Senator kirsten jillly bland calls for women to rise up and make a differs in the world. This is 45 minutes. Its such a mother are pleasure for me to introduce two extraordinary women. Our guest of honor is a mother of two, a wildfire, a a wife, a lawyer, sunday school teacher, community volunteer, former democratic representative from the 20th district of new york and United States senator from new york. Thats not all. As of two days ago, senator kiss kirstin added a new title, author. Her book is called off the sidelines. Raise your voice, change the world. Part policemen moyer, part call to action, part inspirational guidebook for children and men, too. So i just want to say that to be sure. The tiedle comes from the wonderful Online Book Group that senator gillibrand has con veeped in which women across the country join together to discuss a book every few months and share ideas how they can use their voices to affect change in their communities and beyond. Off the sidelines is the book. Charts senator gillibrands own journey with a familiar live we generations of for middable women to her career as lawyer, her role as a wife and mother, and talks about a seminole moment that motivated her to launch herself into elective politics. Her energy, and resilience, whether bringing her sons while she is voting or take only the military brass on the issue after Sexual Assault have quickly made her a respected, influential, and extremely refreshing voice on capitol hill. Senator, want to say your candor and your humor and sense of possibility are so northwest your book and so welcome in this town, and i want to thank you for being such an inspiration to so many of us. Its a great book. Its a really fun read in conversations tonight with senator gillibrand is a friend and longtime customer, Andrea Mitchell, who is probably known to most of you and most of america for her prizewinning reporting on nbc news. Host of Andrea Ya Mitchell reports a daily show on msnbc that explore most important issues of the day, from crisis around the globe and in the country, and focusing attention on challenges facing women. To borrow a line and a concept from senator gillibrand and from her book, which if you read it youll see she talks about this she urges us to stop talking about having it all and to think instead of doing it all, and gist want to say if anybody has done it all in journalism, its Andrea Mitchell. Youre a great inspiration. In case your wondering, both of these women have done the the ice bucket challenge. Join me in welcoming Andrea Mitchell and senator kirsten gillibrand. [applause] thank you so much. What a thrill to be back here and to be with kirsten gillibrand, because well, the book is inspirational, its funny, its personal. I dont now if you saw jon stewart last but you night but you can find it online. He was obviously really interest in fining our what is the challenge and why are many men on the hill, frankly, and other work places, im sure, including my own at times, why are men so incredibly stupid and boor issue. I wonders which one you would pick. Not the one bleeped out on jon stewart. I was fortunate to have the senator on today, and we got so i was so taken up with her answer, i didnt ask many questions. It was fun to have you on. Thank you all for being here. You offer empowerment and encouragement to women of all ages, and particularly we i was very struck when you talked about young, less powerful women. Youre a United States senator so you can take this. I can absorber it, but for women in their first jobs, interns, how do they cope with male behavior that is patronizing at a minimum and often offensive and all the way up to being plate tenantly illegal. Guest well, the reason why i wrote these stories, i includes stories from any young career days, told stories about my mother and my grandmother, as women who marked their own way. They did their own things because i wanted to give the readary chance to see themselves in each of these stories, and when you talk about someone saying something inappropriate to you, it really is undermining, particularly when youre young and you dont necessarily have the tools or know what to do nat circumstance. Shared one story when i was a young lawyer and i had been working so hard on this case, months after months, canceled vacations, worked all weekend, and we were having a celebratory dinner, and partner says i want to thank kirstin for all her hard work, and dont you love her haircut . She looks to good these days. I was dying inside. I said i cant believe youre commenting on my hair. I just worked my butt our for you for months and months and youre not recognizing me for my work. So for a young person that is so undermining. Makes you feel like you dont have value, like the work you have done has gone unnoticed, and so my advice to that young woman, myself, you push through it, work hard, and some day you might be that guys boss, and thats a good thing. When you are, you can change the climate. You can change how people treat each other and insist on something very different. Host you write in the book, i got caught with no orange original thoughts, a Chuck Schumer puppet. Nicknamed tracy flick, the aggressive, comical, and somewhat unhinged balloons High School Student played by Reese Witherspoon in movie election. Guest yes. Well, the reason why i shared these particular stories is because i wanted to illustrate the broader challenge that all women face in the workplace, and when we look around, the face of the work force has really changed. Eight out of ten families, moms are working. Four out of ten families moms are the sole or primary bread winners. A lot of the workplace results rules are stuck at the time when dad worked and mom stayed at home. So even simple support like paid leave or equal pay, we dont have in this country, and goes to this overarching theme of do we value women . Are we valuing all theyve have to off center i love Geraldine Ferraro said its not what america can do for women. Its what women can do fors me are america. This book is about our voices, how important they are, our world view and Life Experiences are different, and if we share our opinions and share our views and fight for the thing wes care about, outcomes will be different and better. Host one store you share is when you were first elected and you had just had henry, there you are, senator, junior senator, assigned to preside over the senate, which means being out there on cspan and you had to breastfeed, and there is was some male aide said some one else can do this but you were bailed out. Guest for those who are too young to have children or who are men, you wont really understand this, but for those who have nursed a baby, you do not when its the time to nurse, you need to nurse. Its something that has to happen. And its extremely uncomfortable if it doesnt. And i cant bear describing there is to a to 20somethingyearold aide, and i just decided im going to solving this problem on my ownment i said, can i please have a morning time or daytime. Her said no, you do what youre told. So i called a bunch of senators and found one, mark udall, who i call mying whywhite white notice, and i described to hem i need be with the baby during those hours, could i switch with him, and of course he said yes. But that is a lot of our workplaces dont even realize why their policies affect women negatively. And one of the thing wes talk about things we talk about in this having it all debate, found my life is challenging. I have real challenges. Similar experiences to a lot of moms. How do you get the kids fed in the morning, make their lunches, find the soccer uniform and get out the door on time. Its very common. But my job has flexibility, and so if i have a sick child i can bring henry to work. If i have to get to Parent Teacher meeting i can cancel my meeting during that time. I have flexibility. But the woman who is going to clean the synagogue, the woman who is working at the grocery store, somebody working double shift test emergency room, they work the hours theyre told to work and have no flexibility, and if their child is sick and i they dont have sick days theres nothing they can do about it. So i they meet the needs of the child may may be fired. So those are the stories and challenges we need to talk about. Host talk about your transition when you corporate lawyer, dartmouth educated, law school, typical, smart, ivy league graduate, what made you decide to get into this political fray . Guest well, i mentioned i had some pretty cool role models and one was my grandmother. Now my grandmother was this salty figure. She had a terrible mouth all the time. She never went to college and she worked her whole life. A secretary in our state legislature in albany, and being in the legislature in the early set 20s and 30s, women had very little power. They tended to behind the scenes. But she had this notion her voice was important and had this view she wanted to be heard on things the war working on. She realized if she could amplify her voice by engaging other women she could make a difference. So the started its local womens democratic club. They did all the work all the doortodoor, envelope stuffing, phone banking, and over time, they became powerful because you couldnt get elect Ned Al Blaine if you didnt have the help of my grandmother and her friends. So i learned at her anyhow important womens voices are and activism is and what you do with your time. So i knew i wanted to do something in Public Service, something . Government. And as i got older, i became more fearful of that. I was almost embarrassed to admit i wanted to run for offers some day. Host how hard was it to make that decision . Guest it was interesting. I im a young lawyer, working at a big law firm in new york city, pushing paper, and notice that look human being is giving a speech in china. Now issue had been an Asian Studies major and studied man do rain are rein so mandarin so i knew how important it was for our first lady to give this speech. I wasnt invited to the conference. I wasnt participating in this national and worldwide conversation, and i thought, nice to get involved in politics. So, i called a friend blows mom was involved, and she said, join a womens group in new york city, the womens leadership forum. Go now first mideasting i have to pay a thousand dollars to join. That was my rent check bag then but thats the only advice i was given so i did it. Guy to the fancy party, and hillary is our speaker and is looking into the audience and im the youngest by ten or 20 years, and she says, decisions are being made every day in washington. And if you are not part of those decisions and you dont like what they decide, you have no one to blame but yourself. And im standing there the back of the room and sweating, thinking, she is talking to me. I have to do something about it. And i really felt lying she had zeroed in to my core, and i felt like this is my moment. I leave to get involved in politics. Host its so interesting that you should say that because when i read that in the book, i was there in beijing. As a reporter, covering hillary clinton, and the pressure from the male Foreign Policy establishment, white house, state department, against the first lady making news on a foreign trip in beijing, no less, and there was so much hostility also against the whole delegation. Tom cain, the thengovernor former governor of new jersey, and later the 9 11 commission cochair, was the only male in the delegation, and it was just a lot of women. Madeline albright, with her, and just a really tough moment for her, and she just stood up there and did it. Host it was transformative. And it shows so much courage and leadership, and i was just amazed, and so hillary has been someone i looked to see, she is really making a differs. It might be you as the only person in the right place at the right time to make a difference. Actually thats what the book is about that everyones voice matters. It doesnt matter if youre on a National Stage like hillary or if you are doing notforprofit work at the church. How important are role models for women such as having a woman in the oval office . I think its essential. I think having a woman to look up to is so valuable and also mentors are important. Mentoring moments pop up all the time. They dont have to be long well developed relationships. I remember i had one work Woman Working with me and im a lawyer so when iran my First Campaign the first person i hires a policy director. He really never hire a policy director but i felt i needed one so i hired rain. She helped me in my first Congressional Campaign figuring out all my positions. Right before the end of the election she had an offer to work for cti. She said my dream is to work for bill clinton. She tells me about this job she has interviewed four. I said who is your boss . She says oh they havent hired a bus yet. They havent hired that person. Why are you applying for that job and she said oh im not qualified. I couldnt run that. He was a division of childhood obesity. I said you know everything about childhood obesity. I said you have to apply for that top job and she said really . I said of course and sure enough she applies for it and she gets it. That was just a small mentoring moment. It didnt take anything for me. Sometimes thats all it takes. I want all women to find one person and then to find one person to mentor. Find a young woman who is somewhere in her career on her way that has achieved and give her that little bit of advice she might need. His were so much and hillary was always giving me that. I called her to look at a poll to give me advice. She gives me her two minutes every time i need a bit of reassurance. When i did run she came to the district. She helped with fundraisers. She did everything. We should all set out to be mentors and to be role models for each other. Whats the difference between mentoring and sponsoring . So this is a Corporate America thing but in a law firm port sample or if you are on the latter in a corporation you need more than mentors. A mentor just gives you good advice. They will tell you based on the Life Experience something you should or shouldnt do by the sponsor someone who links with the future to you. The sponsor says im sure im going to make sure you have to make partner and you need to do this and that than they believe in me so much that if you dont succeed they dont succeed. Frankly its essential in a big company or in a law firm to have a sponsor. I never had one in a law firm and i didnt even know i needed one but really its necessary and is helpful. Interestingly no sponsor is going to take you. You really have to pick them and earn their support. The sponsor is going to choose to sponsor you because you have already chimed through 20 hoops, did a great job and prove yourself. They dont just happen. You often have to earn a sponsor. What gives a male congressman or senator the entitlement to feel that they can comment on the senators appearance and say dont lose too much weight. I like my girls. Or pregnant Walking Around the house of representatives, you know kirsten you are even pretty when you are fat. Im a pregnant lady its not the same. For me those comments didnt affect me because these kinds of things happen all the time. And honestly they happen in all industries. They happen at every stage in your career and i use those specific examples to illustrate this broader challenge of what do women face in the workplace and why is it that there is the sticky floor. Of course we have to break the highest Glass Ceiling but there are things, they are impediments and challenges that continually bring women back down to lower wage jobs less responsibility and less opportunity for promotion and it happens because we have no support. For example when you have a new baby, when you have a child becomes ill and you take care of the child. When your mother is dying and you need to be home with her or she needs 24 7 care for most women when that family emergency happens they will either quit, they will reduce their hours are change industries. They will do something so they have the flexibility they need when they needed that we are the only industrialized country in the world that doesnt have paid leave. What happens is although women are earning more than half the College Degrees and half of the advanced degrees we are not reaching our full potential in the economy or the workplace because we dont have the support we need for all the things we do for our families. Thats the larger challenge. Any one illustration is really just a touch point for these broader themes and elevated debate about how to support women in the workplace. When i covered the senate in the late 80s and early 90s before i was covering the bill clinton campaigned there were certain senators that you would know to stay away from or not getting into an elevator with her not let the interns go near. They were legendary. I dont think the senate is unique. I think this is an all industries across all places that some of it may well be generational. But stupid statements are made all the time and statements in Different Industries have different impacts. I write about these examples in the chapter about appearance. The reason why i focused a whole chapter on it is Different Industries have different requirements and Different Industries have a different impact for a woman and her appearance. There are studies in politics that when an opponent talks about a womans appearance it really undermines her campaign. It doesnt matter if the comments are positive or negative. Anything about a womans appearance undermines her credibility. My First Campaign for congress in 2006 my opponent first started out oh she is just a pretty face and intimated that i was too stupid to be a member of congress but then for his mailers mailer she found the ugliest picture of me, he tempted the mailer screen so i look a little bit like a witch so i look like this crazed woman he couldnt possibly trust. He used the positive and a negative to try to knock down my credibility. The advice. The adviser given the chapter is know your industry, know the rules of the road but then make your decisions. If you want to wear whatever clothes you want to wear you should. Some women have reached a point in their career where they arent concerned with themselves and i love what hillary says about this. If i want to wear my glasses i will wear my glasses and if i want to put my hair in a ponytail i will put my hair in a ponytail. I go with the conservative black suits in navy blue suits, keeping it simple and no distractions that women need to know how they will be judged and make their own decisions. You know, theres this horrible issue of the nfl thats getting so much attention right now not just because the video is so disgusting but because ray rice acknowledged that he punched his wife. We dont need a picture to say what the next step should be. How quickly come to the point where an industry as powerful as the nfl and im a huge football fan myself, get away with this . Perhaps they wont but the victimization of women and women themselves who feel because of economic or other reasons or concerns about a child or their bonds or love who feel that they cannot break away and acknowledge the way they have been abused. I think its a complete failure by the nfl. There were no facts in dispute. There was nothing left to be known. He shouldve been fired immediately and i think it was disgraceful how they handled it but its emblematic of a larger problem. There is an institutional bias that has crossed crossed culture, crossed arena so you had the nfl protecting their star football player, department of defense and the military who have commanders protecting their favorite soldier or unit and College Campuses a kid on the a football team, the star young student. It is an institutional bias to protect their own, to undermine transparency and accountability for their own benefit but overwhelmingly its about how little we are valuing women. You will see over and over these Sexual Assault cases and how women are tarred doubted in disbelief and told us its their own fault. In some of these cases they are retaliated against because they disclose what happened. I had two great women come to my office saying i would like to meet with the senator and my team they check team they checked out to meet them. These two women told me their stories about how they were both raped on campus. They reported the rapes. Their school didnt believe them. They blamed them and they retaliated against them. These two girls were so brave. They started a movement. They went college to College Campus to campus and other men and women suffer the same. They have created a nationwide Advocacy Network to do with Sexual Assault. They are working with senators on writing legislation. Legislation will be passed in the senate and they will make a difference. The message in the book is really that any one person could change outcomes. Any one person if shes willing to stand up and tell her story and fight for what she believes in she could change outcomes and make it better. You are frustrated on the subject of outside prosecutors and the rape cases in the military. What is the prospect for that, changing that given you are up against the military brass and your own colleagues. The status quo is sometimes the hardest thing to fight. We have last year there were 26,000 cases of Sexual Assault rape in unwanted sexual contact in only 3000 reported the crimes. Thats one in 10 and he talked to survivors they say the reason is i didnt trust the chain of command. I didnt believe justice was possible and when i tried to report it i felt like it was on my my own fault. The stories are consistent. For the one out of 10 who did report 62 were retaliated against for reporting a crime. You are talking about a military who has zero tolerance for Sexual Assault. Gq did an article today about male survivors of Sexual Assault in the military. It is so heartbreaking. I urge you to read it. This battle is not over yet. It will take time. With time we will have the facts facts and we will have more survivors come forward. We have the Veterans Community with us. We have veterans from iraq and afghanistan and veterans from all different eras. We have generals and admirals and highranking officers who are retired supporting our bill. This is not something that is not supported. If you just listen to the survivors and you just believe the victims they are telling you what you need to do. Its that constant undermining and lack of value for them and their voices and what they are saying. That is why there is a call to action is so important. In that regard the message you want younger women and men to have, the passion of your work and about the engagement despite all the obstacles, despite all the frustrations of public life and in politics today. If that their voice matters. My mom lived a very different life. She was only one of three women and her law school class. She wanted to be handson present mom always baking always cooking. I remember her with her phone in one hand by laying an adoption case while she was cooking dinner in answering the phone at the same time. The reason why she was such a role model for me when she was different. She decided i will live my life the way want to live it. By the time she was my age who is a seconddegree black belt. How many mothers try to get a Second Degree black belt . I watch her do what she wanted to do and that gave me the confidence that its okay for me to be different and for me to find my own way. Thats the message i want to give to all of them. I want women and young girls to know that they can be exactly themselves and ambition is not a dirty word. They can dream and do anything they set their minds to and not be afraid to achieve it. And not be afraid to fail. One of the lessons of the book is failure is instructive. Just because we lost that vote on Sexual Assaults in military doesnt mean we are going to lose the battle long term. I now know what my opponents say about it and what their best arguments are and i know now how to defeat them. Dont be afraid to fail. Dont be afraid to reach for big things. You have said it all. Kirsten gillibrand off the sidelines its deeply personal and funny and truly instructive book. Thank you so much. Let me just explain, i have this little job where you have to give a speech and i have to be on the air by 8 00 on capitol hill with the president giving a speech tonight. The senator is kindly so you will have a chance to ask your questions but i have to go do this thing. Go deal with isil, please. [applause] thank you. We will see later. Thank you all so much. [applause] now we are going to take questions from a audience of just stand up and come up to the microphone and ask away. Come to the mics and then everybody can hear your question. Thanks. So you talked a lot about women and violence and im a Domestic Violence survivor to where i spent two and a half years with an abusive boyfriend and i got to the point where the d. A. Refused to prosecute because the final episode started because i reached for a bag of items that he stole for me. That was the, i caused it from the district attorney, female district attorney. If some published but i have a book ive written about it in the past fiction and half nonfiction. The publishers have no idea what to do with that. My question is im looking for ways i can get involved in this issue i care deeply about and as much as i think that Everybody Knows how to help a friend who has been raped in terms of all the things you do nobody knows how to help somebody who is partner in its more prevalent and its more in the shadows. What would you recommend . I would definitely work with some in the womens groups that are in the city. Theyre a number of shelter specifically for women trying to recover from Domestic Violence, from abuse and drug addiction. I think its called n. Street village. Its very close to here. I watched a documentary about these women and the saddest story was that almost every woman that ended up homeless after drug addiction and after losing everything come her children or family and her home almost every single one started to Sexual Violence being raped when they were eight years older raped by kids in high school. Its always starting with beilinson women lose their selfesteem. They lose their trust. They look for strength anywhere whether its their alcohol or drugs or risky behavior and they cannot recover. When you are violated in the hands of someone you love, when you are abused by someone you trust it undermines your sense of security, your sense of self, youre stumped of whats right and wrong and i hear this over and over the trauma that space by someone who was abused by someone they love or trust it is devastating. So in the military context context when youre abused by someone in your chain of command or your brother you are fighting within iraq you dont know how to recover. One woman said its like being raped by your brother in having your father decide the case. She has nowhere to go. It undermines your whole sense of possibility and hope for the future. The posttraumatic stress that women and men are facing which sounds like the same thing you had to go through and recover from, its lifealtering and it takes every bit of help from a very good therapist to a nurturing environment in a safe environment to recover. It takes years so i would work for m. Street village. I would seek out veterans groups that need help because a lot of the men and women coming home are suffering from very severe trauma because of sexual abuse. The suicide rate is unbelievably high. There are 11 suicides in the military a day. The letter n. My office can find great organizations here. I made contact with him for the last seven years. I think just being able to offer empathy and understanding and be knowledgeable about the trauma, and frankly that is not what is present on some College Campuses so the people that are there sometimes are trained and they blame the victim. The das offices arent much better. This debate about these are crimes and why are you going to local d. A. . A lot of them do and they are either laughed out of the Police Station or blamed or told its their own fault in the case is dropped. We have a huge societal problem and it really goes to not doubting women enough. We do not value women enough. Thank you for being here and answering questions. You said yourself you have an interest in Public Service thanks in part to your grandmothers fierce leadership. It took many years to build the say that to others and im wondering what the steps are that you can take for young girls and young women so they can say i am running for office someday. We have to move that conversation forward so its okay for women to have that ambition. While i dont know the answer but there was a study done by New York University and a show that women rarely have ambition to be an elected office so they asked women and girls of all different ages do you see yourself as the mayor, would you ever run for office and overwhelming it was no, no among the women and yes, yes among the men. The only group that had aspiration to be in public life were people involved in competitive sports. So maybe keep all your girls and sports a new will be more willing to get in the game. I think it has to do with the notion of being not afraid of failure. When you played a competitive sport, you learn early on just because you you lose it doesnt mean you dont get back up on the field and play hard the next time. So ive been having girls play sports is very helpful because you are not afraid of failure. So in a political context a lot of them will say i dont want to run for office. I hate the negative ads. Its too nasty and im not doing it. But if you stated that woman well thats all true but its not about you, its about what you are fighting for. Frankly you are the only one who cares about that cause and if you dont run no one will address Climate Change or whatever her passion is. You are exactly the right person who could beat this guy sukie when you could make a difference. They say oh really . I could make a difference . Women respond when they are needed and women respond when they are told they can do it. I like this call to actions like rosie the riveter was in world war ii. A woman with her sleeves rolled up, we can do it. 6 million women enter the workforce because of that campaign and they did because they were told they were needed and they were told they could do it. We need 6 million are women voting, holding elected leaders accountable and hopefully running for office. We have to tell our girls that they are needed and that their voices are unique and important and without their voice and perspective the country is lesser off. Ive a question about the undermining comments you talked about earlier. I work on justice issues in latin america and frankly that happens quite a lot. I find it difficult to figure out how to react to that. Did you speak out about it and if so how because i dont want that to create backlash. You have to make your own decision based on the circumstances you are and, where a role you play in that office, who made the comments. Obviously if someone is sexually harassing you you need to report it to someone you trust in your office because thats unacceptable and illegal. Someone saying nice asked, thanks, you know. It doesnt need a response. Its so idiotic and so stupid. Its so inappropriate. A member of congress and some congressman who is old and i dont know him and hes weird and he says to me good thing youre working out. You would want to get porky. Im thinking to myself thanks asked all. I need your advice. [applause] sometimes it merits a response and sometimes it doesnt. Every woman should make her own decision to it does undermine us and those were conversations by peers. They warned by bosses. It didnt bother me. I went home and i told my husband and we laughed. When i was told about law firm situation as a young 27yearold lawyer that you look so great after i worked so hard, that hurts and i was so disappointed. I thought that would have really hurt my career if anybody was in that room who didnt know me well and didnt watch me work so hard. That would have undermined me if there were two or three partners who worked with me. They would have made the judgment, she has nothing to offer. That would have crushed my future possibility i think. So women have to be vigilant and we have to figure out do i need to address it or dont i . Is this going to hurt my career and if so how do i fix the . Do i go or to the partner and Say Something to him myself . Do i have another partner Say Something for me to . You have to figure it out and you cant know unless you are in the shoes whats best but my advice is dont let it go. It doesnt mean you are not worth every bit you think you are. Thats really the message especially for younger women because its deflating. It really hurts. Thank you for coming. An industry which hasnt been kind to women verified by recent surveys as the technology industry. Based largely in silicon valley. Surveys have shown that these are maledominated and they hire very few, scandalously few minorities. What can we do to change that or what can government do or how can women change to fit in these kinds of jobs . One example are jobs that require proficiency in Science Technology engineering and math, the s. T. E. M. Fields. Those eight out of nine of the fastestgrowing industries require proficiency in s. T. E. M. Women and minorities arent going into Science Technology and math they are not going to have opportunities in this fastgrowing industries and also the benefit of their brilliance and their smarts and their innovation in those industries where we want all of our brightest minds. People who study this say you have got to get those kids early. You have to inspire the thirdgrader how to build a a rocket and a fifthgrader how to build a robot and teach them handson learning. And tell young girls with their ideas are important. I used example in the book about henry and his prek class. My husband my son henry loves trains. I walk into his daycare and explained trains with his favorite friend at the time. Her name is sadie. Her name is sadie and sadie of course is a young girl is putting people along the tracks and talking about where the people are going and what they are doing, very typical. But what i realized at that moment is yes boys often want to do buildings and things with wheels and things that go fast. Sadies interests were just as important because if shes interested in where the people are going and what the people are going to imagine what kind of engineer she would be. She would design a train system that met the needs of the people and could search herself with where the people were going and what they need to do. So i want sadie to be as interested because i want her brilliance as a city planner. We have to teach our girls you can help people. Be concerned about what people think it is important and not to decide what the center stays need them to do. We have time for two more questions. Sorry guys. Im totally lucky. Im from the burbs and i had a pretty cushy life coming up. I didnt know you have served in the military and you talked about the scourge of Sexual Assault in the military that you are trying to address which i think is great but i dont know a lot about the military. So when i hear senator Barbara Mccaskill out of missouri seems to have a different approach to the problem then your proposed solution i dont really come out with a lot of expertise so i was wondering if you could sort of address that contrast. Women agree on a lot of things that we are not a monolith and we disagree on many things too. But claire and i agree a lot more on than we disagree and in fact we are handling the Sexual Assault on College Campuses issue. I still think the way the women in the senate work is really special. Women in the senate we have a quarterly dinner. Barbara mikulski when she was a senator and they were finally two she said im going to start having a caucus meeting. So the two women started having dinner and she has kept that tradition up for 20 years. Now we have these dinners with all the women senators and what we do as we get to know each others people. We get to know each other as friends comments women, daughters, sisters and mothers and wives and they care about each other. Not surprising that every bill i have passed in congress i have had a strong republican women helping me get it done. It was Lisa Murkowski and Olympia Snowe going into the cloakroom saying why are we standing with First Responders and pass a bill . I was Susan Collins got the charge on the dont ask dont tell repeal and major we needed the republicans when we needed. 20 out of 20 women agree on that nine out of 10 reforms produce only one reform that 17 out of 20 agreed on. What we see as women often, not always but often have this disposition that they want to find common ground. They want to build consensus and they want something done in one of the reasons why we worked hard to get women elected. I want more women to be practical and get things done and find things we agree on and move from there. I think thats often how it builds. If we have 50 of women in congress he certainly would have wasted the last two congressional sessions on whether women should have access to contraception. [applause] we would have talked about all the other things we care about Like National security and the economy and everything else. But with 98 of american women having use contraception in their lifetime it would be off the table. Thats the difference i think that womens voices are different and unique and we have a different style of working it out and it would be good for government if we had more of them. Last question. The pressure of the last question. So i actually know the people survivors of Sexual Assault and campus and ill swim. One reason i am taking off a semester of college so i dont have to be with my rapist on campus every single day. I want to come back and be a successful student with him not being there. I wanted to ask you for the survivors on College Campuses who want is brave to come forward like that but would you say to them for they would not be afraid to come forward and tell their stories and step up and inspire and empower them . The most important thing they need is to get whatever support they feel they need so telling a trusted person so if they need any kind of support whether its counseling, whether its health care or whether its anything, guidance, advice they need to get the support they need and then they should do what they want to do. Not every woman is going to want to report it to her school. Not everyone is going to want to report it to law enforcement. What i found is when women are empowered and other options than they really know the lay of the land and what it would look like and how to hold the perpetrator accountable than they can make an informed decision and oftentimes they do cases. This one woman named emma was raped at columbia and nothing was on her case. She is now protesting by carrying a mattress on her back all around columbia to show her school the burden she is carrying because they didnt address her rape. She is speaking truth to power. She stood up in front of 100 cameras and told her story because she demanded some kind of justice. She is empowered. Sometimes it makes a difference to be able to stand up to fight for yourself because you are controlling whats happening. Each woman or man will make their own judgment about whats best for them. I am here to work very hard to be their voice and to demand whats right and demand the kind of accountability we dont have today. Thats what i feel very blessed that i get to do. So thank you for coming. [applause] thank you. [applause] host we are now joined by isaac wertz. On the curator of the albert a. Byrd collection of american literature. Host how did you get to that position . Guest i worked in a library in the past. I worked in their Book Division and was later a curator at Southern Methodist university and downtown at the theological st. Marks library. And got a doctorate in renaissance history at columbia and all that led to my being here. Host how long have you been up with the Public Library . Guest is a curator of september 2000. Host you brought some things out to show us that you have in the collection. Guest its an enormous collection about 2000 linear feet of archives and tens of thousands of printed items, 400 authors but this is what i like to call tip of the bird so to speak. Here we have the only surviving manuscript of john dunns satires and paradoxes that was done in his own lifetime. Its not in his hands but its in the hands of his secretary and personal assistant