Transcripts For CSPAN3 Legacy Future Of The 19th Amendment 20240712

Have worked tirelessly to make this program possible. Thank you to each and every one of them for their contributions and support. Id also like to say a huge thank you to our Program Sponsors p g and merck. This program would not have been possible without them. For those of you who dont know us, all in together is a nonpartisan womens Civic Education organization. Since our founding in 2014, weve trained tens of thousands of women across america on the tools of civic leadership, advocacy and community organizing. We are working to ensure women have power and agency in american democracy. Were especially committed to mobilizing women at the margins of our democratic process. In this year and every year, our work remains urgent and vital. This Program Honors the heroism of the suffragettes who fought to ensure women the right to vote but also reminds us of the many women who were left out of that victory. We celebrate womens suffrage even as we remember that women of color could not exercise their right to vote until so many years later. In fact, tonight is also the anniversary of the Voting Rights act which was passed into law on august 6, 1965, finally eliminating the barriers to black women and men accessing their long denied fundamental right to vote. Tonights program is a chance to better understand the past, the present, and envision a future with true equity for all. To contribute to our conversation about the 19th amendment, please join us on social media using the 19at100. Theres much to celebrate about the progress of women from 1920 to now. Women have become half the american workforce, more than half the College Degree earners, primary bread winners and they have broken barriers in every field and discipline. Since 1980, women have outvoted men in every election. During the 2018 midterms, women showed up in Record Numbers, outvoting men in nearly every age bracket and electing a record 131 women to congress. Now in the 2020 election cycle, more women than ever have filed to run for office. Weve come a long way and yet true gender equity remains elusive. We may break barriers but american women remain underrepresented in leadership in every domain. Lgbt women, especially trans women, face legal and social barriers to equality that are far from being overcome. Women faced shocking levels of domestic violence, the wage gap, and americans in poverty are disproportionately female. Now, in the time of covid, women face new struggles to manage the burdens of care, health, welfare, and Economic Security. As we look to the future and what the next 100 years brings, there remains much work to be done. So tonight we look at the past, the present, and the future to learn, reflect and commit to progress. We have incredible conversations ahead with luminary historians, our keynote speaker, nancy pelosi, a conversation with secretary Condoleezza Rice, and a look to the future with abby wambach and brittany cunningham. I hope youll stay with us. Its going to be awesome. We begin tonights conversation with a look at the past and the history of suffrage produced by our partners at the National Constitution center. Were thrilled to welcome professor martha jones, professor of history at Johns Hopkins university, and Lisa Tetrault from Carnegie Mellon university, National Constitution Center President Jeffrey Rosen will lead the discussion. Jeff, over to you. Welcome to our panel about the past, the untold, unknown history of womens suffrage. Im so honored to be here with two of americas leading historians of the Womens Suffrage Movement. Both of them have new books out and i cant wait to share the phenomenal arguments with you. Lisa taytro and martha jones, welcome. Thank you. I have to thank you for your great advice with the National Constitution centers new exhibit on the 19th amendment, how women won the vote. Its that beautiful building which is on the backdrop behind me thats going to open on august 26 which is the actual 100th anniversary of womens suffrage. Today of course were talking to our friends on august 6, the 100th anniversary of the Voting Rights act of 1965, or rather, the day of the anniversary. You, in your great book about seneca falls, the myth of seneca falls, memory and the Womens Suffrage Movement, argue that seneca falls was not the beginning of the Womens Suffrage Movement which in fact began far earlier. Tell us about the origin story of the fight for womens suffrage. I think the first point, jeffrey, is that there is no single fight. It is many, many, many fights, so it depends which strand of the story you pick up and then where you trace it back to. We have contained a story from 1848 to 1920 but that was really a product of white suffragists themselves who were trying to elevate their particular fight and their particular agenda, Elizabeth Katie stanton and susan b. Anthony, and it had a lot to do with fights inside the movement where they were trying to exile and sideline other suffragists who didnt share their particular vision. Even within a kind of white womens suffrage fight, there were many, many strands and many parts of the story. So in some ways when we tell the story of seneca falls were reading the end of the story back onto the beginning and missing a lot of the complexity. As we unravel 1920 on this anniversary, we are simultaneously and hopefully increasingly unraveling stories of beginnings. Martha jones, in your forthcoming book van guard u argue that the movement didnt have an end point in 1920, and in fact, we would do better to think of it as a struggle from the early 19th century through 1965. Tell us about that argument and also about the heroic africanamerican women who you highlight and whose stories you tell. When we take the Vantage Point of africanamerican women, it turns out that the start point and the end point, if indeed there is one, these are very different. Van guard begins in the first decades of the 19th century with truly pathbreaking africanamerican women who first and foremost develop a political critique that is one that decries both the influence of racism as well as the influence of sexism on american politics, and this becomes, if you will, the signature defining feature of africanamerican womens politics Going Forward. Yes, 1920 is a landmark moment for some africanamerican women in states like new york, illinois, california. Black women will be voting even before ratification of the 19th amendment but for too many africanamerican women the 19th amendment, while a landmark, is not the gateway to Voting Rights at all. State laws, jim crow laws like poll taxes and literacy tests will keep far too many black women from the polls until in 1965, as you suggest, the passage of the Voting Rights act gives a kind of teeth to both the 15th amendment from 1870 and the 19th amendment from 1920 and opens up a new chapter in Voting Rights for black americans, one in which now there will be federal oversight that looks to guarantee the right to vote for the very first time. Lets take the story chronologically so we understand the relationship of the movement for womens suffrage from the seneca falls leaders and from africanamerican women. Lisa, if i may, tell us about susan b. Anthony and Elizabeth Katie stanton, the women at the heart of the seneca falls movement. What was the Seneca Falls Convention arguing for when it invoked the declaration of independence to argue that all men and women are created equal, and how did what began was a movement for womens civil rights more generally focus in particular on the right of women to vote . Thats a big story. I would start off with saying that i think really this begins at the founding more appropriately and there were women at the founding, probably many, many more than we know of because many voices were not preserved, already saying if man is capable of selfgovernment why am not i . And we know quite famously that Abigail Adams would say remember the ladies but she was certainly not alone, and the founding framers of the constitution and others spoke repeatedly of the upswelling of desires for selfgovernance and of voting and of many other rights at the time of the founding. I think we dont really have a clear picture in many ways of just how robust that sentiment was among women partly because those records havent been kept. But by the time we start to see some stirring for voting, it is a very different kind of american democracy. We cant really tell this story without telling the sort of evolution of american democracy itself because gender is not an isolated variable in this story. As voting starts to change and become something that is more central to peoples lives by the 1820s and 1830s, many people start to incorporate that into their overall calls for rights but not in a way that they center it as the most important of their rights, and for many people what was necessary for the strength of american democracy was Something Else entirely. For example, the abolition of slavery. But the Seneca Falls Convention is, as we know it, the first Womens Rights Convention in the United States and it is not the first call for the vote which is often said about it. Thats part of the mythology that i trace in my book. Susan b. Anthony was not in fact there although she is routinely placed there. In her obituary it would say she began the fight at seneca falls which is also part of the mythology that i tell in my book. It was a local impromptu convention that no one at the time would have thought was sparking a movement or that began the movement. Nobody would say really that this convention which took that founding document and turned it into this cry for womens rights say, for example, we hold these truths to be selfevident that all men and then they had and women are created equal. This is the famous declaration of sentiments. Instead of listing grievances against the king, they list grievances which include everything from voting to equal pay to equal education to access to the professions, to an end to the sexual double standard, to property holding. Again, many of these are concerns that address a certain type of womens life but arent necessarily addressing the concerns of other women, so its a kind of womens rights agenda that puts the vote in it but it doesnt sen censured the vote. That sense that this began the movement r seneca falls, is something that gets created after the American Civil War and then read back onto the beginning in a way that is about politics after the American Civil War and adjudicating those politics. But seneca falls is routinely used at the beginning and susan b. Anthony is routinely and erroneously placed there in a way that hurts our understanding of the movement and Voting Rights generally and the evolution of american democracy. Martha jones, help us understand how after the civil war the Movement Began to be focused on the right to vote and your previous book all bound up together you tell the amazing story of how africanamerican activist women who were often marginalized in public life in the 1830s became Community Leaders by the 1890s. Introduce the complicated and important relationship between the Womens Suffrage Movement and the abolitionist movement. We have Frederick Douglass standing with womens suffra suffragists but the movements splinter after the civil war. Its a complicated story. Help us understand it. Thanks. Youre bringing us to the 1860s to an extraordinary some would say revolutionary moment in the history of american law and politics, this opportunity to rethink the fundamental terms of the u. S. Constitution, the 13th amendment that abolishes slavery, the 14th amendment that establishes birth right, citizenship and equality before the law. There indeed is an Old Coalition of folks who have radical activists, womens rights activists, abolitionists who have known each other for a very long time, who reconvene in the 1860s and the question before them is what is their relationship going to be to this constitutional revolution that is being brought in many ways not in their meetings but in congress. You have the coming together of figures like Elizabeth Katie stanton, Frederick Douglass, wendell phillips, and it is true that this coalition really struggles over how to whether to endorse and whether to support eradicatira ratificatioh and most importantly the 15th amendment which will again speak to race but not speak to gender when it comes to Voting Rights. Oftentimes this is a story that gets told as a faceoff between Frederick Douglass, an africanamerican man, and Elizabeth Katie stanton, a white woman. This is a troubling myth, to borrow lisas framing. Its a troubling myth because of course there are also africanamerican women in these meetings. Sojourner truth, the very well known by this period antislavery and womens rights orator, and Francis Watkins harper who is somewhat of a newcomer and has established herself as a poet and public speaker. I want to focus on harper because when we focus on her as an africanamerican woman, we learn something about what is troubling this meeting. Watkins harper comes in and shes deeply skeptical of just about everybody in the room. She is quite sure that no one quite appreciates the circumstances that africanamerican women face in this new extraordinary moment as they look to law and politics to address both racism and sexism simultaneously. It isnt possible in watkins harpers view to take a position that speaks to antiblack racism and doesnt also speak to gender. Her often quoted line is, we are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity. This becomes the signature contribution that africanamerican women will make to this ongoing debate over Voting Rights that will continue i would say even until our own time. This view that it is not possible to parse out access to the polls, access to office holding, to jury service and more along manmade differences as she put it like race and gender, that she asks this, including stanton, including douglass, to really lift their sights to the interests of all humanity as she would put it and this is the position that black women will put on the table. They will not carry the day in the 1860s but they will press this position coming all the way through the 19th amendment and beyond. Ill leave it to another panel to decide whether weve actually arrived at that ideal. Its Francis Watkins harper who puts that on the table as early as the 1860s. In your book you tell the story of not only of Francis Watkins harper but also other heroic black women, maria stewart, fanny lou hammer and more. Tell us about their activism during this crucial period between the passage of the 15th and 19th amendment. Some activists were arguing as Lisa Tetrault argues for change at the state level, others were arguing for courts to recognize women suffrage. What was the position of these africanamerican women you write about and how successful were africanamerican women in particular in getting the right to vote in the states during this crucial transition period . One of the important facets of this story in my research was to recognize that while we have been able to recover small and important members of africanamerican women who are part of the womens Suffrage Association that take us, if you will, from the civil war to the 19th amendment, it is a small number of africanamerican women. Part of my work was to ask, where did where were black women if they werent a part of these Suffrage Associations. One of the myths about them is that they hadnt been interested in politics, they hadnt been interested in Voting Rights. I wind up following them, if you will, to the places where they do gather and it turns out that africanamerican women are gathered in important numbers, by the thousands and tens of thousands, first in their churches, black methodist and Baptist Churches where in the same period theyre engaged in pitched debates over their political power within religious denominations. Will they have preaching licenses, will they have offices within their denominations, will they be ordained to the ministry . And when they engage in these debates they are speaking precisely the sorts of language and making the sorts of arguments that are animating suffrage debates at the very same moment. By the 1890s, by 1895 and 1896 africanamerican women are, indeed, prepared to gather in a national organization, but it will not, again, be a Suffrage Association, it will be the National Association of colored women. It will be a Club Movement that gathers together hundreds and thousands of local black women clubs across the country and activates them for a whole range of political work. Even before suffrage, these clubs are organizing against lynching and advocating for federal antilynching legislation led to an important degree by the great suffragist, black suffragist, ida b. Wells. The founding of black women politics as a companion to the Suffrage Movement is through an organization that yes, comes to adopt womens suffrage as part of its agenda and to work hard to that end, but at the same time is active and committed to what wed say in 21st century parlance was antiracist work, in particular, the move for federal antilynching legislation. Black women do not find it comfortable home in Suffrage Associations. The important degree to which racism has informed that movement for some women individually but more importantly i think strategically and instrumentally, it means that africanamerican women never find a comfortable home here. But at the same time they are as lisa has suggested, already part of the political machines in cities like new york and chicago, San Francisco and los angeles even before the 19th amendment. So theyre beginning to work their political power to influence the agenda, particularly of the Republican Party of that era and at the same time black women are organizing with one another, citizenship schools and suffrage schools. Because what they know it is no secret in the years leading up to the radification of the 19th amendment that they will face an additional set of hurdles in too many states, poll taxes, literacy tests, in addition to intimidation and violence. So suffrage and citizenship schools become the ways that black women prepare one another and it turns out they also prepare black men who have been away from the polls for a very long time for a new wave of registration, new attempts to cast ballots in the fall of 1920. As we know, too much of that will not succeed and require black women to mount another movement for womens suffrage, if you will, one that begins in august of 1920. Lisa, take us up from 1913 to the passage. In march 1913, the two womens movements of africanamerican women marchers and white women converged on the eve of a president ial inauguration and set in motion a series of events that led to a lastminute shift of a vote by a tennessee senator who was got a letter from his mother and the amendment was proposed and passed. Tell us about that story, why did it pass when it did . Its a cinematic finish, the ratification, both of the fight for the actual voting, where Congress Approves the amendment and it goes to the states for threefourths for ratification. Beginning often with this parade in 1913 which was a massive peaceful protest in washington, d. C. , done on the eve of Woodrow Wilsons inauguration to upstage him. Hundreds of thousands of people turns out in the streets, tens of thousands of women are marching and violence erupts. This is the kind of violence that many women of color experience on a daily basis. But its shocking for americans, white americans, to see this happen to sort of good upstanding white women. It makes frontpage press. There is of course the usual racial tensions and kind of concessions to White Supremacy inside white suffrage activism. They ask ida b. Wells, who is one of the nations premier civil rights leaders to march at the parade. And this is emblematic in many ways of the ways in which white suffragists made concessions to and accommodations to White Suprema supremacy. And that parade leaves alice paul, who directs it and becomes the center of the theatrics of the campaign to do more and more theatrics including picketing the white house, underscoring the ways in which the United States is defending democracy abroad but not protecting it at home and it would lead up to Congress Finally passing this for many reasons, including the fact that the Southern States has disenfranchised africanamericans with jim crow laws. They know that women of color will have difficulty voting and then it goes to ratification. Flies through ratification until it stops. Sits with one state short for months and months and months. Tennessee takes it up. It looks like its going to its not going to pass. The youngest member gets a letter from his mother and says be a good boy. He changes his vote dramatically. It goes over by one and the hundreds of thousands of votes and fights and letters have finally pushed the amendment over to ratification. Its a cinematic finish. But its not the end of the right to the vote. It is the eradication of the word male which is significant. It was an insufficient achievement to pass the 19th amendment but tell us what happened next. Africanamerican men of course in 1920 had already been severely disenfranchised by literacy tests, poll taxes. How did africanamerican women fair in voting between 1920 and 1965 with a disenfranchised at an even greater rate than africanamerican men with different ruses and illicit means. Tell us about their story and how they contributed to the package of the 1965 Voting Rights act. Sure. Theres no question, but they africanamerican women in a strong sense become equal to their male counterparts in 1920. But that means also equally disenfranchised subject to the same jim crow laws, the adaptation of jim crow laws. It has to be amended now to include women in the state of georgia. But africanamerican women, again, in the National Association of colored women now headed by an ohioan call on alice paul in 1921 on the eve of the last what turns out to be the last meeting of the National Womens party and they implore alice paul to stay in the fight for Voting Rights even with the victory of the 19th amendment behind them because black women know the 19th amendment is not going to be enough to get all of them to the polls. They are disappointed by alice paul who will move on to laudable concerns like the equal rights amendment. But africanamerican will link arms with africanamerican men in a civil rights agenda that looks to topple other statelevel impediments to the vote. This is a story that takes us through to the modern Civil Rights Era and the 1965 ratification of the excuse me, a passage of the Voting Rights act. What i want to point out in this interim 45 years is that africanamerican women, though disfranchised, do not sit on the sidelines and wait until that moment when theyll be welcome today the polls. I write about a figure like mary church terrell, a floridian, a staunch Voting Rights activist in florida in 1919 and 1920, an educator, the founder of ba thune bookman university. When they cant make good on Voting Rights, she comes to washington and introduces herself to Franklin Roosevelt and will help roosevelt establish what is referred to as his black cabinet. Bethune understands that power in washington comes by way of the election of representatives but in the wake of the depression and the advent of the new deal state, if one can comen deer the agencies which are charged with digging the nation of the depression, one can do a great deal for black areas across the country. And they will use that kind of influence to bring black americans literally to washington to work in those agencies but most importantly to redirect the resources of those agencies toward black americans all of this long before we get to the Voting Rights act. This is why black women can never be single issue political agents. They have to be nimble. They have to be inventive. They have to be ready to seize opportunities where they exist. And bethune is a wonderful example of a politician. She figures out now how to get close to power in washington and do something with it. Thank you so much, martha jones and lisa for illuminating the complicated and important history of the 19th amendment. Well look forward to the next panels about the present and future of the fight for the right to vote and well look towards to seeing all of you in person at the National Constitution Center Online to celebrate, commemorate and learn about this crucial constitutional anniversary. Lisa, martha, thank you so much for joining. Good to be with you. Thanks for having us. Thank you, jeff and professors for that fascinating discussion. Lets please welcome the 10th ar chi vis of the United States and debra wall, the deputy archivists of the United States. 100 years ago, the 19th amendment became law prohibiting states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. Our regards such as petitions, legislation and court cases tell the story of the struggle for Voting Rights as a critical step toward equal citizenship. The passage of the 19th amendment was made possible by decades of engagement. American women across the spectrum of race, ethnicity and class advanced the cause of suffrage. Even though were commemorating the centennial, the struggle continued well i dont 1920. As a member of the congresswomens con ten yal commission, im honored to be a part of the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment. The success of the campaign and the fortitude shown by its supporters demonstrated that women can make their choices heard in the political arena. Women had been active before the Suffrage Movement. With that fight, they showed they could have a voice on the national stage. Without the right to vote, women knew they were denied their full rights as citizens. With the vote, they could exert influence on elected officials and lobby for issues important to them as guaranteed in the constitution. This anniversary reminds us that the right to vote was not always guaranteed but was one through generations of tireless activists. Were honored to be the home of the 19th amendment. Please join us this month at archives. Gov women as we highlight records and examine the fight for Voting Rights through programs for all ages. Thank you, david and debra. Now from the past to the present and our keynote conversation. Mark updegrove speaks with the most powerful woman in america today. Speaker nancy pelosi needs letter introduction. Shes, of course, speaker of the house of representatives, the first woman speaker in American History and only the second person in 60 years to hold that position twice. A member of congress for more than 30 years, a member of the National Womens hall of fame, grandmother to nine grandchildren. She is the proud representative of San Franciscos 12th congressional district. Please join me in welcoming Mark Updegrove and speaker nancy pelosi. What an honor it is to have you with us today. Thank you so much for doing this. My honor. Always to be associated with the not only the lbj library and foundation but with all of the groups who are assembled for the purpose of observing the 100th anniversary of the women having the right to vote. Well, you have said many times that when you made history by becoming the first woman to become the speaker of the house of representatives, you stood on the shoulders of the women who came before you. Im wondering, who are the women in history from whom you drew inspiration . Let me just say that many of the women from whom i drew inspiration starting with my own family, with my mother, were quiet contributors to the greatness of our country. Some more famous than others. But i always like to tell the story, since were talking history, of my first meeting when i went to the white house as a leader. I had been at the white house many times as an appropriator, an intelligence person for years. So i wasnt apprehensive about the meeting. I was thinking much about it. As the door closed behind me in the room, it was a small room, president , Vice President and the leaders, house and senate, democratic and republican, very small group. As soon as the door closed, i realized this was unlike any other meeting i had been to in the white house because i was there not an appointee of the president , but by being elected by my colleagues to represent them at the table. And president bush was president , ever gracious, always gracious. But this was george w. Bush. And as he was welcoming me as a new leader coming to the table, this or thought, i felt very closed in at my chair. I never felt anything quite like it. And all of a sudden i realized that on the chair with me was susan b. Anthony, sojourner truth, alice paul, you name it, they were all there on the chair with me. And i could hear them saying, at last we have a seat at the table. And then they were gone. Never had that experience before or since. My first thought was, we want more. So those women those women were so courageous. They took they took abuse. They worked so hard. They had an idea. They had a vision. They had a knowledge of why they wanted to get this done. They had a plan to do it. They thought strategically and they connected with other women and other likeminded people across the country and it took decades. But they, the ones who started it, made it happen. So i just am in awe of the encourage that they had. The 19th amendment granted women the right to vote in 1920. There were Many Americans of color, men and women alike who were denied that right. Last month, we lost your dear friend and colleague john lewis and there was no greater champion of Voting Rights than lewis. We do this broadcast on the 55th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights act which president johnson signed on this day in 1965. But the Voting Rights act has been weakened in recent years. Im wondering what steps can americans take to ensure that we dont have voting suppression in this country and that there are no barriers to the ballot box . I appreciate your asking that question, especially because of our loss of john lewis who sacrificed everything for the right to vote because he saw it as a sacred right. I do want to acknowledge that there were many women of color who were part of the Suffrage Movement as well who were part of women having a right to vote. As you indicated, people of color did not enjoy that right which was owed them. And i had the privilege as leader some years ago in passing, 06, 07, the Voting Rights act that president bush signed. We had a bipartisan march down the steps of the Capitol House and senate and the court overturned that part of it part of it and now we have to replace that. And that is very sad to think that just a few short years ago, it was completely nonpartisan and now theres a resistance to passing hr4, which is our bill, in the United States senate which has already passed the house. But wasnt Lyndon Johnson just wonderful . The encourage he had, again, strategic, a vision, he knew what he wanted to do, who could they more strategically then he, he knew the encourage of certain people or not, and he got the job done and i will never forget him saying, when we see in the film now, we shall overcome. And he did. What did it mean to you to become the first woman to hold the position of speaker . What does it mean to you to hold that position during the centennial year of the 19th amendment to the constitution . Its pretty exciting to observe the 100th anniversary of women of the 19th amendment. To be speaker at this time is a special honor and to do so at a time when there are over 100 women in the house of representatives. Thats quite remarkable. Over 100 women. We made a decision on our side of the aisle that we would do that. We went from 12, when i got to congress, to 90 now and now were up more, of course. But a big change. The other side is slower. Hopefully theyll come around to that to some of that success. But it means a great deal because i do believe that theres nothing more wholesome or more important to governance and politics in our country than the increased participation of women. Not that women are better than men, but we need the mix at the table. We want more. And the diversity produces such a different result which has sustainability because it springs from the thinking of many of the people who would be affected by the policies. So it means to me a great deal to be speaker of the house, first woman at a time, 100 years, and, again, the fight continues. Madam speaker, at this moment, what is the biggest challenge that women face in our nation . There are a number of them. But to enlarge the issue, i do believe that weve come to a change. When i came into politics, into the congress over 30 years ago, in fact john lewis and i were classmates, we served together for 33 years, it was a different world about women in politics. I didnt have any hesitation to be confident about what i could do, but there werent that many of us. Now just think of what happened the day after the inauguration. Women marched. It wasnt political and it wasnt organized. It was spontaneous and organic. They came from all over the world and realized the power of their presence just by turning up. Women marched. Women ran. Women voted. Women won. Over 100 women in congress. And i always just say to women, know your power. Know the confidence of who you are. So i would say that they should have the confidence that they can do any job. If its a problem that men are not accepting that, thats the mens problem. Thats your problem. And whats encouraging, though, is that fathers of daughters, i just met your beautiful daughter, and the confidence that dads have in their daughters is something that is different. Not that dads didnt have confidence in their daughters, but they were protective. Now dads think their daughters can do anything. So thats the big plus. Sons are raised to have that same kind of respect. But there are still obstacles out there and, again, they will be overcome. But it does take the confidence that women should have and what they can do. I said take inventory of who you are. Theres nobody like you. You are the most authentic you and what you the contribution you can make is different from everyone else. If you all think that way, just think the difference that you can make. One of these times we will have pretty soon women in a Democratic Caucus than men. I say that with all the respect in the world for men. You may have answered this, but im wondering what advice you would want to impart to those young women in the current generation who want to make a kind of difference that you have made for women in this nation and in the world . The best advice that i can give young women and i am asked this all the time, is the best advice that i received myself a long time ago, be yourself. Be yourself. Be you. You are great. Know your power. Have confidence in who you are. And i do frequently asked what one thing you would do, and i would globally prioritize the education of women and girls throughout the world. So that they also will have their confidence to make their contribution because it makes a big difference in their families, in their communities, in their societies, in their countries. So im very optimistic about the growing confidence of women, if investment in their education globally is very important, its very important. The one specific piece of advice i give people when they come to congress is that i always as leader, speaker, leader, ive always said, i want you to have a security credential, whether its veterans affairs, armed services, intelligence, homeland security, government reform, subcommittees on security because the one thing when you ask about sometimes people dont see a women as a commander in chief and they should. But they its important for women to not only bring that priority but to bring the knowledge so you have a vision about what makes a country strong, how to do so in a peaceful way, but in order to do that, you have to know the territory. And so, again, know yourself in the global sense. Know the security, the National Security, and the Economic Security issues. Otherwise people say, youre coming and well get some more things about childcare and this and that. Of course, but take your place when it comes to being a potential commander in chief, take your place and being a potential secretary of the treasury, whatever it is. There isnt any job you cant hold. But you have to have knowledge and judgment and people then will respect your judgment. You mentioned, madam speaker, your first piece of advice is be yourself. Did it take you a while to find your voice in the political world . I had absolutely zero, minus, intention of running for a political office. It wasnt even something i thought about nor a neurosurgeon. It was outside my realm of what i would be doing. Thats the other advice i give people. When the opportunity presented itself and people came to me and said, you should run for office, i had not thought about doing it, i didnt even i had no ambition to do it. They told me, you care about the issues, you can do this, you can do that, you can win. I was ready. I was ready. And i tell people, be ready. It doesnt mean youre sitting there ready to run for office. But you have again, youve taken inventory. You know your strengths. You know your priorities. And when you can show what your why, know your why, why would you run for office . Know your why . I have five children, theyre blessed in every way, i think, i think they would share that view. But it bothered me that they would live in a world where so many children are hungry, this was a great motivator of president johnson. And he cared about that so much and made such a difference in that regard. So when i could see the difference Public Policy could make in lifting up children, that really tipped my scale into saying, okay, i know my why. I know what i care about in terms of how i would get something done in terms of thinking strategically and i tell you and i tell when you know your why, you know your what, you know your how, you will attract support. You will be a leader. Well end this conversation where we began which is with those women on whose shoulders you have stood. You had the opportunity to visit s seneca falls. What was that experience life . Ive been there more than one occasion. Our former congresswoman from the area had invited us on a number of occasions and i was inducted into the hall of fame which was a big deal. My friends came from all over from that. That meant a lot to them. It was remarkable. And more than the very first time we went, we had an intercepter who was telling us about, we went to it was katy stantons house. She had a very forwardthinking father who bought a house, put it in her name. She had a lot of children. Maybe five, i think. And she lived on a knoll. And down below the knoll were many it was a shantytown. Many people who came there. They were immigrants, largely. They worked in the mills. And they she could hear domestic violence. She could hear domestic violence. And that was one of her motivators in terms of women and she was very smart in this and that. So that was something where a personal experience and a family that encouraged her respected her was a blessing to all of us and then she made such a difference with her thinking and she couldnt travel so much with all the children. But she could convey her thinking to others and of course there was a seneca fall conference which changed, which made such a big difference. Even Frederick Douglass was there as part being a suffragist as well as an abolitionist. So going there, it was moving because of the history. But it was also inspiring because you could see how a personal experience translated into policy, action that would eventually change the lives of people in our country. Let me say this in closing, whats interesting to me in this 100th anniversary is how some of my friends who are not as shall we say involved in all of this as i am, were saying to me recently, they had no idea that women suffered so much in order to pass this amendment. They just didnt know. They didnt know how they were just cast aside by their families. How they suffered even bad treatment. They didnt know any of it. They just thought it was a movement. They didnt realize that people paid a price, people paid a price. So that awareness, it makes the triumph even greater and when you think back to what they did, who has the encourage now, leave home and put that was like there was no way you could leave home without a man accompanying you and all of that. Byebye. Madam speaker, we thank you for joining us for this keynote conversation and we thank you for your Remarkable Service to this nation. Thank you so much . Thank you, and i think all of the organizations who are involved in putting all of this together. Thank you for celebrating something that has helped america reach its value of and concern for equality and justice in our country. Thank you all very much. What an amazing and moving conversation. Thank you, madam speaker, and thank you, mark, for joining us. Its now my honor and privilege to welcome more extraordinary barrierbreaking women. Were so pleased to have former White House Press secretary and fox news anchor day nana pirrin. Tonight, thanks to our partners at the george and barbara bush foundation, shell speak with fellow alum and fellow firsts, secretary Condoleezza Rice, the first black woman to serve as the United States secretary of state. Hes a professor and board member. This september she will become director of the hoover institution. Please join me in welcoming Condoleezza Rice and dana perino. Its an honor to be asked to have this conversation with you. Its always great to be with you, dayna. Thank you. Obviously the country is going through a lot at the moment. Three sort of major crisis, the pandemic, the economic crisis, and racial strife. And then we have this opportunity in august of 2020 to look back 100 years to another struggle that america had and that was womens suffrage and i think about little girls today, learning about this and probably just not understanding that women werent allowed to vote. And historically for the just for some context, what was it like for medical goiamerica goi that time . It was a time that was another one of those inflection points when america was asked to prove that it was going to be true to its founding and true to the great high promises of the declaration of independence and the constitution. To be sure, when the founders, the framers created the constitution, it was all men being created equal and i doubt that they thought about the idea that women were created equal too. But the wonderful story of america has been a story of slowly but surely including more people in we the people. 100 years ago, people like me and people like you were finally included in we the people. I think its great we have a chance to celebrate this 100year anniversary of another one of those important inflection points where more americans became a part of we the people. And did what america go through 100 years ago, how did that manifest around the world . Did was there a push from i know of course in the england there was the big push. Was that short of happening simultaneously and then what from there has continued in terms of helping women around the world be able to have these kinds of rights . Well, the fact is, you can only deny people their rights for so long. You can deny them, but they will continuously fight for them, struggle for them, and eventually they will win. And i think thats the story of womens suffrage. And the interesting thing is, we tend to think that global messages are confined to our time, that because of the repity of communication now, the fact that you can know whats going on in a remote part of the world in quick order, thats when global messages spread. Actually, global messages have been spreading for centuries. Word would get out, so to speak, that those women in the United States were fighting for their rights. And this would empower women in other places. In fact, the women who led the Suffrage Movement actually thought of themselves as the vanguard of a Movement Across the known world. And by the known world, i really mean obviously it was still not possible in colonial territories or the like. But they saw themselves as a vanguard for women in other places and they drew power from each other as the struggles spread across the globe. The fact is, that struggle is still under way. We see places across the world where women are still not equal, where women are still second class citizens. I spent a lot of time in the middle east and the Suffrage Movement that had swept the United States and brought to power women in elected office and made possible womens secretaries of state, i found myself in kuwait in 2005, 2006 talking to women who were running for office for the first time in kuwait. And so this is a struggle that goes on in some places, by the way, the right to vote does not necessarily mean the vote matters. Thats the other struggle thats going on in places. Im smiling because that was the anecdote that i had remembered that i was going to ask you about. I think it was 2006. We were in kuwait and president bush had little time on his schedule before his next event and he had a choice, he could go see the Little League team or he could go visit with the women from kuwait who were the first to ever run from office. And so i was in the room with them just before he came in, and they were so nervous to meet him. And when he came in, he gathered them around and he said, i am so proud of you. And they said, but we lost. All of us lost our first race. He said, i lost my first race too. Yes. And i wonder about as sort of populism and nationalism takes hold around the world, what about those other countries and does america and american women, do we still have a responsibility to try to help others who havent had such an opportunity yet . My view, my strong view is that we are so blessed in the United States to have the rights that we have but our work will never be complete until those rights are truly universal. If we believe theyre universal, then we have to fight for them for everyone. And i know were going through a difficult time right now and people say, well, do people still look to the United States. I can assure you, people still look to the United States as a place where we fight for our rights, we believe in our rights, and that is inspiring to people across the world. Now, if you remember the women in kuwait won in the next set of elections and i remember having some conversations with them about how you had to win men voters too. Weve had programs through the National Endowment for democracy set up under ronald reagan, it was a National Democratic institute, it has a republican counterpart, and theyve gone to work with Civil Society leaders to help them prepare for elections, to help them get better at it. Thats one thing that we can do. We can actually take our experience and help women abroad who dont know how to organize to win an election, to do so. But theres another, sadder story, and i hope that we are very focused on how bad it was for him in afghanistan when the attacks took place on 9 11 here in the United States. The taliban was in power in afghanistan. This was a place where girls could not go to school. This was a place where women were executed in a stadium given to the taliban by the united nations. And while that has been a harder struggle than i think any of us perhaps anticipated, women have gained rights in afghanistan and we cannot abandon them. Maybe we can talk a little bit about i know you have been long focused on education, the importance of education. Thats obviously a global issue, its also something we have to focus on here in america. When it comes to Voter Education, what do people need to be focused on there . I hope that when we talk about Voter Education were also talking about Civic Education. I would like every American Voter to really understand how her vote matters to the outcomes that she wants for her life, for her children. Very often we talk about the vote but we talk about it in isolation. Of course what it is doing is in our very highly institutionalized system that the founders left to us, it is giving us a voice through others so who you elect to the congress to represent you, who you elect to your local school board to represent your children, we have to think about the vote in the context of institutions and sometimes i think americans dont know well enough their own institutions and how they function. I hear very often sometimes you hear this about the vote in other countries too. Well, a vote is not election is not democracy. Thats right. But i dont know how you have a democracy without an election. What the election does, it gives you a voice with the people who are going to represent you and i think americans dont know enough about their institutions. I think Voter Education is Civic Education. Do you really know what the legislative process is, for instance . So your entire career people have been trying to push you into running for office. And you have resisted that call for very good reasons that you explain in your books. But i was thinking about the administration that we worked together bush 43 and you were with bush 41. Theres a lot of ways for women to participate in government and in their democracy that dont have to include running for elected office, though, i think thats important and wonderful and i would love to see more women running. But maybe talk a little bit about peoples participation short of throwing their name on the ballot. Youre absolutely right, dana. Let me underscore what you said, we need more women to run. One of the things we have to remember is that womens issues so forth are americas issues. And so to the degree that women are really a part of the process, its going to matter. But you can serve in all kinds of ways. Im fortunate, hillary clinton, madeleine albright, we got to serve at the highest levels as americas diplomats. That would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago. Women can, of course, go into the Civil Service and deserve their governments. One of the things that i worked very hard on is making the Foreign Service more representative of america and we have a lot of work to do with women. We have even more work to do with underrepresented minorities to try to make the Foreign Service look like america. You can work for the federal government. You can work for the state government, for local governments. But we shouldnt underestimate the importance of those commissions and those School Boards that are closest to the governance of the people. And so i would encourage any young woman who is thinking about a role in Public Service to do that. And then of course weve also got a great Civil Society. The organization that were that were here with today, great opportunities for people to serve in nongovernmental ways but to still serve the country. I wonder if you could maybe tell us a story or just your reflection of what it was like to be the first youre obvious the first, condi rice has a lot of firsts under her belt. But many women, even if its not a first, they feel like they are trying to thrive in a maledominated field. Maybe theyre the only or one of the only. How do you advise your students at stanford or women that you talk to about dealing with being a first or an only . Well, the first thing to remember about a first is nobody actually sets out to be the first. You set out to do something and you learn, oh, im the first. I had this conversation with my great friend, the late sally ride who was the first woman in space. She said i didnt set out to be the first woman in space. I just wanted to be in space. If you remember that, then youre less intimidated by the fact that you are the first. Because youre obviously there because youre qualified to be there. Youre there because youve worked hard to get there. And you have to have a sense of an internal sense of i belong here and you have to walk in that room and own the room. Now, it helps to be prepared. I grew up in segregated birmingham, alabama, another great struggle to make america more inclusive. And so my parents always told me, first of all, you have to be twice as good, they would say. They didnt say that as a matter of debate. They said that as a matter of fact. You go around trying to be twice as good. You work twice as hard and then youre twice as confident. They also said there are no victims. The minute you think of yourself as a victim, you have given control of your life to someone else. You may not be able to control your circumstances but you can control your response to your circumstances. I had this kind of armer, if you will, about encountering people who thought less of me because i looked different. And my armer, then, i think prepared me to walk into that room and say im not going to let your prejudice be my prejudice. Im going to do my work. Im going to work hard. And, by the way, i was very fortunate to have mentors who really advocated for me. One of the great mentors was, of course, the National Security adviser to president george h. W. Bush. And brent took me under his win wing as a young assistant professor at stanford in the early 1980s and he really did help to advocate for my career. We have to remember, nobody, quote, gets there on their own. There are always people who are part of the mentors and i would say this to young women. I know its hard once you see field that you want to excel in and there isnt anybody who looks like you. But if i had been waiting for a role model, i would still be waiting. My mentors were white men, because thats who dominated my field. Sometimes your role model or mentor may not look like you. Just one word about the greatness of having the right mentors. I have to say that george h. W. Bush was a terrific mentor. I just want to tell one little story about that. When we first met gorbachev in december of 1989, it was a turbulent time. And president bush said, i want you to meet Condoleezza Rice. Shes a professor at stanford. She tells me everything i know about the soviet union. And gorbachev tilted his head and said in russian, i hope she knows a lot. The fact is, president bush wasnt talking to gorbachev, he was talking to everybody in this room and saying this is the person i listen to. So you had better listen to. Mentors can do a lot to break down barriers around race or around gender by just advocating for people that they believe in. I dont know if youll remember this, but i saw Something Like that during the 43 years, it was towards the end, do you remember when the israelis thought there might be some daylight between what you were telling them and what president bush was telling them and do you remember how short that meeting was when the israelis came in if you remember, ill let you tell it. For me, just i never said a word. But i thought that is how you empower somebody else. And i was so glad i witnessed that. Thats right. President bush 43, the israelis had this way of trying to particularly if you were secretary of state and the distance between the white house and the secretary of state. And i remember that the Prime Minister came in and he complained about me, essentially, and the president just said, well, you know, i think you kind of need to work that out with condi. End of story. Right . Even a little more pointed. He said let me tell you, if you ever think theres daylight between my secretary of state and me, you are wrong. Thats right. And he was like, you can see yourselves out. Right, right. And, by the way, go work it out with her, you dont need to talk to me, right . Yeah. Dana, i know you were in an extraordinary position. I remember when our great friend was no longer able to be press secretary, you were a young woman and handing the reins to you and just saying, i trust you. That was very much who well i tell a story about that that you played a big role in that for me. I remember one time being in the situation room and some complaints from the military that we had a Communications Problems in iraq and i caught your we met eyes and you just gave a little nod of your head. I felt like you were telling me, you have a seat of the table for a reason. This is your shot. Speak up. So i did. And suggested if the facts got better, then this communications would get better. But also in meetings where i knew i was going to have to take press questions, complicated, National Security, say this, several times you would say, ill walk with you. And then you walked with me from there to my office and said, this is how i might say it. And i just want to thank you publicly for that. But i also think its a great example of what women can continue to do to help one another through mentorship and support as we marks this amazing 100th anniversary. My great grandmother was in wyoming. She was the first in our family to be allowed to vote. They had homesteaded in the late 1800s and of course Rural America wanted those women to vote and they got that. But its just a real pleasure and i think the only thing that we can ask, ill give you the last word after this because were going to wrap it up. In order to keep it going, we have to help one another. I could not underscore that more. And what those women hoped for when they started to advocate for the right to vote, when they had to go sometimes against the wishes of their fathers or their husbands to advocate for the right to vote and when they finally won the right to vote, i doubt that any one of them thought that the struggle was over there. And the struggle continues. It continues for womens rights and for womens empowerment in our own country and it certainly continues for womens rights and womens empowerment in countries where women are still not full citizens. And so we have a lot of work to do and the one thing we can take from the experience of those women 100 years ago is, it doesnt get done by one person. It gets done by a whole bunch of people. And the sisterhood is as important today as it was then. I have one little creature that wants to say hi to you. Come on. Before we have to turn it back to lauren, you have to get on the show. This is jaspers participation. Hello, jasper. He had a big day yesterday. He had a big day yesterday. But he says hi. Hi to everybody. Madam secretary, thank you. And, lauren, well turn it back to you. Thank you both so much. What a privilege to hear from you tonight. Before we go to our final panel, i would like to take a minute to thank, again, our sponsors america and p and g for their support. Both serve on the board and this town hall would not have been possible without them. This is not new. This has happened before. In every downturn and disaster in history gender equality has been set back as women have stepped forward. Women always bear a heavy cost. More of the frontline care, more of the pay cuts, more of the jobs lost, more of the responsibilities at home, keeping them from going back to paid work. These times are not unprecedented but they give us another chance for equality. If we all choose to step forward as equals, care equal, pay equal, model equal, do equal, choose equal. At home, at work, right now. For an equal future. This year feels like a tipping point. A moment of change and transformation for women and the country. Our partners at the 19th aim to be a key voice for that change. They have Just Launched and were grateful for their partnership. The goal of the 19th is to change the conversation around how we talk about women in politics. We are Firm Believers that all issues are womens issues. Our readers are people who want to be better informed and better able to participate in democracy. Were aiming to change the future of american journalism by giving women the platform and voice they deserve. The 19th is the newsroom that weve been waiting for. And now we turn to the future. In a conversation with two of the most visionary, amazing women i know. It is my great pleasure to moderate our final conversation with olympic gold medal winning soccer superstar, activist, bestselling author, and new owner of angel city, abby wambach. And joining her in this conversation, the brilliant author, founder, activist, educator, Brittany Packnett cunningham, founder of maybe the bestnamed organization ever, love and power. Welcome, ladies. Its great to have you. Great to be here. So great to be here, everyone. Thanks for having us. Were here tonight celebrating womens suffrage, a hugely important milestone in the history of womens rights and the celebration is tempered because women of color did not get the right to vote until august 6th, 1965 and the passage of the to the polls, full access to voteliing rights remain a challenge. How do you think about the importance of this 100th anniversary given that it remains incomplete . We are sitting in the middle of what we call in our tradition black august. There have been many critical and impactful moments in black history that have all centered in this month. We have the birth of people like fred hampton and marcus garvy. We have rebellions against mass incarceration. We have the anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights about and were standing in the shadow of the passing of congressman john lewis and c. T. Vivian, people who ensured the right to vote was more universal than in 1920. I find myself fired up and ready to go as is the phrase this black august because as you said theres so much more work to do to secure the franchise and the right to vote for every seingle person who walks in our streets and lives next to us and working to make sure that people experience their right to vote as something that engages them and doesnt push them out and they experience the vote as the beginning of their vicivic procs and not the end. Thats whats on my mind, not just today, but in black august. Perfect. I cant add more to that. Its 15 years, 1965 was 15 years before i was born. What that means to me is there are still women, black women, in this country, in this in our current world right now that did experience the inability to vote. For me a lot of people, white people especially, they think, oh, well, theres nothing i can do. So why even go to the polls . Why even vote . This has been happening in our lifetime. The need is not only there, but its possible because things have changed in our lifetime. We cant celebrate progress if were leaving people behind. Were not free unless everybody is free. Thats why its so important to me that intersectionalty is not just a conversation were having, but an action were having to achieve the progress we want to achieve. They say progress is slow. I want it to be fast. Wherever brittany goes, ill follow her. She says very smart things. Thats what im trying to do. Abby, your mentioning intersectionality is so important. The firefightght for gender equ theres always this under current of who is left out. The black women were left out. In the 60s and 70s lgbtq women were left out because it didnt include the agenda. We cannot do this. None of us are free unless all of us are free. How do we make sure, brittany, that were not constantly sacrificing one set of fights for equality for another . That has been our history. Yeah. So the first thing we do is deal honestly in reality. As were having this conversation about Voting Rights, about the franchise, multiple things are true about this moment, not about the 60s, but about this moment. What is true is that the Voting Rights act as it was past has been gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. What happens is a number of states with a legacy of discrimination have been given more freedom to continue that discrimination. We see gerrymandering, the closing of poling places, false mailers being sent out to people telling them theyve been purged from voting rolls. Thats happening right now. The law that was passed all those years ago to prevent those things has been stripped of its ability to do so in so many ways. Indigenous women, indigenous people, are being pushed out of this process because we have a system that does not recognize the sovereignty of tribal government and the access that rural folks need to these systems. Low income folks are not experiencing Voting Rights equally. If voting day is not a National Holiday and youre an hourly worker, or you need transportation, or you need health care, you dont have equal representation at the ballot box. Lastly what we know to be fundamentally true is that millions of people have had the right to vote stolen from them because theyre formerly incarcerated people. Even as they return to society, theyre not afforded the rights and privileges they should be after having paid their debt. If thats the system as it stands, when that last day happens you should have your access to the ballot box restored. We have to deal in the current reality. To abbys point about intersectionality, none of us are free until all of us are free, none of us are fully free to the ballot box unless all of us have that access. We realize other peoples fight is our fight. Its been said if youve come here to help me, youre wasting your time, but if you think our fates are linked together, lets work together. I have to think about indigenous rights, black queer women, queer women, i have to care just as much about their fate as my own because materially if i allow things to happen to them in their name it will not belong before somebody comes for my rights. In a very literal sense fighting for those things provides security for all us. When the most marginalized among us are free, we all materially benefit from the security, the protections and safety that they receive. Should i say preach . That question was answered. I think that question was answered. I mean, abby, its so interesting because were in this moment too where youre seeing athletes and artists and folks across or in every corner of American Society realize they have not only the platform, but sort of a deep personal moral obligation to speak up. At the same time theres been this push to keep athletes out of politics, to tell them thats not what people want. Youre an entertainer. Just go play, right . You have been linking your sport and your activism from the beginning and inspired so many other athletes in soccer and beyond, and artists as well, to do that. How do you think about that . It does feel like theres this sort of theres this Mass Movement of folks realizing whatever platform or power you have, whether youre a famous ab abby waum balk or brittany or youre the girl starting the black lives matter protest in your high school, it feels like people are tapping into their own power as activists. How do you think about that and keep pushing . Sports has a unique way of crossing over gender lines. Womens sports when were really talking about womens soccer, womens soccer has the unique ability to bring in fans from every kind of walk of life. Men, women, black, brown. I mean, the reason why is because our Womens National team wins as opposed to our mens National Team. Thats not a slight. Its a fact. People like to follow winners. Our Womens National team earns more money for the Soccer Federation than the mens National Team and are paid far less. For me thinking about it globally if this is happening in a bubble of the Womens National team, the Womens National soccer team, where we are popular. We do get endorsements. The players do get paid, but just not nearly as much as the men. For me when i retired, i realized there was a terrible realization i had to recreate myself and find a new career because i didnt earn the same amount as Peyton Manning during my career. That was a forced reality on me. If this is happening to me, i realized its happening to every woman everywhere, especially with sports. Men can see and understand the language of sports. Maybe better than other industries. Its a shocking realization when you put your head around the fact that even when youre better being better isnt even the solve to the gender bias and racial bias you still face. Exactly. Doesnt matter how good you are, its still there. It hasnt mattered how much money everybody thats been the biggest argument since the beginning of time. The women dont earn as must have as the men so they dont get paid the same. Thats no longer true. Since 2015, 2016 our Womens National team has outearned the Mens National soccer team. Thats why theyve gone forward with the lawsuit. For me its blatant sexism to its core. For a long time i had to actually figure out what that meant for me. I was in the system that was oppressing me. I was trying to navigate those waters. At first, you know, you are asking yourself questions like im going to be grateful for what ive got. Ten years ago they didnt give them anything. Im actually earning a paycheck. In ten years where will we be . For me its not just about talking about the inequalities. Its about creating the policy, creating the standards, not just in sports, but in every walk of life, in every industry, in every city and every government. You have to figure out ways to recreate what that could look like. Its risky. Its inherently risky. Brittany, in 2014 when we looked around there was a sense in my generation, why do we feed need fight anymore . Why isnt this solved . I think particularly during the obama years the sense among younger liberals is were good. Obama is in office. What do we need to do this for . We saw this apathy, we saw this realization that you cant make progress if you dont take risk and putting yourself on the line in real ways. As you were saying, abby, youre did dependent on the system youre trying to change. Black women i think have always understood this. There was never a question for black women that youre taking a risk. Youre putting your life and body and yourself on the line to fight for change. It feels like this year maybe theres some shift in understanding there, that we saw so many more white women showing up to support black lives matter. Coming out to fight systemic institutional racism. What do we need to understand about the future if we want to make the progress we want to make . If we want to upend these sexist and racist institutions wherever they apply, what do we need to know and do to do that right . It was the come to ye River Collective who came together and said they want to expand on the feminist idea. We have to understand that, yes, no matter how uncomfortable it is, the personal is indeed political from how we wear our hair to the chairs we sit in to the food we buy. Literally every sector of our lives is determined by political choices and political will. Not just ours, but the systems that guide and govern us. If the personal is political, what come to ye said was not only is the personal political, but community is political. In community we can see and witness the injustices and we can also face them together and solve them unequivocally. What i think the future has to look like is that understanding and that orientation towards community. If we think just over the last six years august is also the month that we found the ferguson uprising happening. That was a movement and moment in time of which i was a proud member along with thousands of people whose names well never know, but who sacrificed everything to ready america for this moment. It was ferguson and baltimore and cleveland and florida and l. A. That taught the country how reminded the country of its obligation to democracy and how to take a risk. In standing up in those six years ago between then and now, weve seen the conversation shift. Weve seen to your point a lot of women of color hold white women accountable and say youre not just going to show up for the womens march and not show up when Breonna Taylor is murdered. Weve seen transwomen say youre not going to define woman hood solely by reproductive organs and not the rest of us. Weve seen immigrant women say youre not going to scream feminism and under pay us on the other hand. Those two things cannot reconcile. That has to be the clear focus of the future. I think youre right its not my blackness or womanhood thats a risk. I am faced with risk because of them. So, yeah, theres a world in which black women have always known that risk. Weve never had the privilege to turn away from it. Still, im glad to see many more people acknowledging the leadership of black women, of latinas, indigenous women, Asian Pacific women who have been radical in their imagination, radical in their determination and got everybody ready to take on the fight right now. Abby, weve been theres such a temptation to talk about this election here in 2020 being so critical. This is the critical election year. Obviously we have theres a record of number of women running for office, a Record Number of black woman. We have a black woman Vice President ial nominee. Theres obviously a huge ground swell in the last few years of younger women coming in and getting in touch with their political power and their ability to shift the direction of the country. How do we keep it going . We talk about womens empowerment. How do we make sure that this is not just about any one election or any one president or any one moment or any one fight, but that women understand we are the majority of this country and that we must hold our government accountable to our interests always . Not just in any one election. You talk to thousands and thousands of women around the country. Youve been so motivational to so many of them. How do we keep this going . How do we make this a lifetime and beyond to the next lifetime and their children and grandchildren . This is a really important question. I think that the womens right movement, there can feel a sense of fatigue. People can get tired of talking about all the politics. Heres the thing, the activist myself, brittany, you, lauren, were never going to tire. Weve dedicated our life to this work. Its our job to circle and get everybody on board. The thing i learned the most about playing on our Womens National team is this concept of unity. It is the only reason why our Womens National team has secured any of the contracts that theyve been able to secure over the generations of the team. The way they were able to do that they were together. They were one unit, one breath. That doesnt mean they always agreed on everything. What they agreed upon is this idea of a better future. What theyve also agreed upon is they were going to fight tooth and nail forever until they became equal. For me that is what we have to remind ourselves with. For the average perp wson watch this you might think its too big. I dont want to have anything to do with it. Im not sure how to make my voice or my individual self matter. Find the people around you. Get talking about some of the stuff thats important to you that matters to you that draws you into your own personal purpose. When you start collecting people, then you find your folks that youre going to be able to do life with. In that group i call it a wolf pack. Im not trying to plug my book here. The truth is if you have people around you that are going to do life with you, you can get stuff done. It might not necessarily be in politics. It might be in your school, your kids school, for your kids soccer team. You have to have your people around you to do life with in order to get these bigger things done. Leave it up to brittany and myself to collect the masses, right . All you need to worry about is getting in touch with the people your next door neighbor. Talk about this stuff. Get it into the mindsets of what you want for your future because we get to create it, if we choose it and if we go out and be active and vote. Im so glad you said that. You can have unity even with disagreement. We are not going to all agree. Women are as diverse as this nation. We dont all agree. We have vastly different perspectives on an endless number of issues. Doesnt mean we cant find Common Ground to fight for each other. Thats the brilliant point you just made. I want to shift as we come to the end of our conversation to vision and a big vision for the future. I want to ask you, brittany, to start. What is your vision for this next century . What do we hope that in 100 years our future daughters and sisters will say theyve achieved or we helped them begin . Whats that vision for the future . My vision for the future is expansive. It is really rooted in the local work that is happening in so many of our communities. The really disciplined every day stuff that is not sexy that happens when the cameras are gone and the masses have moved. If i can encourage you to take one action, research the local organizations taking action in your community on the things you care about and link up with them. Become a member. Go to meetings. Volunteer. Take the actions that they have you do. Really, as National Figures like myself and abby, were here to resource, amplify and uplift the work happening on the ground. My vision is very much rooted in the local work. I was talking to my friend they taylor reed yesterday. They led a twoyear campaign to close the work house, a medium security prison in st. Louis and were successful last week when that board decided to close it. Now theyre getting together with the community to dictate to the government how to shift those funds into the resources that people need. All that to say this, my vision fully and fundamentally is freedom. In 100 years people will look back on the generations alive right now and say that we shined the light of freedom so clearly, that we decided to come for every single thing that belongs to us and not stop until we get it, that we gave them the tools to keep fighting and our daughters are experiencing a world that not only protects their lives, but the genius inside each of them. Beautiful. Love listening to her. Maybe ill just have you talk for the next half hour. I want your vision too, abby. I want to hear it and so does everyone. The world wants to hear your vision, abby. Before i go forward, thinking about Going Forward in the future, i always go back. I have to think about all the women who have helped me, who have been voiceless and nameless in the womens fight. I have to think about honoring their names because even though the 1920s, 19th amend and the 1920s happened, really we didnt get full rights until 65. That had to happen because of many, many women who decided to do something. Without wanting anything in return except their rights, except the freedom. I think about those women and i think about being in the present day in 2020 and people thinking, oh, everything is good now. Its just not. Its not good now. We still have work to do. So what im trying to do is to, not just dismantle the institutions and the systemic racism and sexism literally happening every single day, but im trying to rebuild and reimagine in what Building Structures from the ground up with women in leadership positions look like, with diversity in leadership positions. For me, the thing i promised myself at the end of my career was to of course Corporate America and governments and ptas, more women in leadership. More diverse leadership. At the tables where decisions are made, these decisions these things that the products going out into the world, the campaigns we see if women arent in those seats at the table where decisions are made everything is going to be sexist. Everything is going to be racist. Its going to have bias. For me im trying to rebuild and reimagine in what these institutions can be. We have to get women in leadership positions. Also we have to Start Building institutions that are made for, built for women period. Everything we know and experience today is built by men, by white men especially. The rest of us all were doing is answering to white men, answering to white men. The system they built have not been built for people like me, for people like brittany, for people marginalized in any way. Thats what im going to be doing and everything that brittany said. As my grandmother would say, from both of your lips to gods ears. My vision is that there are no more firsts. There are only many. We find ourself surrounded by a world that reflects all of us, by a democracy that lives up to its ideals, as flawed as they were at the founding and exceeds them and expand them and does them better. This has been one of the great honors and privileges of my life. I am so grateful to both of you and i know everybody who is listening tonight joins me in my deep abiding thanks and appreciation to you both. Thank you both for being here. On to the next 100. Were at the end of our program. The fight for equality goes on. Please stay in this critical conversation. Commit to more leadership and activism. As we celebrate the anniversary of the 19th amend we challenge you to become more involved. Go to the website to help your family, friends and neighbors register to vote. Get to the polls and become more active civic leaders. The replay of this program is available on our website, facebook and youtube pages for the rest of the year. Please encourage those who missed it to watch the program if theyre able. Thank you again to all our partners, moderators, speakers, sponsors for contributing to this incredible program. It has been my pleasure to service as tonight master of ceremonies. We hope youre feeling encouraged and inspired. Thank you for being here. Good night. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3 go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civic rights, u. S. President s, to 9 11. Thanks for your patience. With most College Campuses closed due to the i mpact of coronavirus watch professors change to a virtual setting to engage with their students. Reagan met gorbachev halfway and encouraged him and supported him. Freedom of the pr]wyn1h5nnin called it freedom of the use of the press and its the freedom to print things and publish things. Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available on cspan3 tv. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern and enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Next on American History tv author Rebecca Roberts on the decade leading up to the 19th amend and how women gained the right to vote. White house historical association. 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