Perhaps in line with Barack Obama’s letter that he wants to make the world a better place for children, Hillary Clinton wants to make the world a better place for daughters in particular.
It was striking that in Clinton’s opening statement, between comments about poverty, international crises, AIDS, organizational issues and everything in between, Hillary took a minute (as we noted yesterday) to talk about women’s issues.
We have to expand civil and political rights in countries that are plagued by poverty, hunger, and disease. But our pleas will fall on deaf ears unless democracy actually improves people’s lives while weeding out the corruption that too often stands in the way of progress.
Our foreign policy must reflect our deep commitment to help millions of oppressed people around the world. And of particular concern to me is the plight of women and girls, who comprise the majority of the world’s unhealthy, unschooled, unfed, and unpaid. If half the world’s population remains vulnerable to economic, political, legal and social marginalization, our hope of advancing democracy and prosperity is in serious jeopardy. The United States must be an unequivocal and unwavering voice in support of women’s rights in every country on every continent.
Clinton didn’t just speak of women’s issues in terms of improving the lives of women, or ending patriarchal oppression or even as something we should do for the sake of doing the right thing. Rather, she put it into the context of our larger foreign policy goals, which are expanding civil and political rights to improve our own security. Clinton stated, on behalf of this Administration, that if they do not improve the plight of women in the world, they cannot improve the status of nations or expand democracy.
But she didn’t stop there. During questioning by California Senator Barbara Boxer about Clinton’s commitment to women’s issues and the plight of women in the developing world, Clinton, in my opinion, was more fired-up, less scripted and more honestly committed to the issue than at nearly any other time in the hearing.
And I want to pledge to you that as secretary of state I view these issues as central to our foreign policy, not as adjunct or auxiliary or in any way lesser than all of the other issues that we have to confront.
I, too, have followed the stories that are exemplified by the pictures that you held up. I mean, it is heartbreaking beyond words that, you know, young girls are attacked on their way to school by Taliban sympathizers and members who do not want young women to be educated. It’s not complicated: They want to maintain an attitude that keeps women, as I said in my testimony, unhealthy, unfed, uneducated.
And this is something that results all too often in violence against these young women, both within their families and from the outside. This is not culture. This is not custom. This is criminal. And it will be my hope to persuade more governments, as I have attempted to do since I spoke at Beijing on these issues, you know, 13 and some years ago, that we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way.
But she didn’t even stop at condemning the behavior or feeling sympathy for its victims. She was very clear about what she planned to do about it:
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