures.?

On the other hand, ?If women are kept out of politics by legal restraints or cultural taboos, their countries lose the benefits of their participation. If women are not at the table, the discussion can?t be fully representative of the needs of all the people.?

?In peace-building and development, we have seen over and over again the difference women can make,? she went on to say, recounting with compelling emotion the example of the long and devastating civil war in Liberia, a country from which some of this year?s delegates come. It was women of all stations of life coming together to say, ?Finally, enough,? that changed that country?s course to end the violence.

But another goal of the Women in Public Service Project, Clinton said, should be ?to expand what we mean by women?s leadership.? ?Of course, I and all of you want to see more women as heads of state and government,? she said, adding, in her only bow to speculation that she will again be a presidential candidate, ?I get in trouble when I say that.? But she finished by saying that ?just having a woman as head of government may or may not change what happens below that woman.?

Directing her comments to the delegates specifically, she said, ?We need more people supporting leaders who themselves are leaders. We need more leaders who will stand against corruption. We need more leaders who will say no to business as usual, who will wake up each day and say, ?What can I do this day to help more people live up to their God-given potential.? We need leaders in every aspect of society.?

That will require ?a lot of courage and persistence. It will take building coalitions with people you think you have nothing in common with, . . . to break down the lines that divide us.?

So, yes, the Women in Public Service Project is about the delegates as members of a new generation of women leaders.

?But it is so much more,? Clinton said. ?It is about laying down a marker that in this complicated, difficult, dangerous and threatening world, we can do better in so many places.?

Source: http://mainlinemedianews.com/articles/2013/07/10/main_line_times/news/doc51dc606ebea4b852447613.txt

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