Transcripts For CSPAN Womens Participation--Politics 20131201

Legislative body. She spoke about slavery and womens rights before the Massachusetts State Legislature in 1838. An event honoring her and looking at women in politics. From boston, this is just over two hours. Welcome, everyone. I will be your evening moderator. We are here tonight to explore how women become political. We will look at the past and the present and consider the future, too. There will be some remarks and a panel. Regretfully, senator Elizabeth Warren is not able to join us because she needs to be in washington. Someone has to work. She is there to work in the senate. [applause] however, she has made a short video for us that we will share in place of the remarks she would have given. Now, during the evening we invite you to tweet and send your questions at womenpoli2013. Also a reminder. Silence your cell phones right now. Everybody moving to silence the cell phones . Good. And for those who could not attend tonight, the good news is that the event is being taped by the grimke Event Committee for viewing the event at the website and by cspan for viewing later on this fall. This event has come together through the tremendous efforts of a great many people and organizations. The program book gives a complete details. We want to highlight the three most important. The first is the grimke Event Committee. The group of Accomplished Women who were the prime movers behind this event. They hope it will inspire girls and women of diverse backgrounds to embrace politics as their world. You will find them and their message in the program book. For second, ambassador swannee hunt and two organizations she founded. Her vision for woman in politics has helped to transform the landscape. She will be joining our panel. The third is the cohost for this event. Simmons college led by president all right, it is ok. Simmons college is led by president helen drinan and simmons has provided financial, operational, and logistical support. Helen drinan, the 8th president of simmons college, has used her business and leadership experience to guide the institution to a competitive strength operationally, financially, and academically. Simmons college has used her business and leadership experience to guide the institution to a instant competitive strength operationally, financially, and academically. She is a steadfast advocate of womens education as a pathway to success and has used the platform of College President to advance and highlight the importance of women in leadership positions. Drynan of Helen Simmons college. [applause] thank you. All of us atfrom simmons college. We are honored to serve as the major academic sponsor for this event. When Gloria Steinem visited simmons last spring emma she explained to us that anyone who believes in equal rights for both men and women is a feminist. Surely the woman we celebrate this evening, angelina only anas not abolitionist, but also an early feminist. Toould also like to suggest that the founder of simmons college, john simmons, a true ally of women of his age, was also a feminist. At the very time in 1838 that Angelina Grimke was speaking to the Massachusetts State Legislature, against slavery and for a womans right to vote, only a mile away in the north end, john simmons was actively growing his tailoring business, employing many women here in boston and in the countryside around the city. Having observed that most of his customers fell into standard sizes, he departed from custom tailoring and innovated the Retail Industry by creating a mans off the rack suit. At the end of the civil war, john simmons had become the largest clothing manufacturer in the United States. At the time of his death in 1870, his will records his intention for his great wealth. To found and endow an institution to be called simmons female college for the purpose of teaching branches of art, science, and industry, this calculated to enable the scholars to acquire an independent likelihood. Recognizing the importance of being able to move beyond the menial work and menial wages to which most women of the day were hasect, john simmons enabled generations and him and to be empowered. Those of us who have edited so sormously from john simmons philanthropy are delighted to be with you to witness the work of our founders can contemporary, Angelina Grimke. Ou for joining us. We have got some powerhouses in the audience with us tonight. Not just here on the stage. We want to acknowledge some of the remarkable women officeholders who are present as well as their male allies. I will ask each group to stand and remain standing. Please hold your applause until the end. I know that is going to be tough but really try. We are honored to have present tonight a number of women who were each the first woman to hold a different statewide office. I ask that all of them stand again while you hold your applause. Eveline murphy, the first woman elected Lieutenant Governor. Shannon obrien, the first woman elected state. Treasurer. Jane swift, the first woman to serve as governor. Woman coakley, the first elected state attorney general. Bump, the first woman elected state auditor. Warren, the first woman senator from massachusetts and the u. S. Senate. Thats have a little applause . Lets have a little applause right there. [applause] in addition, we have a number of other important female elected officials who have led the way for women in the state. Female great and General Court representatives, female mayors and other femaleelected officials we are honored to have present as well. Steve grossman, treasurer of the commonwealth. Either other mail elected officials stand in support of the cause of women in politics. [applause] by ahts event was sparked milestone in womens political activism. 175 years ago, right here in boston, Angelina Grimke, a white southerner from charleston, South Carolina became the First American woman to address a legislative body. Tonight, we are honored to have her great great rants on, mark mason here with us. Please give him applause. [applause] angelina rigged key grimkes purpose was to present petitions bearing the signatures of 20,000 massachusetts women. Black and white, to a joint committee of the General Court. The petitioner sought to have congress and slavery in the district of convio but before Angelina Grimke spoke about the issue of slavery, she knew she had to address the elephant in the room. The fact that she was a woman giving a speech to group of elected officials, not to mention her other audience, all the men and women who had crowded into the house chamber. Hers was a radical act in 1838. Not only because women could not vote or run for office, but also because of the firm societal conviction that women do not belong in what was called the public sphere. Who spoke to a mixed audience of men and women gathered for any purpose was considered a seductress. Since she was putting her body on display before men. And their marks we will hear partht, which are the only of the speech that exists today, she tackled the charge of seductress headon by distancing thatnorthodox action from of another petitioning woman, the famous a local figure, queen esther of persia. The audience knew that queen esther lived in the harem and served him sexually. It was not her place to request anything of her king. But one day, risking her life, she begged him to save her people, the babylonian jews. Gottliebetress anne to share the opening of the speech that day. [applause] february 21, 1838. Chairman, more than 2000 years have rolled their it dark and bloody waters down the rocky, winding channel of time into the broad ocean of eternity. Since a womans voice was heard in the paris palace of an eastern monarch and a womans petition achieved the salvation of millions of her race from the edge of the sword. Persia, if queen she might be called, who was but mistress of her villa chu her voluptuous lord, trained in the secret abominations of an oriental harem, had studied to knowy the character not to the sympathies of his heart could not be reached except through the medium of his sensual appetites. Hence, we find her arrayed in apparel, standing in the inner court of the kings house hoping by her personal charm, to win the favor of her lord, and after the golden scepter had been held out, and inquiry was thou, queenilt esther and what is your request . It shall be given to the half of my kingdom. Even then, she dared not ask for her own life or that of her people. She felt that information of mercy was to be successful, his animal propensities must be still more powerfully wrought upon. The luxurious feast must he prepared. The banquet of wine must be served up and the favorable moment must be seized. Gorged with gluttony and intoxication, the kings heart was fit to be operated upon by the aesthetic appeal. Found favor in thy sight, o king, let my life be given at my petition and my people at my request. , through personal charms and sensual gratification and individual influence that the queen of persia obtained the precious boon she craved. Her own life and the life of her beloved people. Chairman, it is my privilege to stand before you on a similar mission of life and love, but i think god we live in an age of the world to enlightened and to moral to admit of the adoption of the same means to obtain as holy and and. End. Toeel it would be an insult the committee if i were to agree my person in gold and silver and costly apparel, or by inviting them to partake of the luxurious feast or the banquet of wine. Understand the spirit of age to well to believe that you could be moved by such sensual means. Means as unworthy of you as they would be beneath the dignity of the cause of humanity. Yet i feel if you are to be reached by all, it would not be by me but by the truth i shall endeavor to present to your understanding, and your heart. The heart of the eastern desperate was reached through the lowest propensities of his animal nature. By personal influence. Buts i know cap he reached through the loftier sentiments of intellectual and moral feelings. I stand before you as a citizen, on behalf of the 20,000 women of massachusetts whose names are enrolled on petitions which have been submitted to the legislature of which you are the organ. Petition to relate to the great and solemn subject of american slavery. A subject fraught with the deepest interest to the republic , whether we regard it in its political, moral, or religious aspect, and because it is political, it has often been tauntingly said that a woman has nothing to do with it. We aliens because we are women . Bereft of citizenship because we are the mothers, wives, and daughters of a mighty people . Have women no country . Publicrest, state in partnership in a nations guilt and shame . Worlde history of the answer these queries. Denunciations of jehovah against the follies and crimes of israels daughters. The influence of woman of quarters in an mistress in those mysteries ancient and modern and see her wielding her power, too often to debase and destroy rather than to elevate and save. Women rule said that the world through their influence over men. So, then may we will hide our faces in the dust and cover ourselves with sackcloth and ashes. Through womens moral and intellectual power, but through the baser passions of man. This dominion of women must be resigned to this, the sooner the better. In the age which is approaching, she should be something more. She should be a citizen. Demands anle which increase of knowledge and reflection opens before her a new empire. I hold, mr. Chairman, that american women have to do with the subject, not only because it is moral and religious, but because it is political. Inasmuch as we are citizens of this republic, and as such, our honor, happiness, and our well being are bound up in its politics and government and laws. I stand before you as a southerner. From the land of my birth by the sound of the lash and the ry ofis clive piteous c the slave. I stand behind before you as a repentant slaveowner. I stand before you as a moral being endowed with the precious and inalienable rights which are correlated with solemn duties and high responsibilities. Feel i owebeing, i it to the suffering slave and to to myed master who country and to the world to do systeman to overturn the of complicated crimes, build on the broken hearts and prostrate oddities of my countrymen in chains and cemented by the blood and sweat and tears of my sisters in bond. Thank you. [applause] anne gottlieb. Grimke, fabulous. Angelina grimkes actions of the foundation for women who became political after her. Lets hear from three of those women, each of whom has her own story to tell about her past to political action. Gloria steinem is a writer, lecturer, and feminist activist and i would say, so much more. [applause] [cheers and applause] bei never imagined i would following Angelina Grimke. [laughter] but in another way, i have always been following Angelina Grimke and Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass and the lab side, and surely to some, and and all theholm leaders that understood the twin caste systems of sex and race are intertwined and can only be uprooted together. Lucye been asked by knight, from whose four head came, that this conference has sprung twos he becamelly about how i political. I am hyperaware i had an advantage that angelina did not have which is a mother who, if you said the world roosevelt to her, and tears came to her eyes because she was so convinced that eleanor and franklin had understood us is by being born beinglevels despite born class levels above us and had rescued us from her days of making soup out of data peelings potato peelings and my sisters code out of a blanket. All of my childhood years, i heard a story of life that included politics. It was just something you did every day. It was not a career. Necessarily. It was not something removed, certainly. Ouras an organic part of lives, something we needed to live. Then after college, i went to indiana where i lived for two years. India where i lived for two years. Up for days lined to vote, almost like florida. And dependence had taught them was ortant that power independence had taught them how important that power was. The only place on earth where themost powerful equalled most powerful is the voting booth and it is still true to this day that the young and the poor in india vote more than the older and the welltodo. Of the votingite patterns we see here ourselves. When i first tried to work in a campaign, however, on a mimeograph machine, how many people here remember the word mimeograph . Some other young women to hide in a room upstairs because they were afraid we would otherwise be seen as having an affair with the candidate. This sort of sums up the role of women inside the campaigns at that point. See thatss, i could campaigns were incredibly , there were open, people could, and off the street and help, they were diverse. I became immediately hooked on the whole process of campaigning. As a volunteer for a very long time. Through kennedy, i think i was sent out to get pizza all the time in the kennedy campaign. Curiel bj, we ran a discotheque for lbj. Through lbj, we ran a discotheque for lbj. It became clear to me and to so many of us that we would not be able to be active politically unless we had a force outside either party by ourselves on our own ringing out the issues. I would like to say on this , that the parties Republican Party was historically better about womens equality than the Democratic Party and supported the equal rights amendment first. It is the Republican Party that has deserted women, not that women have deserted the Republican Party. Worked to get our issues into the mcgovern campaign. The only time i ever ran for office myself was as a delegate for Shirley Chisholm. Clearly going to lose, all of us on her slate but determined nevertheless. I testified for the equal rights amendment mainly because someone told me i should. It did not occur to me that anyone other than a Constitutional Authority would be testifying there. I worked on my testimony for weeks. It made no difference whatsoever. Aboutn to think more organizing outside the campaigns and the political structure. Been my pathat has ever since. With the National Womens political caucus, with voters for choice, it is possible for issues,th educate on educate the candidates and the people in the party on the issues and gather the constituency around those issues so we have the power to see that they will succeed. It is a path i recommend to you. I guess i am a classic activist volunteer. I have never had a paid position. I have written speeches, work in campaigns, but never actually been paid. Because i think i thought if i were an employee i would not be ise to press, to say, this what is necessary to get this kind of support. Remembered my mother, who used to say, democracy is something you do every day. Democracy is like brushing her teeth. We do to be something every day. Otherwise, the power will be taken away from us. I thought of this especially after the 2000 election when i happened to be speaking at Palm Beach County Community College the morning after the election. Just quite by accident. And there were about 700 people in that auditorium, and over the next few hours, we had no idea of the outcome, whether it would be bush or gore. We did not know. But people began to stand up and say how their vote had been taken away from them. Were kept from their voting place i police cars, or from aeir buses had come senior home and taken them to the wrong place. Or that they only realized afterwards that the nature of the ballot had caused them to vote for candidate they did not know they were voting for. And slowly, slowly, slowly, at in thate 720 people auditorium, more than 100 had been not able to vote and i took their names and addresses and i gave them two lawyers and one he was a up and said veteran, in the name of his little daughter, what i stay and help them march against this illegal election . Ow, i say that because there and it made me remember, all the subsequent events which everyone hell here will remember, the ruling of the supreme court, that clinched it. I remembered that in missouri, three decades before, more or less, i had campaigned for harriet woods for the senate of the United States, and she had been within one percentage point, but she ran out of money, the Television Ads were very negative, and she lost by a very heartbreaking margin in beating John Danforth who became the senator from missouri. All right. That was a long time before, right, but let me just say it was less than 2000 votes that made the difference. For instance, it was so clearly and about last minute money that her race was the inspiration for starting emilys list which means early money is like yeast. It was clear that she could and should have one. Won. Notuse she lost, because enough people in missouri and not enough women voted, danforth had once hired a young man named Clarence Thomas who had left his studies as a Catholic Priest to go to law school, sharing his unusual, nation of church and state. Elevated to the u. S. Senate, rarerth sought out this black conservative, took him out of his job as a corporate lawyer for monsanto, made him a legislative ed, and championed him every step of the way. He became chairman of the cooperative and he equal opportunity commission. He made everyone watch the fou ntainhead because he was a devotee of ayn rand. He served in the d. C. Court of appeals and so on. We all know what happened. Youi just want to say to that when we think about our individual votes and our activism, we need to remember for want of aout, nail, the horseshoe was lost and for want of a horse, the battle was lost. Clarencethomass thomass votece if danforth had not been a senator, he would not have taken Clarence Thomas. Woul if he had not had those credentials he would not have been nominated by the same president bush. He would not have been the one vote margin that halted the Florida Court ordered recount and put the second president was in the white house, even though independent counts later showed that indeed, gore had won the state of florida. All this is for want of a nail. Not ii could not have caused another optional war in iraq, the biggest transfer of wealth to private hands in the history of the nation, another optional war in iraq, highlevel displays in mobile warming, Public Schools with abstinence only education enforced by federal funding that helped to create the highest unwanted pregnancy rate in the entire developed world, or an executive order to bring billions in tax dollars to faithbased centers of right wing political power. Or the global gag rule that deprived poor countries of u. S. Foreign aid if they offered any information about abortion trade even with their own funds. Corporateth profiteering and privatized wars abroad as well as privatized reasons at home. Prisons we do not need but state legislatures vote and they are run by corporations or a higher percentage of the u. S. Population in prison as a result and in any more than any other country in the world. Ceos whose salary rose from 30 times that of the average worker before the rightwing backlash took over washington to an average of 8000 times, or a nonregulated financial industry that led to worldwide economic meltdown or an even greater polarization of people and nations into rich and poor, or the turning of terrorism from a cause for global unity into a cause for deeper global division. Much more. So each of us is the nail, and each of us can win the battle. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Our next speaker has been the top of the ticket the first go round and the top of the ticket in the preliminary elections for boston. [cheers and applause] good evening. Today, we commemorate the historic and audacious demonstration of our fellow sister, angela grimke. The nt boldly before who went boldly before the General Court to say i stand before you as a citizen. We pay tribute to her and the ,nowledge this moment and i for one, are so very grateful we are. As a black woman i know i am certainly, we all are beneficiaries of her bold action. Know as thatso moment, the one we honor here today was a very long time in the making. Both in the personal evolution of grimke, for the abolitionists and Womens Movement and for our country. You see, before angelina was a woman, she was a girl. So for me, the conversation must begin there. Before we can even begin to consider how women become political, lets first addressed address the girl on the journey to womanhood. The girls i spend time with everyday. The girl that exists inside all of us. The girl who is stunted and heard the government and empowerment because she lives in a world that all too often refuses to see her, to listen to her. The 18yearold College Freshman who wants to run for Student Government president but instead settles for secretary. The 17yearold girl who does not raise her hand in class. Gay 15yearold girl who feels unsafe and her community and at school. The 16yearold girl who feels degraded when men holler at her when she is walking down the street. The 14yearold girl and an unhealthy relationship with her first love. And the 12yearold girl who does not believe she can excel at math or science. Girls grew up to be broken women. And as a society we quite simply cannot afford that. I strive daily to chip away at systemic lies and social determinants like poverty and violence that contribute to the brokenness of so many of our girls. The chief issue that is so much harder to get at, something i cannot legislate, is the insidious and permeating impact of girls who do not know their worth. Who do not know their power. I know something about that. For many years and for many stands, i struggled to fully in my power. I allowed others to determine when and where i would enter. I did not feel good enough, smart enough, ready. Those nagging feelings, that mental tape of unworthiness i played in my head was an albatross, an impediment, shackled i did not even know i was wearing. I met withrl when this life epiphany, when i realized that although my troubled past informed by present, i did not have to be hostage to that past. I was finally able to stand fully in my own power. Moment, liberate myself. Set on a pathway to a position where i liberate legions of girls and women daily. Who similarly struggled. Toi consider my journey becoming political, i suppose i could tell you it was in church. Where i first learned to stand before and onions and project my voice, and command the attention of a room. I suppose i could tell you about my mother, my hero, her inspiring example as an organizer and activist for the urban league. How she sacrificed her very life to ensure that i would never be denied or deprived an opportunity in life. That she taught me the very best thing about politics and that is the strength and the power of advocacy. And she demonstrated that by her example and that she was a fierce advocate for me. I suppose i could tell you how running and being elected to numerous high school and College Leadership positions provided a great local training ground. I guess i could then tell you fightthe rareif rare to late june i received rarified education i received. Madeld remind you i had history twice because the people of this great city interested me with the awesome responsibility and honor of representing you. I could tell you all these things, or i could just tell you the truth. It almost did not happen. Shirley chisholm, a mine, said she did not want to be reverted as the first black woman elected to congress nor as the first black woman to pursue the presidency. Instead, she simply wanted to be remembered as a black woman who dared to be yourself. This is our challenge and our charge, to ensure that every girl feels empowered to dare, to the themselves. Ause you see, only this then will they ever truly dare to be political. Thank you. [applause] all right. [applause] Elizabeth Warren as the u. S. Senator from massachusetts. While she greatly regrets she cannot be with us tonight, she sent us a video instead. Please note that this video was taped before the events of the government shutdown. Good evening and thank you to the Planning Committee for inviting you to join meet a join you tonight. I wish i could be with you in person but we are going to have to settle for this video. I am glad to be here to mark the 175th anniversary of and grimkeslemke historic speech to the massachusetts general assembly. It is an incredible time to celebrate the legacy of courageous women in the abolitionist movement. Their efforts grew into five for suffrage and equal rights. This anniversary is also our minder of the powerful impact we can have when we make our voices heard and we stand up for what we believe in. I never plan to get into politics. I spent pretty much my whole career as a teacher, and is a lot professor, i taught bankruptcy and did research on the economic squeeze on middle class families. And then i got a call from a congressman who asked me to help advise a federal commission that was being set up. At first i told him no. I do not like outtakes that i did not want to get involved. But he had a hook. That i wouldme have a chance to fight for working families. So i made my first trip to washington. For me, this first effort to try to help shape the laws that affect the lives of summoning people ended up being about deep faith. Faith that if we work hard and Work Together, we can make a difference that really matters. Might lead to another. Bringing some account ability to the bank bailouts, adding a Consumer Agency passed into law and then setting up that agency. When i first proposed to protect people from the tricks and traps of big banks and credit card companies, people said it will never happen because washington lobbyists would make a First Priority to stop us. And they fought us every inch of the way. But we organized and we brought together a Broad Coalition, and we won. And now, the Consumer Agency is making a difference, holding big banks accountable, and it is already returning more than 800 million to people who were cheated on their credit cards and other Financial Products create it is pretty amazing. Everyone who to urged me to go ahead and jump in, to do oversight and set up an agency and ran for the United States senate. I am grateful because i have had great opportunities to make a real difference for working families. I am proud to be serving today as the first woman elected to the senate from massachusetts and i am proud to fight for a level Playing Field for people all across the commonwealth. To say thank you for inviting me to be part of this event. We need more women to get involved in politics. The 1 to run from this and make their voices heard, to fight for what they believe in. Angelina grimke did 175 years ago. Right here in massachusetts. Thanks for your work. Keep up the fight. [applause] havew that our speakers set the table for our panel discussion, i am pleased to andte both ambassador hunt, a formeraly, Lieutenant Governor of massachusetts and cochair of political parity. [laughter] [applause] lead political parity. It is a Nonpartisan Organization is heated to increasing the number of women serving in the highest levels of government. You have released a report aching a forensic look at states have elected women to the highest offices and states that have not. Your report zero din on certain political and socratic, and the graphic characteristics in that report and the differences in that state. Give a brief clinician before we open up the discussion. What we found is that when describe why they do it or do not run, it is quite different in terms of the level of office. ,o when youre talking about for example, women running for congress or the governors seat arech is what carrie and i focusing on, by the time to get to that level, they are talking about, i want to go in and i want to change the structure. When they are thinking about running at lower levels, it is about causes. Really, it is about reform when you get to the top. It is a different kind of encouragement and training they need at that point. We also found a real corroboration that women, they need to be asked over and over and over. One of the things that is striking to me in terms of the people who are watching this panel here. I just think about the fact that run andyou ask them to i am asking you to run. That means that you all have to ask each other four times. Each person here in this audience are watching this some asks way has two do four of your friends and then we are there. [laughter] do you want to add to that . Your brainstorm, the millions idea brilliant idea and the researcher on that. It is so cool. Or fivedone four pieces of research. You can go to the website and look it up under political parity. My favorite one is when you look at the map of the United States, and you note how many women senators are actually in pairs from california or washington or whatever. And then, if you start noting how many have like one senator, one woman senator and one woman governor, it becomes clearly that it is not random. I remember in my earlier time thinking, well, if you have one woman already in one of those top three positions, then no one is going to want to elect the second one because they will think theyre overdoing it, you know . It turns out that the second woman has a boost. We do not know exactly why. It could be because, the obvious. People in the state have gotten used to electing a woman. It could be that there is a role modeling that is going on and more women are really thinking about becoming political. The women themselves, and some of the women in those positions actually, io, showed the next woman where the pockets of energy or the pockets of money were. It is like bringing the next one along. , because weiting have to find ways to really expand these numbers. We cannot just keep moving around along. It takes 200 years at the rate we are going. I am not kidding. Literally. You have to find ways to say, we already have one woman in this state come hell or high water. We are going to run a woman for governor and a woman for senator in that very state. And by the way, went to get once you get two, it is more likely you will have a third like in new hampshire. Good news for our female gubernatorial candidates. Political parity project is a little bit unusual. Here, our votes cancel out each others every electoral cycle. And she raised money on several occasions for my opponent when i ran for governor. It is not immediately apparent why we would come together and Work Together to get more women into politics. Theoth felt that all of wonderful efforts that everyone had been working on for so many years and you actually were one of my first as rations to get involved with politics, so if you want to know how women become political, sometimes it is looking at wonderful mentors like you. We knew that whatever was happening on a partisan basis was not working. Republicans have been trying and democrats have been trying to advance womens careers and it simply had not worked. Recognize needed to that, admit it, and see if there were underlying causes that actually impacted everyone that we could agree on we needed to address. And so we brought together and womene brought together from the democratic side. I gathered together some politically active women from the republican side, and we started looking at the underlying causes and trying to investigate them. And doing it nationally. The first thing we looked at was the impact of sexual discrimination, Sexual Harassment of women candidates and how that impacted them. As a former woman candidate, i can tell you, most consultants andd have have told me may have told you as well, that if someone said something negative about you and you believe it may be genderbased, you do not mention it. Not say do anything about it. You just take it and go. Did you receive that advice . Advice was wrong. Fact, ife found was in you push back and recognize sexism when it is coming at you, it not only restores that womans place in the polls, the hit associated with sexism is very strong, almost nine points in some places. If you push back you not only make that space backup but also some people who even just hear about it think better of you. So it is an advantage to stand up for a woman to stand up for herself to push back and push back against sexist characterizations. You say in your next speech after something really negative, you will not believe what so andso said. And you repeat it. The firsts one of surprising things that we found. And then beyond that, we have done research that shows things that are pretty much validating things that we already know. Like women get into politics because they care about something. They want to do something. They want to change something. Whereas often men seem to get into politics for reasons that are more personal. Or unknown. Answerenerally know the to the question about why are you in politics, that never stops them. They know why they are there. They are therefore purpose. Elsa found the importance of mentors. Mentors are very important to women and we need mentors who are out a little bit ahead. Seeingtoring cannot be someone. It needs to be very handson, very involved with that persons life. We are going to encourage everyone to please think about who you can mentor. You not only have to ask people to run but you have to help them to run. And to model those behaviors. And then finally, part of our next research is going to be looking at why the Republican Party is lagging so seriously around the ability to elect women. And right now, the Democratic Party elects twice as many women as do the republicans. It is getting worse. Better. E getting we will find out why that is happening and put an and to them. Thought, think i thought fewer republican women were running compared to Democratic Women. Turns out that republican women try to run or they do run at the ,ame rate as Democratic Women and they cannot get out of their primary. That is very different from the democratic experience. The reason we had to figure this out is because, i have worked in 60 countries and i have looked at parliament all over the world. Lets get enough women, say 20 to 40 women in this party and in that party, they create a womans block. That is our hope for breaking gridlock. I feel so strongly about that. [applause] right. Good start for our conversation. I will go back and go forward, if i may. Ulala, the 16yearold who was shot in the head and survived. She said i want to be a teacher pen, andne book, one one teacher can change the world. She said i changed my mind. Teachers are very very important, but i want to be a politician because i can change a community. So to you ladies on the stage to have the who have become political, let me borrow from sure, what do you know for about the difference that women make in politics . We have done research all over the world is a said. What we have found, with thousands of interviews as well as looking at quantitative data, is that women tend to be much more collaborative. And they are more practical. A woman in liberia says to me, we have these rice wars, i knew the price of a bag of rice. None of the men did. A woman in darfur gets into the peace talks. Theyre stymied and she comes in at the seventh round, they are arguing about where the river should be. Thegets the river, different warring factions and she listens and finally she says, that river dried up years ago. Says, thend she river dried up years ago. When blancheforget lincoln from arkansas said, when congress reconvened after the talking aboutere minimum wage and she said, i went to target and i bought shoes for my twins to go back to school. I bought the notebooks and i bought the pens. You could not buy those on minimum wage. I know the price. That to me is critical. So, try to talladega. Practicality. Introducing more laws and work hard to get them past. They care deeply about content. It springs from that reason that they got into the government in the first place. They are committed to projects and have a passion for policy work. That is something that women ring to government. Know, itk about, you is not that women are better than men. None of us think that. We do not have our masculinity to prove and this is a huge advantage. So, more and more men, i hope, will be free from the prison of masculinity and we can all be human beings together. Until that time on the average, we are all talking about averages and we are not talking about absolutely everything you human being. This is not about biology. This is about consciousness and that comes from experience. On the average, we are much more likely to vote for health education, welfare, against lence, there is a gander against violence. Theres is a gender gap on all that is issues and superimportant that we bring that into the mainstream. I so want you to take over the Republican Party. I cannot begin to tell you. [applause] thank you. I promised my college that i would stay out of politics for six years. I am not going back into politics for six years. I just want to say, in the spirit of truth, it was old and terrible rightwing democrats that took over the Republican Party. It started with jesse helms. I rest my case. And strom thurmond. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, they were very irate that the Democratic Party was becoming inclusive in all kinds of ways, especially racial. They started to 8000 fundamentalist Baptist Churches took over the Republican Party levers of power gradually and now, you cannot get through the primaries to get into the general election as a smart, centrist, conservative, whatever. A perfectly sensible person. It is so dangerous to have one of our two parties controlled by extremists. Of course we get mad at the democrats. I am mad at the democrats. You find yourself voting for this other party. Heres my plan. My plan is that we do what the rightwing democrats did and we go to the local caucuses and so on. Even i am willing to look republican. I will take off his belt. Like my jacket . Yes. Caucuses. Filtrate the that is what they did. We will take them over. In four years, you have a chaotic and terrible republican convention. And in eight years, you will have a new one. All because of women. Say that i appreciate the framework for this conversation and i asked thomas how do women become political and not just run for elected office. It is important to point that out. I know that women bring a different take an perspective that strengthens every solution and every policy. Otherwise, it is being developed through a prism that is monolithic and homogenized stop we all have different optics and that respective. We talk about the old boys network. They have made progress in building the girls network. Will we elect more women . Women are more likely to elect more women. It is not just who is in the elected position. It is too as the chief of staff and the policy director. Who is the Campaign Manager and the press secretary . People have an awareness of the somed optic in media and of the challenges. You have to have people who of the sensitivity and awareness of those things. It is not just planting a seed to encourage more women to run for office. It is saying that we need your perspective at every part of this process. Firsttime candidates, the operatives and the pundits quickalysts, they will be to say that a woman is not viable. Who better to trust with your vision and help you actualize this endeavor than other women . We need to the old a bench that. S not about Winning Office we need to build a bench of operatives who know how to run campaigns and right sound strategy. We need to do. What you have articulated articulated and has shown up in your report is that the coming political in the stream and pipeline and going on to elected office. Im thinking about barbara lee who is trying to vote. When she metoted Shirley Chisholm. She ran up to Shirley Chisholm and said, wow, im impressed with you and i want to work on your campaign. She said, youre going to have to vote for first and lets get signed up. That modeling is very important. Carrie lee, i wonder if you could speak to what makes sense. It is not out here, it is appeared that we feel more in line. Likes i think that our generation of leaders and the generation right below us, we have to be aware of the fact that we can change all of this and this is really our responsibility. We have a lot of young people out there in the audience and i urge you to reach out and create those relationships with women who are one or two steps beyond. We need to be really conscious andt how we mentor people the kind of encouragement that we get. So many of the studies around women are concerns about the coming political and they focus on the fundamental sense that they are not qualified and they do not know enough yet. At the need to be more well qualified the need male candidate would require from himself. People like us and others in the audience would feel more confident. We would be put into contact with that network and could raise that money. How do you do it . I was blessed to have wonderful mentors and everyone here knows that the most important mentor was mitt romney , who supported my career and amy responsibilities as Lieutenant Governor. I used to attend the Governors Council once a week. My responsibility. I had a governor who gave me as much responsibility as i could possibly have and did not even want all stop i learned to love them. That is how you grow. To put the opportunity my hat in the ring as ambassador came along, i was because of pat schroeder, who was the congresswoman in denver. She said, im going to washington and i am going to work on welfare reform. She said, stay out of washington. It is going to be a wash with democrats who want it is going to be filled with democrats who want to work on welfare reform. Gave a bank you know about pat schroeder, i was the wealthiest person in her and shee district never asked for a sense. I said, i am so rich and people will think that if i have an ambassadorship and given obscene amount of money to the clinton campaign, they will think that i bought my way and and it is because of my money. Said, theyat me and already think that about Everything Else you do. Get over it. Just get over it. This is something that you should do. Wow, boy, is that staying. But that is part of the change. Pat schroeder had many campaigns and had to run against the thecrat because she was not person at the party thought would win. She won reelection by creating her own force and going door to door. Even after she was elected in her first term, the party still put somebody up against her as an incumbent. Need, in manywe cases, to do it through Neighborhood Movement groups and not necessarily the party. This is always a sensitive topic when you talk to women in business or in highpower positions. Panel withating a the former governor of texas, ann richards. We talked about women in politics and she said that what stops women is the inability to embrace the personal and political power. Im interested. This i there is dont want to seem ambitious thing. There is a bit of a dance there. As i said earlier, is a struggle for women to have their own power. I think entitlement has a negative connotation and the goal is for girls and women to operate with a better sense of entitlement and say that they are deserving and the opportunity. That they are qualified. There are all these other nagging securities and doubts. Insecurities and doubts. The data says it takes seven people to convince a woman to run for office. How many does it take for a man . Himself. It is not a joke. Say that ione can was recruited to run for office and that was the case for most women. I was not calculating my political ascension. I had been a to senator john kerry for 11 years and then was enjoying being the person hethe person. The person. Prior to my election, there had never been a person of color on the council. How many people did it take to convince you . More than seven. More than seven. It seems herculean and boston is a parochial town. Universityded boston and worked for kennedy and kerry. I was seen as an outsider and it is a difficult tribe to break into. Reason ite frank, the took that long for a woman to get elected despite the great was that progress there was a question on whether or not a black woman could represent the entire city of boston. Anybody else want to speak to that . I do not think we should blame ourselves so much we have to get out and support ourselves out of it. Psychologists call internalized depression. Half of the human race would not have been in the situation that it is now if we did not come to believe and the same thing happens with race, class, internalizingt is a lesser feeling. That is why we need each other and need to support each other out of that. It is not just that women lack confidence. Effortas been a lot of in making us black confidence lack confidence. Countries and 13 i did all of these interviews in these 13 countries. One, when i would say, why are the numbers so low in your parliament . They would say, well, and our culture. In our you look deeper and see all sorts of impediments. The nonprofit world, and huge 85 , 90 80 were sense, 85 , 90 . Thewomen felt that political world was a mans space and rightfully so. There were so many barriers. In most countries, you vote for the party. In bosniaer onewoman who said, when i left my home, i was number seven on the list. When i got to the capital, i was number 17. Seats. Won the also, we have to challenge those terms and, in a real way, what happens to me is politics what happens to men is politics and what happens to women is culture. That is another way to keep us from changing. Exactly. What comes up for women who are elected is the gender attacks that happen that are vicious and our ongoing. Are ongoing. I can in the attacks erected at directed atn d the women on the stage. Heres a quote from nancy pelosi. I am probably the most reviled woman in america. They leave the people who are not effective along. If women alone. If women can come forward, we need them to do that. She goes on to say that when of the big blockages are, in her opinion, is that they are stopping women from proceeding on and engaging in politics. She says there is a lack of stability. Civility. What you say to a woman who is on the outside and saying, you know, i can do some thing else with my time and have other people have names for them. Thrown at them. This is an issue that we come together on. As long as republican women tolerate any kind of attack on Democratic Women or Democratic Women tolerate attacks on know,ican women and, you think about the lightning rod that sarah palin and Hillary Clinton have been. Think about, if we tolerate any of those attacks, we will never get past this. We cannot get past this. And that is why i am here today. Model that behavior for people and say, we need to reach out across the aisle on these issues. Whether it is criticisms based on gender or these impediments that we all share as women getting into the process. In particular, these kind of attacks, we need, as women, to say that that is unacceptable and is always unacceptable. If we do that and stand together, it will go away and it will become not politically correct. As long as we still laugh at one or the other, we are lost. We are all lost and we are hurting ourselves we do that. If you can take away one message from me today, that would be my message. You can never attacked another woman who is in politics attack another woman who is in politics. This is what we are talking about, people. When i say gender attacks, i mean attacks. What you say . What do you say . I just want to say that there are a lot of organizations i guess they are Womens Organization that are devoted to doing what you say and one of medias the womens center. That started with jane fonda. It started with jane fonda. I think that we have places to turn where we underline each others research. Your research is so important. It turns out to be parallel to the research about bullying and it is the same principle. How important it is that bystanders object and that the person, themselves, stands up for themselves. The standards are really different. Called ruthless, yes to takeover a another country or a job. For a woman to be called ruthless, she has only to put you on hold. Right. I would just say that that is the challenge. The genderbased attacks are very real and mustard if demonstrative. It is these moments that you are referencing that people are not as pretty to. Privy to. That deals place with complicated social ills. The thing that people always say is, i just want you to smile more. It seems to me that that is one of those examples. It is not my job to be a cheerleader. I am not sally sunshine all the time. There are cultural biases and an expectation when tackling complicated issues. We will not smile all the time. We have so much more work to do when it comes to parity in government. Breaking news ground are breaking a ceiling. There is a tendency to treat that woman as an anomaly feminist victory and as an outlier. And this has everything to do wanting somebody who has a powerful message and a good campaign. People are quick to marginalize the success and exoticize it. How you deal with the questions . A great quote from blanche can talkho said, i about whatever issue i want to but, if i run in my pantyhose, nobody hears what i am saying. Challenges. Of the comment on, and my parents, i comment on theirs. Its not like we are bad things about each other. They are startled that i would define how he physically looks. When they call you ruthless, say thank you. Thank you. The conversation has to be about who is in the pipeline. How do you keep people in the pipeline . Anybody just say, has ever heard of men trying to fill a pipeline . Is not that i do not believe that there has to be a pipeline but, again, i would question this notion. It is just like culture. Culture is how we behave and it changes. Oldould you say that the boys network is the pipeline . Steve jobs was not in the pipeline. He started his thing with his friend in the garage. You know i dont think that there are endless and i think that we do need them endless Training Programs to get that pipeline. Will they run for school board and will they run for city council . Tierede all these c by the time that they get to the senate by the time that they get to the senate, they have been through so many layers and they are much older than the men. They have fewer terms and they will have less seniority. In a sense, that is a real hold back. We have to get women to think beyond and you hear them say all the time, i do not really know what i need to know about running for congress and i want to get some experience to work my way up. You have done the reporting. Womanher part for young itheir making decisions is, want a family and i want to do Something Else first. Then, i will come to this. That is why we need men in the pipeline to be parents. I would say that that is fine and women to do a whole lot of Different Things during the course of their life. You dont have to be political when you are very young. Was join thing i did now in 1973 and my parents were not so pleased. Hiatus from local activity between 20 and 38. I was not politically involved. I voted. I was not an activist. I finished my education and i worked in a nonprofit. I did all kinds of things. I was not politically active. It was not until i was 38 that i felt like my children were old enough and i was ready. I was passionate about talking about criminal justice issues and was effective in changing my current position. I was a consultant for the department of justice and writing reports and articles about the messy violence, child abuse, drugs, and gangs. I was not getting anywhere and nobody was listening. It was frustrating. I was old enough and my kids were old enough. I know enough to really make a difference. I do not know that you really have to i do not think you have to start on day one and keep going. You have different phases in your life. We ought to be able to do exactly what you did or what schroeder did when she came on the floor of congress. Wombaid i am i have a and a brain and im going to use both. Thank you very much. It would be much easier, you easier, thatjust kids needll a word to see nurturing and loving fathers to know that that is possible. Needless to say, if you are not the only advanced democracy with no advanced system of child care iaffects everybody think we try to solve this problem in a vacuum. I would add that we are speaking in broad terms and very seen as running on a resume and women are seen as running on emission. A mission. Are, as a mike, single theres aied, tabulation about the narrative that they need to develop in order to engage and earn the support of the electorate. To be to challenge us receptive to diversity in the family model and life experience, as well. [applause] is, you know, you are no less of a mother if you are a stepmother and you are no less of a woman if you are not a mother. I cannot tell you how many times , when i was running the first time, it will wash and what my commitment to children in the Public School system would be the guys i did not have any children in the Public School system. I do not feel less of a burden to those children because i did not biologically bear them. [applause] i can assure you that i was the only woman in the 15 candidates who was asked repeatedly if i was married. Finally, i came up with the married to mym job and you can be my baby. I hope that legitimizes me as a woman. Intolerant of a diversity narrative when it comes to female candidates. We have to challenge ourselves to do better. With sarah palin was first announced and came out, when the first questions asked of her was , who is going to take care of your children . These are national correspondents. Bikes gloria said something about something in the movement gloria said something at lunch about someone in the movement. I was talking about my partner. Flo kennedy. At a time whenng a white woman and a black woman together was so is our that people would ask if we were lesbians. Flo would say, are you the alternative . [applause] [laughter] this is about women becoming political. Each of you have told your stories about how you became interested. I wonder if you could share the moment, if there was a single moment, when you had accomplished something in your political career and you felt it. It were not for me, x would not be happening right now. We talked about the negativity, but i want to talk about the positive. Yeah. It is hard, you worked, and worked, and worked. The undersecretary of state for Global Affairs sent out a cable, that means a telegram, that said, should we include the report on the status of women in the human rights report that congress requires the state department and each country. I looked at the responses to him. Fromhings like, different ambassadors our embassy is so stretched and we do not have the people power. Another said, women can walk around at midnight and it is not an issue. Another said, to include the status of women would be to trivialize the human rights reports. And then i got mad. And then i got mad. I said to cancel the next three meetings and i sat there and typed. Beijing had just happened. Fromd this cable hell. Tim told me that everybody went from his office to a retreat. He got there and he read it. He took it to the retreat. They had decided not to include women in the human rights report. He read out loud. ,ince that year and for ever the status of human rights for women is included in that report. [applause] what a moment it would have to be the passage of melanies law. How many of you know what the law is . Is the change in the drunk driving laws that we accomplished in 2005. For many years, every year, the against drunk driving gave massachusetts a f on our laws. We have personal Injury Lawyers in our legislature and they refuse to have any changes that would cut off the cash cow of all these people who drink, drive, get arrested, and get off. Theyre are numerous people whove been arrested for drunk driving 10, 12 times in a row. They are time bombs waiting to go off and we have 200 people a year getting killed by drunk drivers. Think about that. Over 200 people a year. Many more are being injured by drunk drivers. Youd think about the misery caused by that problem and it touches thousands and thousands across the commonwealth each year. We have never change the laws to make them stricter. I finally met an amazing family. Daughter, melody, was a 13yearold girl who got run over by a drunk driver in. Daylight when she was coming back from a Birthday Party as a cheerleader. She was a lovely and sweet young girl. She was there young child. A woman had too many drinks at lunch and was a repeat drunk driver. She ran her over and killed her. The family, instead of pulling into themselves and becoming it, they wanted to change the law. I took the energy and my office and the people around me decided to go and visit every single legislator that would see us to get the law out there. We pounded and pounded and pounded. There was opposition from the legislature and a got stopped in committee and watereddown. They would send us a version that was named the same and did not change anything. We had to go back and eventually , we created enough of a public platform around it that various newspapers started getting interested. Legislators started highlighting the fact that beautiful young people were being killed on the roads. After a bloody fight any legislator legislature, we got this passed and it was a wonderful feeling. It is hard to pick. I am the volunteer person and not the person out there. See i remember seeing and richards and the Governors Office and seeing her sitting behind that desk after all the work. So ist i was could not believe it. Walking through the streets with bella, people were hanging out of trucks and saying, give them hell, bella. The one that was the most the was when Shirley Chisholm was running for president. She was voted out of the primary debates and was not allowed in the primary debates. Pute was only one day to her positions and her words into a speech that was her one National Speech on television. I did that. Oh really . I did that. I sat there in my living room watching her on television. Wow. That is great. That is great. Let me tellu speak, people who are lining up at the microphone to ask questions. This is the most rewarding thing i could ever do in my life. I think one of the most gratifying moments is was after a threeyear sojourn and a Broad Coalition of advocates at the municipal level that finally, a comprehensive Sex Education curriculum will be part of the wellness policy for boston Public Schools. I am especially proud of that because these are the issues that people considered to be third rail. When you talk about a curriculum that goes beyond abstinence and increases access to condoms, no one is asking you to go there. I am humbled to be elected official. Victories, what i want is to play part in a moral victory. Access to this information inside our schools was ad hoc. Disparityclose the gap and set our people on a pathway to make informed and healthy choices. I am proud of that. There are two microphones in the aisles. Ask your question. We do not want your comment. We want your question. I have a question from twitter. Ae first question she has twoparter. Can you please run for president . [applause] , had we second part engage those who do not see politics as affecting them question mark them . Issue,ave to trace each , how many i mean kids are there who are graduating in debt . The main reason they are becauseng in debt is state legislatures have defunded universities and build prisons instead. This is affecting everybody. We have to take the issues thees are a bad word hopes, the dreams, the daily concerns, the problems. We have to increase them. We have to have civics education. [applause] i think that we need to bridge actuate perpetuates and petuate and per cultivate. Does anybody care about creating good citizens . You cannot wait until they are 18 and think that they will spontaneously combust and care about government. We need to build that relationship earlier. I had a question. I am from texas. I was wondering if you could gloria, to the fact that texas was the first date to adopt the equal rights amendment and you had a coalition of women who attacked women. That is why it did not succeed. Richardards anne was elected in 1990 and wendy davis does not have a chance. Is not a Straight Line of progress it is not a Straight Line of progress. It is a surgical ward it and a forward and arge backlash, frontlash,ot have a we would not have a backlash. Herehad women out campaigning. It was actually a financial interest, as you described with your legislature in the case of commonw, the most occupation of a legislate for is insurance. Is the last industry that is radiated statebystate, instead of federal regulated state bystate, instead of federal. Anne had and richards richards. I can talk like this if we have to. Hutchison. Ards and was aforget that there toplevel person as a woman. Now, i think if you look at the research that we have done, is if you ask see people if it is important to them to have a woman, the percentage of hispanics and blacks is much higher, men and women, in those minority say that it is important. Determined will be by the turnout in those communities. Necessarily, they are democratic. Those two, African American and hispanics, and much higher percentages, say it is better to have a woman in office. Tend tothat outsiders support outsiders, anyway. Ay. In a w ens mentorwarr any senate is bob corker from tennessee. What would you say is the role that men play in how women become political . That was the point that i was making and i did not close that comment properly. It is important that men mentor women, as well. They have a critically Important Role to play it does, in many cases, women do not have role models in the positions that they need to travel. Place need to go in a where no woman has gone before, you need male mentors to get their. There. We need to talk about the importance of mentoring women. Hello. It is truly inspirational to be in front of you today. Im the Student Government president for college. Wondered that if you are in college today, im sure that was not long ago, what would you be doing to have more equal pay for women . What can we today as College Students . Asking for it. Thatn, it is true sometimes we are so grateful to get a job, a summer job, a part time job, it is asking for it form is tost mega point out how important it is. If women were paid equal he to the man equally to the men, therell be 200 billion more in economy every year and that would be a greatest economic stimulus to this country. Much better than giving it to the banks. We will not put a swiss bank account. We will spend it and create jobs. To do the micro and the macro at the same time. I should add that edward audience. In this thatare the key points is women do not negotiate and they just except whatever is offered to them. At a something that has to change. That is something that has to change. Simmons is one of the top negotiators for women. This is for all of you. What advice would you give to young girls to help them repair to contribute to the world . I have something. The head of girl scouts is here and i learned that in eastern massachusetts, there are 40,000 are 12,000 and there people working with them. That is almost 60,000 people strong. What a force i would say to every girl, join that force. The girl scouts. I was a girl scout. I was a girl scout. Were you a girl scout . Brag, but iant to still more cookies. Sold more cookies. A few things involving women andpractical, productive, indecisive. What are the things that i have done through my young adult life is be more decisive and stand firm for what i believe in. I learned about a topic in college, the gray area between right and wrong, left and right. Coming upon that realization, i am azed that i, myself, bisexual woman. [applause] looked ahead to become more political. The pushback that i get is that, you do not understand your place, left or right, right or wrong, men or women. , were we, as women thoughtful, try to take in as many opinions as possible, try to survey the land, had we stand firm in these decisions that we make we are often pushed to choose a side . I am also registered as an independent. Withu can see, i struggle how i can make a stand in the world and feel it there is no place. We spoke about the liabilities in being a woman. The point that you are raising is not a liability. It is one of the innate and intrinsic assets of being a woman. We are deliberate, thoughtful, we consider the cumulative sort of all of our experiences and apply that to the situation. What is right is your personal truth. If you say that you care more about electoral victories than a moral victory, the fact that i fought for increased access to condoms, for many people that is not moral. I had to stay true and on that. Own that. There are many who sure that truth and will coalesce around you. I challenge you to recognize that is a maledominated culture and we should not feel pressured to contribute in the same way that men do. We should not try to assimilate and all and how they lead. Own howwhat is and they lead. That is what is different about us. If you look at our political discourse, there is so much polarization. People are sure that they are right on both sides and our political discourse would be balanced by people like you, who see truth in both sides and people like you can build the bridges that we need. Thank you. That was the right answer. Thank you. We are coming to the end. All right. Is,question i have for you i know the lawyer was talking about operating at a macro and micro level at the same time. My personal level, something that i find difficult, what about what i want to see in the world and how to find my place, i trace the micro to the macro and he gets overwhelming to talk to tweak them and see where my place is where i can add leverage to operate at the micro level. I wonder if any of you have thoughts on that . The little picture is the building block. Many philosophers have failed because they thought the end justifies the means. In fact, the means are the ends. The china means we choose our the end we achieve. I find it helpful to think about that. To live in the present and say, lets behave as if everything we do matters and let him still our values into everything we do. s instill our values and everything we do. I wish we would require that anyone in a policymaking position would have to of had grassroots experiences. We have no right to be making policies for people we have not worked with and lived with. [applause] let me apologize. You are the last question from the audience. Thank you thank you. I can attest to being told to smile more and im an outsider to the boston political world. How do you think we can change the Political Landscape in boston to increase political power to other minority groups . I think it is a problem. That is a big, big question. It is a big question. The simple answer is demonstrated in your. Example right here. Proud example right here. You cannot change laws until you change peoples minds. The benefit of the power and diversity is to shift and elevate the discourse and the dialogue. Everyone benefits from that. T is getting in the way sometimes we get in our own way, let me just say that is the stereotype of candidates, neighborhoods, and voters. We have to stop that. When i ran the first time, again, people cap recycling my political resume and who i work for. They didnt want me to tell the story of being raised by a single parent. Talkdid not want me to about being a survivor of Sexual Violence and abuse. They felt that to the electorate, i would stereotype and pigeonhole myself. My story is a normal life story for many people. They make an assumption of who that story will resonate with. You can change minds when you have a diversity of perspective and we challenge all of ourselves collectively to not stereotype. Thank you. [applause] im would ask you to thank our panel and we have one more thing. We are going to thank them now. [applause] thank you. Thank you, panel. Stand up. Wow goodness gracious. [applause] amazing pretty amazing. Has been a rich and textured dialogue. To a close with a woman who is become the lyrical. Political e, become political. While. , what an honor to be here this evening. Gloria, i have followed you this entire career. We have had some important discussions on inspirational leaders. Who is at the table is so important because in my curriculum many of the people sitting here, i have frequently been the only woman and now i am head of the table. [applause] i have brought on the i have brought a lot of other women to the table. Was oneirst started, it of the hardest decisions i ever made. I was a recently divorced mother of a 16yearold. I was asked to run frost this and for office and could not afford to pay, the time away from my daughter. Women faces these challenges. Women are considered too emotional to have Public Office. I dont have a problem having a tear in my eye when something affects me. In a nutshell, women are helped with very different standard than men, even in 2013. Us is not ok. This is what i have been fighting against my entire career. I know quite well what it is like to be the only woman at the table and it is difficult. I will admit i was hesitant to run for office until i decided it was time for a change. When i was first sworn into the senate in 1993, i was only the 16th woman ever elected to the 1790. Husetts senate since pretty disgusting, isnt it . [laughter] when i was elected resident of the senate in 2007, i was the first woman ever to be elected to lead a legislative body and at massachusetts. In massachusetts. [applause] today only 25 of our legislature is women and in the senate the number has only grown to 13 . This is not just a problem in massachusetts. 18 of the seats in congress are women. There is not enough progress and we need to do everything we can to encourage and support women wet dreams of running for office. Those of us who are female legislatures we need to do everything we can to encourage and support women who have dreams of running for office. Those of us who are female legislatures we need to do everything we can to encourage and support women who have dreams of running for office. Dont close the door behind you. Keep it open. [applause] in office. Ve to be to many women feel they dont have enough credentials to run and resign themselves to be content in the background, often behind man. Several woman web achieved a level of Public Office have begun their careers later in life. Takemore women will not the initiative to run unless they are directly asked too many times. Consider this my official request to you is to get involved. Support a woman candidate, ba woman candidate. Run for school committee, run for mayor, act locally, act nationally. Senator, your congressperson. Weigh in on issues of concern. The time to get involved is not in a few months or years but now. Women make up over 52 . Im sure your member this, gloria. It said women hold up 52 of the sky. [laughter] the stateturn to lead and nation. It is your turn. Well behaved women rarely make history. [applause] so get out there and miss behave. Thank you and thank you all for being here. Good night. One of the headlines this morning, the white house announces healthcare. Gov met their repair goals as it tries to get the federal Health Insurance website to operate more smoothly for most users. You can watch the progress and performance reports for