Thank you so much, Christine. And those words of advice, I think, will
be taken to heart by everyone here. I also want to add my words of
welcome and thanks to the presidents of the Seven Sisters colleges.
You’ll be hearing from all of them throughout the day, but certainly
from Barnard and Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley, I thank
you all for your vision and leadership, as well as hard work, in
developing this Women in Public Service Project. And I have to add a
special personal hello to all my Wellesley sisters. (Applause.)
I want a special moment of appreciation for the president of Kosovo,
who will also be participating in the program later. (Applause.)
President Jahjaga has shown incredible courage and leadership in her
time as president of her country, and she recently gave the first-ever
speech to her assembly, and in it, she called for the creation of a
presidential commission to fight corruption. And I applaud her for that.
To all the members of the diplomatic corps, members of Congress,
Cabinet officials past and present, including Secretaries Albright,
Sebelius, and Solis, as well as a number of accomplished women from our
armed forces who we are very proud to have join us here today –
(applause) – there is no greater public service than military service,
and you exemplify that to everyone. And I add my thanks to Farah, who’s
done a terrific job in everything she’s undertaken here – (applause) –
and my longtime friend and indefatigable advocate for women, Melanne
Verveer.
And then let me welcome all those who are watching live through watch
parties via the web, including from our embassies in Brazil, Canada,
and Kosovo, and to all who are here as part of this opening convocation
about what we hope will be a continuing commitment that brings many more
women into public service around the world.
I have been privileged to travel extensively. I’ve seen the many
different ways women contribute. I’ve met activists working to advance
human rights from Belarus to Uzbekistan. I’ve met with young women
standing up for representative government in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt.
I’ve watched entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America working to
improve their lives, the lives of their children, their employees, and
local economies. And today, we are addressing another way that women can
make a great contribution through public service.
I have been fortunate to serve in different capacities in my life,
and have had the support of so many people. But even with all that
support, I remember, listening to Christine, the trepidation that I felt
when I was being pushed to consider running for a Senate seat in New
York. I had never run for elected office. I wasn’t sure it was the right
thing to do. And one day, I would wake up and say absolutely not going
to do it. The next day, I’d wake up and say, well, so-and-so called me,
maybe I should reconsider. And I was on this rollercoaster of emotions
until I got what I chose to take as a sign. I was at an event promoting a
documentary about women in sports, in a gymnasium in a high school in
New York City. And we were gathered under a giant banner that happened
to be the name of the documentary, which was Dare to Compete.
(Laughter.) And – you know where this is going, right? (Laughter.)
So just as I stepped forward, having been introduced by this very
incredibly dynamic young and tall woman, who happened to be the captain
of the high school basketball team, I went up to shake her hand to thank
her, and she leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, “Dare to
compete, Mrs. Clinton. Dare to compete.” (Laughter.)
So, soon after that, I decided to enter the race, and it was one of
the best decisions of my life. And I tell you that because I appreciate –
(applause) – how daunting it is to consider a career in public service
in any country in the world. And Christine’s last comments about
grinning and bearing it reflects the reality. So it’s not as though
there’s been this huge, cosmic change. It still is hard. And that’s more
than reflected in the numbers that we see. Women account for more than
50 percent of the global population, but hold less than 20 percent of
all parliamentary seats across the globe. And of course, I’m embarrassed
to say, in the United States that percentage is even lower. Women make
up only 17 percent of our own Congress and only a quarter of the seats
in all of our state legislatures.
Now, of course, public service is not only about running for elected
office. There are many ways that women can serve. And we recently saw
three courageous women being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the work
that they have done in Liberia and Yemen. (Applause.)
So you don’t have to be a president or a prime minister or a party
leader to serve. We need women at all levels of government from
executive mansions and foreign ministries to municipal halls and
planning commissions; from negotiating international disarmament
treaties to debating town ordinances. And as I will discuss tomorrow at
the International Crisis Group, women must also be fully integrated into
efforts to negotiate and sustain peace after war and conflict.
(Applause.)
That is especially important because in today’s conflicts, women and
children are the primary victims, whether they bear the brunt of the
actual attacks or whether they’re the ancillary victims, often because
of rape being used as a tool of war, or whether they are forced to leave
their homes to find their way to refugee camps. So women have a very
personal stake in resolving conflicts. And a wonderful movie about the
end of the Liberian wars called Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which
talked about how women in Liberia finally were tired of seeing no
progress in ending the relentless, horrific attacks that were being
carried out, basically went to where an all-male peace conference was
being held in Ghana, and sat in and would not leave until agreements
were reached.
Now, there are many benefits of bringing more women into government
service, whether they are elected or appointed, whether they work in the
public eye or more quietly for the public good. The World Bank has
found that women tend to invest more of their earnings in their families
and communities than men do. That in turn makes societies stronger and
economies more likely to grow. At the government level, those are the
kinds of instincts and priorities we would all like to see.
If you’re trying to solve a problem, whether it is fighting
corruption or strengthening the rule of law or sparking economic growth,
you are more likely to succeed if you widen the circle to include a
broader range of expertise, experience, and ideas. So as we work to
solve our problems, we need more women at the table and in the halls of
parliament and government ministries where these debates are occurring.
This is not just about fairness, as important as that is; it is about
expanding the pool of talented people to help tackle our biggest
problems. Now, women are graduating from universities and graduate
programs in ever greater numbers and, in fact, in greater numbers than
men in most places. So we would be foolish to ignore that growing
resource. And we only need to look at India to see what a dramatic
effect it can have.
Now, of course, different countries pursue this goal in different
ways. But what matters is the result, that more women have the
opportunity and the opening to bring their talents to governance and
public service. In 2003, a constitutional amendment mandated that one
third of all seats for council leaders in Indian communities should go
to women. And over a very short period of time, studies showed that
women in these positions started investing more in public services, from
clean water to police responsiveness, than their male counterparts had.
And there were other benefits. With more women installed as council
leaders, more women spoke up in council meetings than ever before. And
in a nation where the under-reporting of crimes against women is
widespread, more women came forward to file complaints about abuse,
because they were more confident that the police would take action.
And in household surveys done in India conducted among both women and
men in these villages, a majority agreed that conditions had improved,
that they had to pay fewer bribes to get heard, and that they believed
women made capable leaders. And over the course of two election cycles,
men cast a growing number of votes for women. Now, that is a huge shift
in the political landscape of the world’s largest democracy.
What happened in India is just one example of what can happen when
more women join the ranks of public servants. So we need to create more
opportunities in more places. But first, we need to take on the barriers
that stand in their way. That means ensuring that governments, schools
and, yes, parents work to help young girls grow up believing in their
odds of success in any profession, including – and perhaps, especially –
the ones traditionally associated with men. By ensuring women have more
opportunities to study business, law, economics, science, engineering,
and information technology, we can give them both the tools and the
confidence to aspire to and serve in government.
Now, we also have to acknowledge that, even at this point in the 21
st
century, there are cultural barriers that continue to hold women back,
including, in too many places, men who think women belong at home and
also women who think that women belong at home. Imagine my reaction
yesterday morning as I was getting ready for my day to hear an interview
on our National Public Radio about a woman running for the Republican
nomination, Michele Bachmann.
Now, whether one agrees or disagrees with the position she has taken,
she should be judged on her merits, I think we would all agree. And
there was an interview with a woman in Iowa who said, “You know, I’m
still just not comfortable supporting a woman for president. I just
don’t think a woman could be president.” So it's not only in other
countries that attitudes need to be addressed. It is even in a country
like my own. (Applause.)
But as the example in India proved, the best way to turn the tables
is to put more women into government and show what a difference it can
make, and therefore, we need to create more opportunities. I hope that
the experiences, the knowledge, the networking that will occur at
today’s colloquium, the panels, and the working groups that will take
place will inform and inspire the initiatives of the Women in Public
Service Project as well as a major educational program that we will be
unveiling next summer. We’re very excited about this.
In June 2012, we will work with the Seven Sisters colleges to launch
an annual summer institute to train emerging women leaders from around
the world. A working group of academics and experts are developing a
curriculum that will tackle the various issues facing women in public
service. And I am pleased that the founding Sisters colleges will join
together to launch a foundation that will continue to support,
coordinate, and sustain these initiatives.
And I’m very proud that my alma mater, Wellesley College, will host
this inaugural institute, which will rotate to each of the founding
Sister colleges in the following years. The State Department will
support the travel for 40 emerging women leaders from the Middle East
and North Africa to go to Wellesley this summer to gain skills in public
speaking, coalition building, networking, and mentorship. We hope they
will learn more about our democratic systems and the rule of law, that
they will have a chance to interact with American students, and gain the
confidence and inspiration they need to advance in their public service
careers at home.
I want to say one special word about some of the skills that might be
needed. Over this last year of tumultuous change around the world, I
have met with women in Egypt, in Libya, in Tunisia, and, of course, many
other places, but let me just focus on those three anchor countries of
the Arab Awakening. In each place, the women were instrumental in making
their voices heard in the effort to move toward a new form of
governance, a democratic transition where people’s votes would be
counted and their voices would matter. But they had no experience in
politics, and for many of them, politics was still a kind of dirty word.
Do you really want to be involved in the electoral process? Do you
really want to work on behalf of party politics? Isn’t it just enough to
get the transition begun?
And my point was if you don’t make your own transition from having
been part of this extraordinary historic revolution to actually doing
the hard, and yes, sometimes boring difficult work of politics, you may
not realize the gains and the hopes that you had demonstrated for. You
could end up having one election, one time, that did not fully empower
women or minorities, or people whose values and views were very
different from what kind of future you sought would be highly organized
and very successful in being elected, and over time, you would not be
able to participate.
So politics is the way in democracy, as maddening as it can be for
all of us, where decisions are made, compromises are accomplished. And
so I hope that as we think about public service we also recognize that
you are in service to the public, but in a democracy, that means
everyone has a stake in who the leaders are and what policies they
adopt.
Now, all the students who attended the breakfast, whom I met earlier –
hosted by State Department and USAID alumni from women’s colleges – saw
how important we believe mentoring and networking are. And we want to
build partnerships globally and forge these networks with institutions
everywhere, including with Bangladesh’s Asian University of Women, which
will host a summer institute for women from South Asia, including
Afghanistan.
Now, empowering and training young women to become public service
leaders will be a focus of the State Department’s exchange programs. In
the audience today are 40 women who have been selected by our embassies
around the world to come to the United States for leadership training.
(Applause.) They have spent the last 10 days visiting with public
servants and civic activists in cities across the United States as part
of our International Visitors Leadership Program. And I’d like to ask
these 40 emerging women leaders to stand so that we can recognize them.
(Applause.)
In the coming months, the State Department will be inviting 20 women
college leaders from Mozambique to Mongolia to spend five weeks learning
about leadership, engaging in community service activities, and
interacting with their American peers on two U.S. university campuses.
Now, I think we can make a strong case about why more women in
politics and government is a good thing. But we need more data to
support this. That’s why I mention the data from India. So we’re
encouraging scholars and universities around the world to take on this
critical research. And we will be offering grants to support rigorous
research on women in public service.
Securing business sector support for this initiative is crucial, and I
am delighted to announce today that Dell has agreed to serve as the
technology partner to the Women in Public Service Project. (Applause.)
Dell will provide hardware, training, and other support for the summer
institutes and the greater Women in Public Service Project. And Ogilvy
Worldwide has assisted in providing public relations and information
support.
Now, I know there are many more colleges and institutions,
corporations, and foundations here today who are eager to join. And we
are especially excited that Agnes Scott, Mills, Mount Saint Mary’s,
Scripps, and Spelman colleges are stepping forward, and we welcome them
to this. (Applause.) I hope even more institutions – both public and
private – will join with our founding partners to leverage each of your
individual strengths and resources to build a truly large, unprecedented
global movement to bring more girls and women into public service
through leadership training, mentorship, and networking.
Now we recognize this is just one initiative. We’re hoping that more
governments, corporations, and universities – at all levels and in all
regions of the world – will also make it a priority to find their own
ways to support bringing more women into governance. We think there are
lots of ways to make a contribution. Political leaders can do more to
recruit women, offer them the mentoring and support that they need.
Business leaders can expand efforts to track gender gap inequalities.
They can all make that list, like Christine Lagarde said, so they can
offer names when there are openings. They can also form public-private
partnerships that work internationally to mentor, nurture, and empower
young women. And governments and businesses, universities, and other
partners can do a lot to open doors.
But, ultimately, it is up to all of you – and millions more like you
around the world – as to whether you walk through those doors, if you
decide to serve; if, in fact, you dare to compete. I believe doing so
offers deep and lasting rewards. I believe you can and will make
positive differences in people’s lives. That is the essence of public
service. It is, for me, really an easy question: Are people better off
when you stop than when you started? Have you expanded the circle of
opportunity, have you helped to create conditions where everyone – man
and woman – has a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential?
Have you brought the world closer together as opposed to either allowing
it or pushing it apart?
We know what counts for good public service. I see it when I travel,
and I see the opposite. I see in too many places where there isn’t the
leadership or the urgency to make sure that health care and education
and other services are made available, to reform economies, to fight
corruption so that hard working businessmen and women can realize the
benefits of their hard work.
So there’s a lot to do. It’s an exciting journey, and if you decide
to take it, you don’t just have my blessing, you have my – and more
importantly – my country’s strong support. We are going to stand behind
this initiative now and for years to come, and we, too, hope to see the
benefits of what can come when more young women decide that they want to
serve their people.
Thank you all very much. (Applause.)
