Clinton Brought Women's Rights In From The Diplomatic Margins
“The whole range of soft issues were regarded as kind of second class pursuits” before Clinton. Will the change last?
posted on February 1, 2013 at 7:33pm EST
Rosie Gray
BuzzFeed Staff
The most striking legacy of Hillary Clinton's four years at the State Department is an institutional shift in the way international women's rights are viewed, and a sense that the place of women and girls in a range of societies proper subject of high-level diplomacy.
"What Hillary did that was unprecedented was to put [women's issues] in the center and not have it be a box-checking thing, and for women profesionals that's been a hard thing to do," said Heather Hurlburt, director of the National Security Network and a former staffer in Madeleine Albright's State Department. "There's a fear that you would be defined as a women's issues person."
"But Hillary was fearless about taking up women's issues," Hurlburt said, "and the fact that it's now such that a male Secretary of State will have to maintain the initiatives that she institutionalized at State — it won't just be the project of a woman Secretary of State anymore."
Clinton was known for meeting with women's rights activists and organizations during her travels abroad, as well as environmental groups, anti-poverty NGOs, and other things that make up a sector of foreign policy that former diplomat Aaron David Miller calls "planetary humanism." Clinton's ambassador for global women's issues, Melanne Verveer, traveled to over 60 countries on women's rights-related missions, according to the Washington Post.
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http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/clinton-brought-womens-rights-in-from-the-diploma
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"But Hillary was fearless about taking up women's issues," Hurlburt said, "and the fact that it's now such that a male Secretary of State will have to maintain the initiatives that she institutionalized at State — it won't just be the project of a woman Secretary of State anymore."
Hillary believes that no country can marginalize half of its population and have political and economic prosperity.
She established the "Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues" and appointed her old friend Melanne Vermeer to head it. It's purpose is to "seek to ensure that women’s issues are fully integrated in the formulation and conduct of U.S. foreign policy. The Office of Global Women’s Issues works to promote stability, peace, and development by empowering women politically, socially, and economically around the world.” President Obama last week made this office permanent. That means that future SOS will have to continue to focus on girls and women's issues.
Right on!!!
