In each place, I met someone or saw something that caused me to open my mind and my heart and deepen my understand of the universal concerns that most of humanity shares.
Both my parents conditioned us to be tough in order to survive whatever life might throw at us.
If I gave in to my fears, it would set a pattern for the rest of my life.
I was taught to resist peer pressure. (查看原文)
I began describing Democratic Party issues as “kitchen table issues,” which became a catch-phrase in the campaign. The discussion of kitchen table issues led some Washington pundits to talk derisively about “the feminization of politics,” an attempt to marginalize, even trivialize, policies such as family leave or extended mammogram coverage for older women or adequate hospital stays for mothers after delivering their babies. With that in mind, I coined my own term—“ the humanization of politics”—to publicly advance the idea that kitchen table issues mattered to everybody, not just to women. (查看原文)
After such an evening, I felt I could levitate to my next destination: Vienna, where I was keynote speaker at a forum entitled “Vital Voices: Women in Democracy.” Conceived and organized by Swanee Hunt, our Ambassador to Austria, and nurtured by Melanne Verveer, this meeting of one thousand prominent European women was the official launch of the U.S. government’s Vital Voices Democracy Initiative.
The project was close to my heart, a prime example of the Administration’s efforts to incorporate woman’s issues into foreign policy. An outgrowth of Beijing, the Vital Voices initiative brought together representatives of our government, NGOs and international corporations to promote progress for women in three areas: building democracy, strengthening economies and working to achieve peace. In ... (查看原文)
