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"Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all."
Hillary Clinton is not ‘calculating’ or risk-averse. I watched her take a huge gamble — and it paid off.
By Lissa Muscatine April 25 at 6:00 AM
Washington Post
As our plane descended into Beijing in the middle of a late summer night in 1995, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was waiting to see the final version of the next day’s speech. She had been invited by the United Nations secretary general to deliver the keynote address to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women. As her speechwriter at the time, I raced to make last-minute edits before we landed. When I finished, I handed her the draft. She looked at me and said, “I just want to push the envelope as far as I can on women’s rights and human rights.”
Now, 20 years later, Clinton is running for president amid critiques that she is calculating, always scripted and risk-averse. But those of us who worked with her on the Beijing speech saw a woman who, under intense scrutiny and pressure, was willing to gamble for a cause and principle she cared about. In the end, Beijing laid the groundwork not only for her advocacy of women’s rights as senator and secretary of state, but also for the global women’s movement. It never would have been happened if she hadn’t overruled the counsel of senior administration advisers, stood up to Democratic and Republican opponents in Congress and trusted her own judgment over the optics. She took big risks – and they paid off.
[center]* * *[/center]
For months before Clinton’s trip, administration officials and politicians in both parties had warned her that going to Beijing for a global women’s conference simply put too much at stake – the administration’s domestic political agenda, public opinion, our country’s diplomatic relationship with China and internal White House politics.
(snip)
The 20-minute speech instantly reverberated around the world. Clinton’s line that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all” is still a mantra today. And her graphic litany of abuses that women and girls in many countries were regularly subjected to was as forceful as any language ever used to talk about women’s rights. “Women comprise more than half the world’s population, 70 percent of the world’s poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write,” she said. “We are the primary caretakers for most of the world’s children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued — not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders.” This was simply not something major state actors made a habit of talking about in 1995.
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/25/hillary-clinton-is-not-calculating-or-risk-averse-i-watched-her-take-a-huge-gamble-and-it-paid-off/
By Lissa Muscatine April 25 at 6:00 AM
Washington Post
As our plane descended into Beijing in the middle of a late summer night in 1995, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was waiting to see the final version of the next day’s speech. She had been invited by the United Nations secretary general to deliver the keynote address to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women. As her speechwriter at the time, I raced to make last-minute edits before we landed. When I finished, I handed her the draft. She looked at me and said, “I just want to push the envelope as far as I can on women’s rights and human rights.”
Now, 20 years later, Clinton is running for president amid critiques that she is calculating, always scripted and risk-averse. But those of us who worked with her on the Beijing speech saw a woman who, under intense scrutiny and pressure, was willing to gamble for a cause and principle she cared about. In the end, Beijing laid the groundwork not only for her advocacy of women’s rights as senator and secretary of state, but also for the global women’s movement. It never would have been happened if she hadn’t overruled the counsel of senior administration advisers, stood up to Democratic and Republican opponents in Congress and trusted her own judgment over the optics. She took big risks – and they paid off.
[center]* * *[/center]
For months before Clinton’s trip, administration officials and politicians in both parties had warned her that going to Beijing for a global women’s conference simply put too much at stake – the administration’s domestic political agenda, public opinion, our country’s diplomatic relationship with China and internal White House politics.
(snip)
The 20-minute speech instantly reverberated around the world. Clinton’s line that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all” is still a mantra today. And her graphic litany of abuses that women and girls in many countries were regularly subjected to was as forceful as any language ever used to talk about women’s rights. “Women comprise more than half the world’s population, 70 percent of the world’s poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write,” she said. “We are the primary caretakers for most of the world’s children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued — not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders.” This was simply not something major state actors made a habit of talking about in 1995.
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/25/hillary-clinton-is-not-calculating-or-risk-averse-i-watched-her-take-a-huge-gamble-and-it-paid-off/
48 replies
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Sid
Thanks for posting.
I remember that Warren Christopher (SOS) was really pissed and insisted that Bill tell her she couldn't go. Bill laughed and said it was up to her.
Kick and Rec.
And for tolerating me. 
Sid
Yet much of the work we do is not valued — not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders.
What a better world it would be, if those things were valued. And we must remember that as women are treated, SO IS THE EARTH.
What a better world it would be, if those things were valued. And we must remember that as women are treated, SO IS THE EARTH.
At the ripe old age of 24! So refreshing after 12 years (half my life!) of GOP occupation of the WH. 
Bill and Hillary Clinton were a breath of fresh air. So needed after barfman and evil cowboy.
