Transcripts For CSPAN3 Women In Politics And Leadership 20240622

Here. Who are your most important mentors in your life. If youre going to ask me what women are my role models. One was real, one was fictional. The real one was amelia earhart, the fictional one was nancy drew. But i never had in many my college years, certainly law school, never had a woman teacher. People asked me, did you always want to be a Supreme Court justice i wanted to get age out of the law. That was my goal. Women werent on the bench in numbers. On the federal bench until jim with my carter became president. He was only in office four years. He took a look at the federal judiciary. He was determined to appoint members of minority groups and women in numbers, not as one at a time curiosities. He pointed at least 25 women to Federal District courts and i was one of the lucky 11 appointed to a court of appeals. During his time. He said in october of 1980, when he had a reception for the women, he had appointed to the federal bench, even though he had no Supreme Court vacancy to fill, he hoped he would be remembered for how he changed the complexion of the u. S. Judiciary. And no president went back to always president reagan not to be outdone was determined to put the first woman on the Supreme Court. What as your reflection on the entirety of your life and career, what do you think what aspects or events have given you the greatest personal satisfaction . Well, i was tremendously fortunate to be born when i was, to be a lawyer with the skill in the 70s, to help move that progress in society along. If if i had been born at an even 10 years earlier, it would have been impossible. In the turning point brief, in the reviewed case, we put on the cover of that brief, the names of two women. Pauline merry was one, and whos the other one i already mentioned, the one who was concerned with putting women on juries all over the country . We put their names on the brief to say they kept the message alive even when people were not prepared to listen. And we owe them a tremendous debt. How lucky we are. Just think of the conservative burger court, the first case comes out unanimous judgment and most of the others came out the right way in the 70s. I count myself enormously fortunate to be around when it was possible to move society to the place where it should be for the betterment of all of us. Everyone is the beneficiary ending gender discrimination. Women, men like charles e. Marks and children. Thats how the old chief was persuaded when he was justice rehnquist, this was a story of a man whose wife died in childbirth, he was left the sole caretaker of the child. Wanted Social Security benefits that would help him be able to work only part time while his child was young. Those benefits were for mothers not fathers. So the court decided that case, i think it was in 1975. It was a unanimous judgment. One the discrimination against the woman as wage earner. Her Social Security taxes dont get for her family the same protection. And then a few of them thought it was really discrimination against the male as parent. He would not have the opportunity to render personal care to his child. And then rehnquist all alone said, totally arbitrary from the point of view of the baby, why should the baby have the chance to be cared for by a parent only if the parent is female and not male. Its that realization that we will all be better off if we end the discrimination if we end the era of women off of the home and children and men in the outside world. Both should be in both worlds. [ applause ] before we go, let me say on behalf of everyone here. Were fortunate you lived the life you have. We look forward to whats still to come. Nk that you. [ cheers and applause ] s American History tv looks back 50 years. President truman inspired a generation earlier. On july 30th, 1965, lbj said it was designed to ensure every citizen against the ravages of illness in his old age. Starting at 8 00 p. M. , lbjs daughter Linda Johnson robb. Larry levenson and mark uptegrove on the battle to pass medicare and medicaid. And why are president johnson succeeded where others failed. After that, recordings between lbj and his aids who talk about the politics and strategy behind the bill. At 10 00 p. M. , the medicare bill signing at the Harry S Truman president ial library in independence, missouri. Including remarks from president johnson. And former president truman. All of this tonight on American History tv on cspan 3. The cspan cities tour visits literary and Historic Sites across the nation to hear from local historians and Civic Leaders every other weekend. This month with congress on its summer recess, the citys tour is on cspan each day at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Lincoln nebraska where well look at the design of the state capit capitol, the past and present of the first peoples of the plains and well talk with petic aree c rickets. That starts at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Wendy davis spoke for more than 10 hours during a 2013 filibuster opposing a texas law on abortion clinics. She was the democratic nominee for Texas Governor, losing to greg abbott. At the university of california berkeley, miss davis talks about the difficulties faced by her and other women running for Political Office as well as the state of gender equality issues. Thank you, ethan and camille for putting this together today and all the work that camille undertook to make sure we were able to do this, thank you all for being here and giving me an opportunity. I was delighted to land in sunny california after being in had a cold winter in texas. Im here to address gender, specifically, why gender equality is making ground many im going to ask you to challenge conventional thinking and how we define and talk about gender equality. And ill hopefully help you understand the lens through which i view these issues a bit better. More and more, im coming to understand and appreciate how much each of our individual filters formed through our Life Experiences matter in the way that we approach conversations in the political framework. And i would like to invite us to consider each others personal perspectives, each others lenses as we strive to move womens equality forward, first, lets take a moment to acknowledge some past victories in the womans movement. It can be easy today, particularly with an on slaught of antireproductive rights, legislation affecting some of the most personal of a womans decision making. To forget that on the long road of gender equality, women have fought for and gained significant ground. It was less than 100 years ago, when women earned the right to vote. 51 years ago, when president kennedy signed the equal pay act. Only 50 years ago when Birth Control became legalized. Only 42 years ago, when abortion was legalized. Less than 35 years ago when president reagan appointed the first female Sandra Day Oconnor to the Supreme Court. And only about six years ago, when president obama signed the Lily Ledbetter fair pay ago the into law. These are all calls for celebration, but when we look around, we see that theres so much work to be done. As we watch and we celebrate lgbt advances with more and more states moving to Marriage Equality and as we witness divisive, discriminatory policies like dont ask, dont tell being repealed. Each after years of hard work and effort that is to be celebrated. Gender politics seems to be taking a step backward. Women are facing an onslaught of legislation that threatens their reproductive freedoms and access to abortion. We occupy 56 of minimum wage jobs, even though we make up only about 49 of the workforce. And governors in states like mine are vetoing fair pay laws if they ever make it to the governors desk at all. All of this is happening without significant voter backlash. I think the answer to that is largely connected to and dictate ed these policies. My views were shaped very early in my Life Experiences, in my memoir, forgetting to be afraid. I sought to seek the experiences that shaped me. To illustrate why it is that certain issues hit me deep in the gut and compel me to reresponded in a particular way. I am a living, breathing example of the promise that can be created through againeder equalized opportunities. Informal as they were, they existed at a time when i needed them. I was 11 when my parents divorced and my 9th grade educated mother, who had never been in the workforce before, was left to support four children on her own. While my father pursued his dream of starting a nonprofit theater. We went from a blue collar lifestyle into poverty literally almost over night. Watching my mother struggle to put food on the table, working in a low wage Fast Food Restaurant job made me want to assure that i would never be left without an education and the means to support myself. And yet i too fell in the well of poverty and despair for a time. Pregnant at 18, married for a very brief time, i was left to support myself and my daughter amber when i was only 19. With only one semester of college under my belt, i could not see a bend in what looked like a long, bleak road ahead. My greatest fear literally was coming true. I was going to live the very same struggles i had watched my mother live. And fear fortunately can be a powerful motivator. My fears were reinforced on nights when i would come home to find my electricity had been turned off because i couldnt pay the bill. Or the embarrassment i suffered when i had to put grocery items back in the line because i didnt have enough for that weeks food. Im here today because policies that support a woman to move from poverty to stability actually do work. These policies, some formal, some less formal created ladders that helped me to move from where i was. One of those was access to Affordable Community College Education with grants and low cost tuition that made it possible for even me to afford. That ultimately became my gateway to graduating from harvard law school, and without my community college, there is simply no way i would be standing here talking before you today. Another ladder came in the form of access to reproductive and well Women Health Care that i received at a planned parenthood clinic close to my home. For several years as an uninsured woman, that clinic was my only source of care, its the place where i received cancer screenings, diabetes screenings, my annual well women exams and most importantly, it was a place that provided me with the ability to control my reproductive destine me, so that once i placed my foot on the path to higher education, i was able to keep it there. Another ladder for me came in the form of affordable quality child care, that a dear friend of mine provided. And we see and certainly with weve heard many in congress and the president talking about child care as an important issue. For many women the inability to afford and find quality child care is keeping them sufficiently as a roadblock to where they are. Finally, i was fortunate to work in an office where my employers supported a work schedule that allowed me to go to school in the mornings and to leave sometimes earlier in the eveningings. Flexibility, these workplace policies are so important in making possibilities available for women to improve their lives. Those years were a tremendous struggle and they were filled with fear. But i am grateful for the motivation that that fear provided, and so very grateful for the lens that that struggle provided me and through which i now view the world. Theres so many women today that cannot tell the story that i had the blessed ability to stand before you and tell. Because those ladders, those policies simply are not there for that. Affordable college tuition, Reproductive Health care. Flexible work hours. These inning thises are not there. As they once were for me. Policies to support these ladders, though theres a great deal of talk about them and effort in everybody monthing them forward are still unfortunately virtually nonexistent. Instead we find ourselves fighting old fights and in many instances losing ground. Why is this happening . Quite simply because support for an agenda that includes these policies has eroded. A negative association has been fostered between the idea of womens advancement and the threat that that movement poses to traditional patriarchal notions of a womans place. Playing upon these negative associations, womens reproductive rights and other issues important to womens equality have been hijacked by politicians who are using those issues as a wedge. Whistling to those who will respond favorably to the perceived threats that they hope to engender. For these politicians, positioning against advancement of gender equality serves as a means to an end. That end being their desire to hold on to and further their positions, status and power. Provoking favorable responses by using womens equality as a foil, is much more important to them than any fallout that they leave behind. To explain my point ill ask you to consider an argument made by berkeley law professor in his book dog whistle politics. Hell be giving a lecture on that at the law school tomorrow. I would invite you to please attend his work is very, very important. Professor lopez in his book invites us to consider how coded racial appeals have played a role in politics. Often resulting in middle class voting in an effort to perceive social threats which are far greater motivators. These reactions professor lopez asserts, are strategically invited by applications who employ techniques that play upon racial bias and animous to get voters to reing at in a way that is favorable for them to maintain power. President ial candidates using racial dog whistling to elicit voter support. George wallace was ridiculed as an unrepentant red neck when he was outspoken in verbalizing support for policies defending segregation, and extolling the proud anglosaxon southland. Voters didnt respond well. To vote for a candidate was such blatant racial appeal would have been to admit their own racial violences and fears. If he were more subtle with his message, he could mobilize race based voting without ever mentioning race at all. He stopped talking about objections to desegregation, and instead talked about states rights to turn away arrogant federal authority. Does that sound familiar when we think about the conversation about the Affordable Care act and about immigration, today we hear those same whistles. Wallace softened language gave permission to those who oppose racial integration, the ability to exercise racially elevated electoral responses without having to admit to others or even to themselves, the racial biases or fears. Goldwater ii talked of his support for states rights and freedom of association. Nixon employing the politically infamous southern strategy to motivate votes in the south, dog whistled by talking about forced bussing. Reagan describing the young buck in the Grocery Store line buying sirloin steak with his food stamps, while you were buying hamburger meat with your hard earned paycheck. Or his talk of welfare queens. Professor lopez cautions progressives not to get too smug. Pointing out that president carter used arguments about forced integration and,ing o, president clinton with his welfare reform agenda, when he sought reelection. Each of these strategic use of dog whistles an appeal to white voters whose racial biases, conscious or unconscious are being played. Importantly, professor lopez points out that this strategic use of race stands apart from other forms of racism, because the driving force behind strategic racism is not racial animous for its own sake, but rather, the strategic use of race in order to successfully pursue power, money or status. I saw this in my own Gubernatorial Race last year, when my opponent played upon fears regarding an invasion of Illegal Immigrants into texas. Openly calling for militarization through a National Guard presence there, in spite of the fact that these communities are notably safe with el paso having been named for the fourth year in a row, the safest large city in the country. Married to a latina, greg abbott would hardly fit the typical definition of someone with racial animous toward latinos, yet he understood how to dog whistle in p a way that would appeal to voters perceived threats in order to gain their votes. This use of dog whistling is not limited to provoking and playing upon perceived threats based on race. This technique is also successfully employed to provoke votes based on gender biases and fears. So lets discuss the use of dependser in that regard. Perhaps given the sexualized nature in which women candidates and womens issues are framed. Wolf whistling, rather than dog whistling may be a more apt way to describe the tactic. Some of that occurs in many fairly plate ant ways. For example, in my race, my opponents supporters derided me showing sexual images with my face or head on them, in order to get a response from potential voters, to show me as highly sexualized rather than competent. There were questions raised about my position as a mother, with suggestions that i abandoned my children when i went to law school. In so doing, attention was diverted from my achievement. I was no ing loer to be applauded for graduating law school with honors, while also juggling the responsibilities of caring for my young family, i was to be revealed for selfimprovement at the expense of giving my full time to child rearing. And there were the abortion barbie postings on social media and around l. A. When i attended a fundraiser there. Showing my head on a barbie doll with a pair of scissors next to me. I should be viewed not as a potential state leader but as a highly sexualized woman, and one who is a traitor to traditional roles of women at that. This was strategic, and it was flagrant and i am not the first female candidate to experience this. And i certainly will not be the last. The ploy works so why stop. These flagrant messages are supported by much more subtle ones meant to provoke gender animous. Consider the number of politicians who use abortion as a political boogy man. Certainly some of this is meant to elicit a response from rote issers who are are motivated by religious or moral ideals about the sanctity of life and their objection to prochoice candidates on those terms, theres something much less obvious though no less powerful at play as well. Making abortion a central issue in in the political arena, also plays upon traditional patriarchal notions of a womans role in society. And innovates viters invites voters into that role. Its easy to see how it would provote favorable voting responses from some men. Abortion and other reproductive rights provide women with the awe taken my to remain in in and rise in the workplace, creating competition for them, and threatening their views of what they believe is appropriate for female male roles. This perspective is one that is deeply rooted, whether consciously or unconsciously in the notion that women ought to serve in traditional roles. Wife, stay at home mother, supporter of her hunting and gathering man. But these perceived threats are not limited to those experienced by some men. Women too respond to whistling that invites them to feel threatened as well. Women who fear, whether consciously or unconsciously that their chosen roles as stay at home wives and mothers will be devalued, visavis sexually autonomous women who can exercise the choice to stall or abandon reproductive roles in order to rise in the workplace or in the political arena this particular message is meant to invite people too think about what happens in womens roles if they are able to utilize reproductive awe taken my. It was no accident that this condom ad was created in order to invite and elicit that response. Using images such as these, the conservative movement invites that very response. Invoking images of strong familiar i wills and appropriate gender relations, serving as the backdrop to this game are notions of punishment as well. Women who have sex and become impregnated should bear the brunt of their sexuality. They should live with the consequences. Politicians who employ these tools propose to be guarding the appropriate and noble role of women as homemakers and caretakers by inviting a negative response to gender coated whistles. They play upon the notion that sex for women is supposed to be about procreation. A narrative that says otherwise, that argues in favor of access to contraception and other reproductive care such as abortion, allows women to injoy sex purely for the sake of sexual pleasure and threatens con ept ises of traditional family values. In this context, it becomes a strategic means to an end, provoking threat based responses in many voters who represent this disruption to perceived world order. Consider rush limbaughs portray ol of sandra fluke as a slut when she mandated for contraception care in all health plans. Listeners perceived miss flukes position as one that would sletslet threaten their patriarchal views of a womans role. Wolf whistling invites listeners and voters to react in a way that tells them that their implicit fears are at play and are much more important than their other ideas. Dr. Kristen luker, sociologist has written extensively on this topic and on abortion politics in particular. She argues that the right to Life Movement represents an attempt not to just to protect the fetus, but to ensure that family is a higher priority than a career among women. And women who choose to stay home are not relegated to a place of lower prestige relative to women who work outside the home. Taking her further, i believe it is the case that some politicians are using the right to Life Movements implicit messages of family versus career specifically to provoke voters who wish to guard against that perceived threat. Keep in mind that whistlers dont necessarily even have to believe their own message. Many of them likely do not. But just as racebased dog whistling is often nothing more than a strategic means to an end, so too is the case with genderbased whistling. Tragically, though, womens access to Reproductive Health care gets caught in the crossfire. An indeed, Womens Health and their very lives become Collateral Damage to a political scheme. So how do we respond . If my story is any kind of example, wed make the argument that is often heard, supporting women to economic autonomy is good for the economy. Assuring that women have access to education, health care, quality child care, family leave, all of these create an opportunity for women to be more successful, have increased buying power in the economy. And that is good for the economic wellbeing of all. This is the when we all do better, we all do better argument. It was the story that i told you at the beginning of my remarks. But that message isnt working to motivate gender bias voters. Why . Because its missing the point. It isnt speaking to the motives behind these particular voting choices. Its a response that hasnt stopped first to look through the lens from which these voters are making their decisions. Just think about the state of affairs that exist due to the 2014 congressional elections. We now have a house and senate comprised of a majority of members who proudly articulate their desire to deregulate big business, to return to a lauz yea fair approach and mountain ti billion Corporation Free reign and an even greater opportunity to grow their wealth disproportional to those most of the countrys population, leaving the middle class to shoulder more and more of the tax burden. There was a time postdepression when it would have been thought impossible that americans would vote to slash taxes for the rich, give corporations regulatory control over industry and the Financial Markets and to aggressively curtail social services, but American Voters are voting for candidates who pledge openly and proudly to do all of these things. And the answer as to why lies sadly in the fact that an appeal has been made to something deeper inside of them. Theyve allowed fears of societal threats to become their primary motivator at the ballot box. We see this with race. Look no further than the current conversation around immigration. And we see this with gender. With legislation either passing or percolating in almost every state in this country, and in congress, to roll back womens reproductive rights and employs the use of abortion politics as a messaging means to an end. Legitimate arguments about the fact that paths to citizenship for undocumented workers would be good for the economy, or that empowering women with reproductive autonomy is likewise good for the economy, are not getting us very far. As experience has shown us. Instead, we have to find a way to diffuse the perceived fears that are being manipulated. In the gender arena we might start by asking ourselves why young women are shooing the term feminism today, buying into the right wing message that tells them that standing for the feminist agenda, equal pay and reproductive rights will require them to check their femininity at the door. Consider the kerfuffle that occurred a couple of months ago when in an interview with redbook magazine, 29yearold amy, female lead in the popular show the big bang theory, declined to answer in the affirmative when she was asked whether she was a feminist. Is it bad if i say no, she asked. She said she enjoyed cooking for her husband and that it makes her feel like a housewife, which she said she loved. It might sound oldfashioned, she said, but i like the idea of women taking care of their men. Sadly, messaging from the far right has convinced her and so many other young women that feminism is about losing their femininity. But we have to help her and so many other women understand is that fighting for womens equality isnt about telling women how they have to live or that they cant enjoy doing things that are considered traditionally female. It is about having the freedom to choose freely what we want our roles to be. Its about being respected regardless of what those choices look like. Its about the working woman celebrating and respecting her sister who made a choice to stay home and care for her children. Its about the stayathome mom cheering on the women who are putting those cracks in the glass ceiling. Its about each of us as women and the men who love us caring enough about each other to silence the noise that attempts to keep us at odds. That relishes in the fact that we feel we have to be at odds with each other in order to feel less threatened in the choice that we have traditionally and individually made. We have to create an inclusive and shared community that sends a message that we are all in this together. We have to work to minimize or do away with perceived threats that flow from the idea of embracing gender equality. We have to fight for an america where all choices made by women are respected and valued. A New York Times Magazine Article about me during my Gubernatorial Race ran under the cover line, can wendy davis have it all . Would we ever see this question asked with regard to a male candidate . The better question is asked by Anne Marie Slaughter who is a Professor Emeritus of politics of International Affairs at princeton. In her talk she asks, can we really have it all . Presenting the idea that only when men too can freely make choices about their role as breadwinner or stayathome husbands and fathers will we achieve true gender equality. And she invites us to consider the importance of creating a world in which we equally celebrate either choice that men and women make. True gender equality will come when we take care not to view each others choices through a pejorative lens. Weve got to trade eyeglasses and look through each others spectacles, and see that we cannot be our best selves without each others support. And we have to humanize experience in a way that makes them translatable and relatable. I firmly believe that no one whether they have an r, or d next to their name wants to see the harmful secondary impacts that have flowed from the war against planned parenthood, and the closure of womens clinics that it has occasioned. In texas alone, an estimated 180,000 women lost their access to contraceptive care, not abortion care. And they lost their access to cancer screenings and diabetes screenings. And for most of these women, the only health care that they had ever known. And this happened through a strategic defunding that was aimed at bludgeoning planned parenthood. The far right has done the political calculus. They know that making planned parenthood the boogieman gets the votes. We have to talk about the human casualties of this fight, about the women who will quite literally lose their lives because of maneuverings that have placed politics above people. And we cannot refute dog whistles by refusing to identify them for what they are. We have to call them out. And challenge them. Otherwise we leave gender insinuations unchallenged and left to operate in the background to provoke fearbased reactions in voters who respond to those messages. On the very tiptop of the Texas Capitol stands a statue. It is not of a cowboy galloping on horseback. It is of a woman. And in her hand she holds a sword, lowered, in her left hand she raises a lone star proudly above her. She is called the goddess of liberty. Porcelain white. Her eyes are large and reflect a steely resolve. Late at night you can look up at the goddess of liberty and see her illuminated high atop the capitol dome. If you look closely during warm summer months, you can see the nighthawks diving and swirling around her, their small beaks and flat heads taking advantage of the glowing light surrounding her, to hunt for flying insects in the night. Through the wind and rain and brutal texas heat, the goddess of Liberty Continues to stand. She stands for freedom, wisdom and justice. She is a symbol of everything that i was fighting for on that day in june of 2013 when i stood for 13 hours. Freedom and justice for women and the wisdom of lawmakers to stop making womens bodies pawns in their political games. Appropriately and beautifully it wasnt me that carried that filibuster successfully over the midnight deadline. It was the thousands of people, women and men who were there whod had their own personal experiences that they wanted to share, who had listened as i read the heartwrenching stories of so many women and their families on the senate floor that day. There they were, and they were demanding to be heard. And when their voices were artificially silenced through political and parliamentary maneuverings that occurred that day, they rose up against that. Like the goddess of liberty with that lone star raised above her head, they stood for something. For themselves and for each other. And for women that they have never met nor will ever know. And for at least a moment, they understood and they owned that power. That power is in each of us. The power to stand, the power to unite each with each other toward the common cause of seeing and understanding each other, bound by our shared human experiences of joy and triumph, failure, and sorrow. I hope that we will own that power. And that we will use it to collectively say, we stand for a womans right to choose freely the path that she will travel. And we will fight for the tools that provide her with that choice. When she does, whether that is in making a decision about her own body or whether she will pursue a career at home or in the workplace, we will stand with her in defending her choice. I hope we will use our power to stand arm in arm with our sisters regardless of who they are or the choices that they make. Because we stand unabashedly and unashamedly for womens equality. And when we do unite and stand together for that cause, we truly will have the power to make it happen. Thank you all so very, very much. [ applause ] thank you for that inspiring speech. And we are so grateful to have you here. And i had the pleasure of immersing myself very deeply into your memoir this past week or two. And i wanted one thing that struck me is just to see senator davis today and how poised and selfconfident and her strength just comes through. And yet you describe growing up as being painfully shy, and naturally very modest, which are attributes we see more often than not in women. So im wondering if you have advice for the audience as to how women who are struggling to find their voice can do so . I found mine, as i said in my remarks, through my own personal experiences. Everything that i fought for in the texas senate was really based on those. I was a champion for public education. I had a much lesserknown filibuster fighting to prevent 5. 5 billion in cuts to our schools in texas. I fought against payday lending because i understand how people can get caught in a loan that literally can financially ruin them. And, of course, i fought for womens reproductive autonomy, because of my own experiences. And the benefits i received from that kind of care. And as we as women are listening to our own voices and thinking about how we will use them to speak, i think naturally we will find our way and we do find our way doing that based on the things weve experienced in our own lives and have motivated us to stand up and speak out on them. What i hope that women more and more will do is own our power to do that, and push against our natural tendencies to be shy, or softspoken, and use those very important voices that we have to move gender equality forward. It sounds like its your voice is found through the heart. Yeah. And courage, and what you know to be true. So the passion rises, and from there you speak. Which is really a wonderful thing to see. Lets talk about power. Its been said that laws are like sausages and its better not to see them being made. And your memoir nicely illustrates some of the dogeatdog nature of politics. I want to ask you, though, about whether you think this might be a gender this particular view may be a gender view of power . Im not sure if youre familiar with the book the athena doctrine that came out in 2012. This is a report that reports on a survey done of 64,000 people across the globe. And representing twothirds of the worlds gdp. And what they found is that twothirds of the respondents agreed that the world would be a better place if men thought more like women. I wanted to get your views on this, and whether you think that mass you lynn power is different from feminine power . And how that plays out in the world of politics . Yeah, i think we uniquely utilize our skills to use our power in the ways that we naturally are comfortable with. Its a bit stereo typical, i think, to say that women tend to have a style that makes their ability to use their power unique. But we do have something very unique, and that is, we bring a perspective of what its like to be female in the world to the table. And when we believe in ourselves enough to bring those issues forward, and to make sure that theyre heard in the conversations, its terribly important. We do need to be a government, whether its at the local, state, federal level, thats reflective of our population. And unless and until we can elect more women into both roles, were not going to be. I found that i had to be particularly scrappy in the texas senate to get my voice heard. And that i couldnt rely on just having sort of a softer negotiating style, female, you know, stereotypical style. I had to be a real fighter in those back rooms and really push hard for the things that i was trying to advance. So it sounds like you had to learn to embrace both your masculine and your feminine as expects of power, and to fight the fight, as it currently exists, and at the same time remain true to the values that youve been socialized to hold, by virtue of the fact of being a woman. Let me see here what else i was going to ask you. Youve obviously been on a wild political ride. Its quite a sight to observe. Its seemingly equal measures of victory and defeat. And i wonder if you could reflect on what might have been, and what lessons youve learned, and whether you have any regrets, or just in general, what youve learned that will enable you to go forward and enact the vision that you see for a Better Future . I certainly dont regret running for governor this past year. It was not only a very rewarding personal experience for me, but i felt like it gave me an opportunity to move the conversation, and to make sure that at the very least, i was highlighting things that werent being heard in the texas capital, and in the Governors Mansion in particular. And i know that i spoke to a lot of people who feel like their voices havent been represented in the halls of that capital. So i wont ever say that i would regret having done that. Ive also learned that there are many things that we do that we fail at when we first try. When i ran for office the very first time, for city council in ft. Worth, i lost. But theres something to be gained in losing. It provides you a perspective to look back and ask yourself what could i and should i have done differently. And ive certainly done a fair measure of that, looking back at my Gubernatorial Race. One of the things i would do differently is, as i mentioned in my remarks, i would call out some of the gender politics that was at play in a much more vocal way than i did. In fact, when i was asked by reporters about some of these things, i usually demured and tried to downplay the fact that i was being treated in any way differently as a female candidate than a male candidate was. But i think when we do that, we give permission for that to be the way we are treated in the political arena. And just as professor lopez talks about the fact that when blatant race appeals are used, voters stand up against those. When they see that thats whats at play, they react in a very unfavorable way to them. I think helping voters see that theyre being invited to view women in a way that isnt fairly reflective of who they truly are and their potential as state and local and national leaders, if we make that point known, and we bring people present and aware to the messaging that theyre receiving, that they may be unconsciously reacting to, i think we can help to really push back against that. And as a woman candidate, ive learned that it is important to call it out when its happening. In your book, you describe a parallel between former Texas Governor ann richards and yourself, in the sense that you both had strong marriages, with true partners. Yet running for office placed a strain on your marriages that could not be sustained. You stated at its most basic point, referring to your former husband, our relationship had begun and been built upon a power differential. You were struggling with the need to forge your own way for a while to get to know who you could be separate and apart from him. Im wondering, referring back to ann marie slaughter, do you think when we can have it all, and if not, what needs to change within the home so that men are more comfortable with womens power . You know, this is if i can answer this question, and solve this issue, id be doing the world a great deal of good. It is difficult. Of course, you have two professors on your faculty here, governor grandholm and her husband, dan. And they confronted this issue. And theyve been very open in talking about it. It can be very difficult, as women are working to find their foothold in careers, not only to deal with the way that theyre viewed by the outside world, and some of the people that they may be working with, but even in their own homes, where their spouses may feel threatened by that. And i know that the tension, the pace, the pressure of running for office, and Holding Office certainly took its toll on my marriage. The same happened for ann richards, even though she and her husband had had a very respectful and vibrant partnership for many, many years in the political arena, as i did with my husband, my former husband. And, you know, i wish it werent the case that that pressure became too much. It tends to be the situation that when male candidates are running, and when they hold office, theres a much more comfortable role that they have with their spouses than sometimes exists for women who are pursuing those same passions. Right. Well, thank you for being a trail blazer, despite the personal cost that youve incurred as you acknowledge. So i wanted to ask you, so you described in your book we know that you wore a football helmet to get tough in the face of opposition during your filibuster. Yu outfitted yourself with a cathet catheter, back brace and pink Running Shoes that increased your endurance and stamina. Can you comment more generally how you take care of yourself, psychologically, spiritually in this fastpaced world . Aryan a huffington talked about the third metric of success, which had more to do with the being of wealth. Its so important and it can be so hard that our schedules demand we focus our attentions on Everything Else. But Everything Else suffers if we dont give that third metric its due attention and care. For me, it comes in the form of running, and other forms of exercise that i do. Trying to eat well. Sleep is a real challenge, but i try. And i think that thats true, no matter what were doing in our lives. If we can create that kind of balance, and we have the outlet that exercise provides us, in taking care of ourselves provides. We have the ability to keep our engines going so we can pursue the things we really care about. Do you go so far as to actually put it into your schedule firm, that this is the hour that im working out today, and its nonnegotiable . I had to do that in my campaign. Because it could literally eat every moment of your day if you allowed it. I had to get really forceful ultimately with the person who was handling my schedule about making sure that she was giving me the time to be able to do that. Good. Well, i want to ask some questions that have been submitted from the audience. And i think we will go until 5 15, just so everybody knows. The first question, what do you recommend students do to address issues pertaining to women, such as changing rape culture and making our communities places where women can safely succeed along with their male counterparts . First i want to applaud what is happening on College Campuses around the country, where women, and men who care about this issue, are really trying to move the conversation forward about Sexual Assault. And painting and putting a light on whats going on, and shining that light, and making sure that were confronting the reality of whats happening is so very, very important. If thats something that any of you here are involved in doing, my congratulations, and appreciation to you for that work. When we shed light on issues, and when we, as i said in my remarks, when we humanize them for each other, it really helps the conversation. I have found in my political life that when we meet our opponents in an honest way, and we talk about things in human terms, and we uncharge the language a bit, and try to relate to each other as one human to another, we really can appeal to people in a way that they might initially have their defenses up about. And this issue is no different than that. Making sure that womens experiences are being looked at as very human, very real experiences, and shedding some understanding on that by virtue of telling our personal stories. This is why i felt it was important, even in the context of my campaign with a lot of people saying they didnt understand why i did it. This is why in my book i told my story about my experience, my personal experience with abortion. We have to destigmatize these things. And we have to be able to talk about them so that we can all relate better to what those human experiences are, and why it is that good reproductive policies are important just as Sexual Assault protections are important. Sure. We absolutely need to allow the issue to see the light of day. So what are the main obstacles that women running for office face today . How big a role does sexism still play in 2015 . And then theres a hybrid question here, how do you combat sexism when it comes from your family, if it does . Interesting. I showed those slides. Literally, that is the tip of the iceberg. You know, i know that all women are treated in ways that invites voters to look at them as women, not necessarily as the leaders that we are, and have the potential to be. In my race, it was particularly flagrant. I think that when we see Hillary Clinton talked about as a candidate, and when we saw her experience even in her prior president ial race, she has a particular target on her that a lot of men come after. It can be really difficult. But i feel a responsibility to all the other women who are considering running for office to show that we can rise above that as women candidates. As i said earlier, i think we do need to call it out when its there and bring attention to it, and shame those who are doing it. But at the same time, we have to show that we can rise above it, and move through it. And continue to fight for the things that really matter to us. Otherwise, the folks who are sending those messages win. Right. Absolutely. So do you think mandatory paid Maternity Leave will become a reality in our lifetime . I certainly hope so. Given that were the only industrialized country that doesnt currently have that, i certainly hope so. And i tend to be very, very optimistic about things. And believe that if we continue to fight hard enough for that, were going to make it a reality. At the very least, its finally moving forward in the conversation in a way thats getting a lot more attention than it has been in the past. And its so terribly important just not on the maternal side, but the paternal side to make sure were providing people in an equal gender way in the work force the ability to have a family and to have a career and to not compromise either of those by virtue of wanting to have both. Great. So you described several instances in your memoir in which you learn that swimming against the tide and being outspoken rarely go unpunished. In the academic world we call this backlash. Women more often than men are subjected to it. Yet your willingness to play the political game despite these hardships nicely illustrates the concept of leaning in, which women are being encouraged to do today. As important as leaning in is, does it put too much onus on women to advance their individual agency, and what can we do to foster a greater sense of collective agency . Leaning in, obviously, is important. And i think we can all feel and relate to the experience of having done that at some point in our lives. But its also important that we dont put that responsibility solely on women to achieve for themselves. Because that forgives the environment which is forcing women to live in an unequalized world. We also have to confront workplace policies, and legislative policies that either dont exist, or do exist in ways that are harmful to women. We have to work to make sure that governmental policies, workplace policies are creating the kind of environment that truly is gender equal. And i worry a little bit that if we tell women this responsibility belongs solely to them, we create a sense that women may sense that somehow they are doing something wrong, when there really is a much broader issue at play. I want us all to be working on those broader things and making sure that we reform things at the policy level in order to create true gender equalized opportunities. Absolutely. Did you see par tricia arquette at the Academy Awards . Do you think well get to the equal pay, too . You know, i was very pleased, obviously, as i said in my remarks that president obama passed the Lily Ledbetter act. Many people thought that was job done. That they thought back when president kennedy passed the equal pay act way back when was job done. The fact of the matter is, state by state by state, these protections have to be created as well. In my own state, i worked very hard in my last legislative session to get an equal pay bill through the texas senate. No easy feat. Its a republican majority in both the texas senate and the texas house. But we did get it through. And we were so excited to place this bill on governor perrys desk. Governor perry received pressure from companies, like kroeger and macys who wanted him to veto that bill. And he vetoed that bill in favor of the pressure that he received. This is happening not just in texas, but elsewhere, where these bills arent even making it, as i said earlier, to the governors desk. And weve got to make our elected leaders feel that they own the same responsibility to us that t