20 Years Ago Today, Hillary Clinton Gave A Rallying Cry For Women's Rights
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On Sept. 5, 1995, then-first lady Hillary Clinton gave a forceful defense of women’s rights, declaring that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights” in a famous address at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing.
“If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights, once and for all,” she said.
Since then, those words have become a rallying call for women’s rights activists worldwide. The occasion was also notable because Clinton reportedly refused to soften her rhetoric in response to pressure from both the Chinese government, whose human rights abuses she directly called out in her speech, and from members of her husband Bill Clinton’s administration, who were worried about the effects the speech might have on the United States’ diplomatic relations with China.
Read the full text of the speech, and watch it in the video at the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-womens-rights_55e8cac4e4b093be51bb054f
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