“Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely – and the right to be heard.” ~ Hillary Clinton, Former Secretary of State
Summary: Hillary Clinton was born in Chicago, Illinois, going on to earn her law degree from Yale University and later marrying fellow law school graduate Bill Clinton. She later served as first lady from 1993 to 2001, and then as a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2009.When she was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2001, she became the first American first lady to ever win a public office seat. In early 2007, Clinton announced her plans to run for the presidency. During the 2008 Democratic primaries, she conceded the nomination when it became apparent that Barack Obama held a majority of the delegate vote. After winning the national election, Obama appointed Clinton secretary of state. She was sworn in as part of his cabinet in January 2009 and served until 2013. In the spring of 2015, she announced her plans to run again for the U.S. presidency. Despite being defeated in the general election, Hillary became the first woman in U.S. history to become the presidential nominee of a major political party.
Nationality: American
Industry: Politics
Q: Now at the UN on this anniversary, you have said that progress in women’s rights are progress in human rights. But there’s still a big gap. on nbcnews.com
A: There is a big gap. You know, I’m — I’m someone who likes to look at the progress, because then you can tell people, “Well, it is possible. Women in Kuwait are now voting. That wasn’t — available to them — in — 1995. Women in parts of Africa now can inherit property and own land, which wasn’t permitted.
Countries have passed laws, and some are even enforcing them, against — domestic violence. We’ve made a lot of progress in the international effort against human trafficking. There are many points of progress. But there are still so many women who are deprived of education, deprived of health care, denied their basic right to — chart their own course. There are so many brave women who stand up to those rights.
I will never forget meeting a young girl who had been married at the age of ten to a man much older than she by her family — in Yemen, who got away from the house and went to a courthouse and waited until somebody noticed her. And when they asked what she was doing there, she said, “I want a divorce.” I mean, I can’t even imagine the courage it must have taken for that child. I meet women who — were trafficked into prostitution who are now rescuing other women.
I meet so many extraordinarily courageous women. But I would hope for them that their daughters and their granddaughters wouldn’t have to struggle so hard. That they would get to go to school. That they would get to have a better life.
