Hillary Clinton: 30 years of “women’s rights are human rights”

  



Black Independents --

When the UN Fourth World Conference on Women met in Beijing in 1995, I wanted to go. If my husband hadn't been president, I would have wanted to go as myself—a lawyer, an advocate. But I knew that if I went as the First Lady of the United States it would carry a message that would resound around the world: The United States is putting its leadership toward advancing the rights of women.

When I was working on the speech, which took many weeks, I was really focused on how to break through. I wanted to push the envelope in the speech to state a simple truth: women and girls inherently have the same rights as men and boys.

After I got back from the conference, I did a lot of media. I remember a man from Iran calling in to the Voice of America and asking me: "When you say women's rights are human rights, what can you possibly mean?" He was genuinely confused.

I said, "I want you to close your eyes and think about all the rights you have. And what I'm saying is your daughter, your sister, and your mother should have the same rights." It was considered such an outlandish claim at the time.

The fight for women's rights is, of course, unfinished. While there has been progress, there has been pushback. What gives me hope is that in the past 30 years, generations of women and girls and men and boys have grown up with the notion that "women's rights are human rights" is not controversial in the least. It's just true. 

To mark this anniversary, Onward Together is launching some commemorative items on our online store. Proceeds will go to Onward Together partners and leaders who are defending reproductive rights, recruiting the next generation of women to run for office, and upholding our shared values. I hope you’ll take a look.

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Onward!

Hillary

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