Here. Who are your most important mentors in your life. If youre going to ask me what women are my role models. One was real, one was fictional. The real one was amelia earhart, the fictional one was nancy drew. But i never had in many my college years, certainly law school, never had a woman teacher. People asked me, did you always want to be a Supreme Court justice i wanted to get age out of the law. That was my goal. Women werent on the bench in numbers. On the federal bench until jim with my carter became president. He was only in office four years. He took a look at the federal judiciary. He was determined to appoint members of minority groups and women in numbers, not as one at a time curiosities. He pointed at least 25 women to Federal District courts and i was one of the lucky 11 appointed to a court of appeals. During his time. He said in october of 1980, when he had a reception for the women, he had appointed to the federal bench, even though he had no Supreme Court vacancy to fill, he hoped he would be remembered for how he changed the complexion of the u. S. Judiciary. And no president went back to always president reagan not to be outdone was determined to put the first woman on the Supreme Court. What as your reflection on the entirety of your life and career, what do you think what aspects or events have given you the greatest personal satisfaction . Well, i was tremendously fortunate to be born when i was, to be a lawyer with the skill in the 70s, to help move that progress in society along. If if i had been born at an even 10 years earlier, it would have been impossible. In the turning point brief, in the reviewed case, we put on the cover of that brief, the names of two women. Pauline merry was one, and whos the other one i already mentioned, the one who was concerned with putting women on juries all over the country . We put their names on the brief to say they kept the message alive even when people were not prepared to listen. And we owe them a tremendous debt. How lucky we are. Just think of the conservative burger court, the first case comes out unanimous judgment and most of the others came out the right way in the 70s. I count myself enormously fortunate to be around when it was possible to move society to the place where it should be for the betterment of all of us. Everyone is the beneficiary ending gender discrimination. Women, men like charles e. Marks and children. Thats how the old chief was persuaded when he was justice rehnquist, this was a story of a man whose wife died in childbirth, he was left the sole caretaker of the child. Wanted Social Security benefits that would help him be able to work only part time while his child was young. Those benefits were for mothers not fathers. So the court decided that case, i think it was in 1975. It was a unanimous judgment. One the discrimination against the woman as wage earner. Her Social Security taxes dont get for her family the same protection. And then a few of them thought it was really discrimination against the male as parent. He would not have the opportunity to render personal care to his child. And then rehnquist all alone said, totally arbitrary from the point of view of the baby, why should the baby have the chance to be cared for by a parent only if the parent is female and not male. Its that realization that we will all be better off if we end the discrimination if we end the era of women off of the home and children and men in the outside world. Both should be in both worlds. [ applause ] before we go, let me say on behalf of everyone here. Were fortunate you lived the life you have. We look forward to whats still to come. Nk that you. [ cheers and applause ] s American History tv looks back 50 years. President truman inspired a generation earlier. On july 30th, 1965, lbj said it was designed to ensure every citizen against the ravages of illness in his old age. Starting at 8 00 p. M. , lbjs daughter Linda Johnson robb. Larry levenson and mark uptegrove on the battle to pass medicare and medicaid. And why are president johnson succeeded where others failed. After that, recordings between lbj and his aids who talk about the politics and strategy behind the bill. At 10 00 p. M. , the medicare bill signing at the Harry S Truman president ial library in independence, missouri. Including remarks from president johnson. And former president truman. All of this tonight on American History tv on cspan 3. The cspan cities tour visits literary and Historic Sites across the nation to hear from local historians and Civic Leaders every other weekend. This month with congress on its summer recess, the citys tour is on cspan each day at 6 00 p. M. Eastern. Lincoln nebraska where well look at the design of the state capit capitol, the past and present of the first peoples of the plains and well talk with petic aree c rickets. That starts at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Wendy davis spoke for more than 10 hours during a 2013 filibuster opposing a texas law on abortion clinics. She was the democratic nominee for Texas Governor, losing to greg abbott. At the university of california berkeley, miss davis talks about the difficulties faced by her and other women running for Political Office as well as the state of gender equality issues. Thank you, ethan and camille for putting this together today and all the work that camille undertook to make sure we were able to do this, thank you all for being here and giving me an opportunity. I was delighted to land in sunny california after being in had a cold winter in texas. Im here to address gender, specifically, why gender equality is making ground many im going to ask you to challenge conventional thinking and how we define and talk about gender equality. And ill hopefully help you understand the lens through which i view these issues a bit better. More and more, im coming to understand and appreciate how much each of our individual filters formed through our Life Experiences matter in the way that we approach conversations in the political framework. And i would like to invite us to consider each others personal perspectives, each others lenses as we strive to move womens equality forward, first, lets take a moment to acknowledge some past victories in the womans movement. It can be easy today, particularly with an on slaught of antireproductive rights, legislation affecting some of the most personal of a womans decision making. To forget that on the long road of gender equality, women have fought for and gained significant ground. It was less than 100 years ago, when women earned the right to vote. 51 years ago, when president kennedy signed the equal pay act. Only 50 years ago when Birth Control became legalized. Only 42 years ago, when abortion was legalized. Less than 35 years ago when president reagan appointed the first female Sandra Day Oconnor to the Supreme Court. And only about six years ago, when president obama signed the Lily Ledbetter fair pay ago the into law. These are all calls for celebration, but when we look around, we see that theres so much work to be done. As we watch and we celebrate lgbt advances with more and more states moving to Marriage Equality and as we witness divisive, discriminatory policies like dont ask, dont tell being repealed. Each after years of hard work and effort that is to be celebrated. Gender politics seems to be taking a step backward. Women are facing an onslaught of legislation that threatens their reproductive freedoms and access to abortion. We occupy 56 of minimum wage jobs, even though we make up only about 49 of the workforce. And governors in states like mine are vetoing fair pay laws if they ever make it to the governors desk at all. All of this is happening without significant voter backlash. I think the answer to that is largely connected to and dictate ed these policies. My views were shaped very early in my Life Experiences, in my memoir, forgetting to be afraid. I sought to seek the experiences that shaped me. To illustrate why it is that certain issues hit me deep in the gut and compel me to reresponded in a particular way. I am a living, breathing example of the promise that can be created through againeder equalized opportunities. Informal as they were, they existed at a time when i needed them. I was 11 when my parents divorced and my 9th grade educated mother, who had never been in the workforce before, was left to support four children on her own. While my father pursued his dream of starting a nonprofit theater. We went from a blue collar lifestyle into poverty literally almost over night. Watching my mother struggle to put food on the table, working in a low wage Fast Food Restaurant job made me want to assure that i would never be left without an education and the means to support myself. And yet i too fell in the well of poverty and despair for a time. Pregnant at 18, married for a very brief time, i was left to support myself and my daughter amber when i was only 19. With only one semester of college under my belt, i could not see a bend in what looked like a long, bleak road ahead. My greatest fear literally was coming true. I was going to live the very same struggles i had watched my mother live. And fear fortunately can be a powerful motivator. My fears were reinforced on nights when i would come home to find my electricity had been turned off because i couldnt pay the bill. Or the embarrassment i suffered when i had to put grocery items back in the line because i didnt have enough for that weeks food. Im here today because policies that support a woman to move from poverty to stability actually do work. These policies, some formal, some less formal created ladders that helped me to move from where i was. One of those was access to Affordable CommunityCollege Education with grants and low cost tuition that made it possible for even me to afford. That ultimately became my gateway to graduating from harvard law school, and without my community college, there is simply no way i would be standing here talking before you today. Another ladder came in the form of access to reproductive and well Women Health Care that i received at a planned parenthood clinic close to my home. For several years as an uninsured woman, that clinic was my only source of care, its the place where i received cancer screenings, diabetes screenings, my annual well women exams and most importantly, it was a place that provided me with the ability to control my reproductive destine me, so that once i placed my foot on the path to higher education, i was able to keep it there. Another ladder for me came in the form of affordable quality child care, that a dear friend of mine provided. And we see and certainly with weve heard many in congress and the president talking about child care as an important issue. For many women the inability to afford and find quality child care is keeping them sufficiently as a roadblock to where they are. Finally, i was fortunate to work in an office where my employers supported a work schedule that allowed me to go to school in the mornings and to leave sometimes earlier in the eveningings. Flexibility, these workplace policies are so important in making possibilities available for women to improve their lives. Those years were a tremendous struggle and they were filled with fear. But i am grateful for the motivation that that fear provided, and so very grateful for the lens that that struggle provided me and through which i now view the world. Theres so many women today that cannot tell the story that i had the blessed ability to stand before you and tell. Because those ladders, those policies simply are not there for that. Affordable college tuition, Reproductive Health care. Flexible work hours. These inning thises are not there. As they once were for me. Policies to support these ladders, though theres a great deal of talk about them and effort in everybody monthing them forward are still unfortunately virtually nonexistent. Instead we find ourselves fighting old fights and in many instances losing ground. Why is this happening . Quite simply because support for an agenda that includes these policies has eroded. A negative association has been fostered between the idea of womens advancement and the threat that that movement poses to traditional patriarchal notions of a womans place. Playing upon these negative associations, womens reproductive rights and other issues important to womens equality have been hijacked by politicians who are using those issues as a wedge. Whistling to those who will respond favorably to the perceived threats that they hope to engender. For these politicians, positioning against advancement of gender equality serves as a means to an end. That end being their desire to hold on to and further their positions, status and power. Provoking favorable responses by using womens equality as a foil, is much more important to them than any fallout that they leave behind. To explain my point ill ask you to consider an argument made by berkeley law professor in his book dog whistle politics. Hell be giving a lecture on that at the law school tomorrow. I would invite you to please attend his work is very, very important. Professor lopez in his book invites us to consider how coded racial appeals have played a role in politics. Often resulting in middle class voting in an effort to perceive social threats which are far greater motivators. These reactions professor lopez asserts, are strategically invited by applications who employ techniques that play upon racial bias and animous to get voters to reing at in a way that is favorable for them to maintain power. President ial candidates using racial dog whistling to elicit voter support. George wallace was ridiculed as an unrepentant red neck when he was outspoken in verbalizing support for policies defending segregation, and extolling the proud anglosaxon southland. Voters didnt respond well. To vote for a candidate was such blatant racial appeal would have been to admit their own racial violences and fears. If he were more subtle with his message, he could mobilize race based voting without ever mentioning race at all. He stopped talking about objections to desegregation, and instead talked about states rights to turn away arrogant federal authority. Does that sound familiar when we think about the conversation about the Affordable Care act and about immigration, today we hear those same whistles. Wallace softened language gave permission to those who oppose racial integration, the ability to exercise racially elevated electoral responses without having to admit to others or even to themselves, the racial biases or fears. Goldwater ii talked of his support for states rights and freedom of association. Nixon employing the politically infamous southern strategy to motivate votes in the south, dog whistled by talking about forced bussing. Reagan describing the young buck in the Grocery Store line buying sirloin steak with his food stamps, while you were buying hamburger meat with your hard earned paycheck. Or his talk of welfare queens. Professor lopez cautions progressives not to get too smug. Pointing out that president carter used arguments about forced integration and,ing o, president clinton with his welfare reform agenda, when he sought reelection. Each of these strategic use of dog whistles an appeal to white voters whose racial biases, conscious or unconscious are being played. Importantly, professor lopez points out that this strategic use of race stands apart from other forms of racism, because the driving force behind strategic racism is not racial animous for its own sake, but rather, the strategic use of race in order to successfully pursue power, money or status. I saw this in my own Gubernatorial Race last year, when my opponent played upon fears regarding an invasion of Illegal Immigrants into texas. Openly calling for militarization through a National Guard presence there, in spite of the fact that these communities are notably safe with el paso having been named for the fourth year in a row, the safest large city in the country. Married to a latina, greg abbott would hardly fit the typical definition of someone with racial animous toward latinos, yet he understood how to dog whistle in p a way that would appeal to voters perceived threats in order to gain their votes. This use of dog whistling is not limited to provoking and playing upon perceived threats based on race. This technique is also successfully employed to provoke votes based on gender biases and fears. So lets discuss the use of dependser in that regard. Perhaps given the sexualized nature in which women candidates and womens issues are framed. Wolf whistling, rather than dog whistling may be a more apt way to describe the tactic. Some of that occurs in many fairly plate ant ways. For example, in my race, my opponents supporters derided me showing sexual images with my face or head on them, in order to get a response from potential voters, to show me as highly sexualized rather than competent. There were questions raised about my position as a mother, with suggestions that i abandoned my children when i went to law school. In so doing, attention was diverted from my achievement. I was no ing loer to be applauded for graduating law school with honors, while also juggling the responsibilities of caring for my young family, i was to be revealed for selfimprovement at the expense of giving my full time to child rearing. And there were the abortion barbie postings on social media and around l. A. When i attended a fundraiser there. Showing my head on a barbie doll with a pair of scissors next to me. I should be viewed not as a potential state leader but as a highly sexualized woman, and one who is a traitor to traditional roles of women at that. This was strategic, and it was flagrant and i am not the first female candidate to experience this. And i certainly will not be the last. The ploy works so why stop. These flagrant messages are supported by much more subtle ones meant to pro