The political progress women have made -- and what's next

Women have made enormous progress over the last century -- challenging the status quo, busting old taboos and changing business from the inside out. But when it comes to political representation, there's still a long way to go, says activist Cecile Richards. In this visionary talk, Richards calls for a global political revolution for women's equality and offers her ideas for how we can build it.

Nearly 100 years ago,

almost today,

most women in the United States
finally won the right to vote.

Now, it would take decades more
for women of color to earn that right,

and we've come a long way since,

but I would argue not nearly far enough.

I think what women want today,

not just only in the United States
but around the globe,

is to no longer be an afterthought.

We don't want to continue to try to,
like, look at the next 100 years

and be granted, grudgingly,
small legal rights and accommodations.

We simply want true and full equality.

I think that women are tired
of retrofitting ourselves

into institutions and governments
that were built by men, for men,

and we'd rather reshape the future
on our own terms.

I believe --

(Applause)

I believe what we need is a women's
political revolution for full equality

across race, across class,
across gender identity,

across sexual orientation,

and yes, across political labels,

because I believe what binds us
together as women

is so much more profound
than what keeps up apart.

And so I've given some thought

about how to build
this women's political revolution

and that's what I want
to talk to you about today.

(Cheers)

(Applause)

The good news is that one thing
that hasn't changed in the last century

is women's resilience

and our commitment to build
a better life not only for ourselves,

but for generations to come,

because I can't think of a single woman

who wants her daughter

to have fewer rights
or opportunities than she's had.

So we know we all stand on the shoulders
of the women who came before us,

and as for myself,

I come from a long line
of tough Texas women.

(Cheers)

My grandparents
lived outside of Waco, Texas,

in the country.

And when my grandmother got pregnant,

of course she was not going
to go to the hospital to deliver,

she was going to have that baby at home.

But when she went into labor,

she called the neighbor woman over
to cook dinner for my grandfather,

because ...

I mean, it was unthinkable that he
was going to make supper for himself.

(Laughter)

Been there.

(Laughter)

The neighbor had no experience
with killing a chicken,

and that was what was planned
for dinner that night.

And so as the story goes,

my grandmother,
in the birthing bed, in labor,

hoists herself up on one elbow
and wrings that chicken's neck, right?

And that is how my mother
came into this world.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

But the amazing thing is,

even though my mother's own grandmother
could not vote in Texas,

because under Texas law,

"idiots, imbeciles, the insane and women"

were prevented the franchise --

just two generations later,

my mother, Ann Richards, was elected
the first woman governor in her own right

in the state of Texas.

(Applause and cheers)

But you see, when Mom
was coming up in Texas,

there weren't a lot
of opportunities for women,

and frankly, she spent her entire life
trying to change that.

She used to like to say,

"As women, if you just give
us a chance, we can perform.

After all, Ginger Rogers
did everything Fred Astaire did,

but she did it backwards
and in high heels."

Right?

And honestly, that's kind of what women
have been doing for this last century:

despite having very, very little
political power,

we have made enormous progress.

So today in the United States,

100 years after getting the right to vote,

women are almost half the workforce.

And in 40 percent
of families with children,

women are the major breadwinners.

Economists even estimate

that if every single paid working woman
took just one day off of work,

it would cost the United States
21 billion dollars

in gross domestic product.

Now, largely because of Title IX,
which required educational equity,

women are actually now half
the college students in the United States.

We're half the medical students,
we're half the law students --

Exactly.

(Applause)

And a fact I absolutely love:

One of the most recent classes of
graduating NASA astronauts was ...

What?

For the first time, 50 percent women.

(Applause and cheers)

The point is that women
are really changing industries,

they're changing business
from the inside out.

But when it comes to government,
it's another story,

and I actually think a picture
is worth 1000 words.

This is a photograph from 2017
at the White House

when congressional leaders
were called over to put the final details

into the health-care reform bill
that was to go to Congress.

Now, one of the results of this meeting

was that they got rid
of maternity benefits,

which may not be that surprising,

since no one at that table
actually would need maternity benefits.

And unfortunately,
that's what we've learned the hard way

in the US for women.

If we're not at the table,
we're on the menu, right?

And we're simply not at enough tables,

because even though women
are the vast majority of voters

in the United States,

we fall far behind the rest of the world
in political representation.

Recent research is that when
they ranked all the countries,

the United States is 104th
in women's representation in office.

104th ...

Right behind Indonesia.

So is it any big surprise, then,

considering who's making decisions,

we're the only developed country
with no paid family leave?

And despite all the research
and improvements we've made

in medical care --

and this is really horrifying to me --

the United States now leads the developed
world in maternal mortality rates.

Now, when it comes to equal pay,
we're not doing a whole lot better.

Women now, on average,
in the United States,

still only make 80 cents
to the dollar that a man makes.

Though if you're
an African American woman,

it's 63 cents to the dollar.

And if you're Latina,
it's 54 cents to the dollar.

It's an outrage.

Now, women in the UK, the United Kingdom,

just came up with something
I thought was rather ingenious,

in order to illustrate
the impact of the pay gap.

So, starting November 10
and going through the end of the year,

they simply put an out-of-office
memo on their email

to indicate all the weeks
they were working without pay.

Right?

I think it's an idea
that actually could catch on.

But imagine if women
actually had political power.

Imagine if we were at the table,
making decisions.

Imagine if we had our own
women's political party

that instead of putting our issues
to the side as distractions,

made them the top priority.

Well, we know --

research shows
that when women are in office,

they actually act differently than men.

They collaborate more
with their colleagues,

they work across party lines,

and women are much more likely
to support legislation

that improves access to health care,
education, civil rights.

And what we've seen in our research
in the United States Congress

is that women sponsor more legislation

and they cosponsor more legislation.

So all the evidence is that when women
actually have the chance to serve,

they make a huge difference
and they get the job done.

So how would it look in the United States
if different people were making decisions?

Well, I firmly believe
if half of Congress could get pregnant,

we would finally quit fighting
about birth control

and Planned Parenthood.

(Applause and cheers)

That would be over.

(Applause)

I also really believe that finally,

businesses might quit
treating pregnancy as a nuisance,

and rather understand it
as a primary medical issue

for millions of American workers.

And I think if more women were in office,

our government would actually prioritize
keeping families together

rather than pulling them apart.

(Applause)

But perhaps most importantly,

I think all of these issues would
no longer be seen as "women's issues."

They would just be seen as basic issues
of fairness and equality

that everybody can get behind.

So I think the question is,

what would it take, actually, to build
this women's political revolution?

The good news is, actually,
it's already started.

Because women around the globe
are demanding workplaces,

they're demanding
educational institutions,

they're demanding governments

where sexism and sexual harassment
and sexual assault are neither accepted

nor tolerated.

Women around the world, as we know,

are raising their hands
and saying, "Me Too,"

and it's a movement
that's made so much more powerful

by the fact that women
are standing together across industries,

from domestic workers
to celebrities in Hollywood.

Women are marching, we're sitting in,

we're speaking up.

Women are challenging the status quo,

we're busting old taboos

and yes, we are proudly making trouble.

So, women in Saudi Arabia
are driving for the very first time.

(Applause and cheers)

Women in Iraq are standing in solidarity
with survivors of human trafficking.

And women from El Salvador to Ireland
are fighting for reproductive rights.

And women in Myanmar
are standing up for human rights.

In short, I think the most profound
leadership in the world

isn't coming from halls of government.

It's coming from women
at the grassroots all across the globe.

(Applause)

And here in the United States,
women are on fire.

So a recent Kaiser poll reported

that since our last presidential
election in 2016,

one in five Americans have either marched
or taken part in a protest,

and the number one issue
has been women's rights.

Women are starting new organizations,

they are volunteering on campaigns,

and they're taking on every issue

from gun-safety reform
to public education.

And women are running for office
in record numbers,

and they are winning.

So -- (Laughs)

(Applause)

Women like Lucy McBath from Georgia.

(Applause and cheers)

Lucy lost her son to gun violence,

and it was because of her experience
with the criminal justice system

that she realized just how broken it is,

and she decided to do
something about that.

So she ran for office,

and this January, she's going to Congress.

OK? Or --

(Applause)

Angie Craig from Minnesota.

(Applause and cheers)

So her congressman had made
such hateful comments about LGBTQ people

that she decided to challenge him.

And you know what? She did, and she won,

and when she goes to Congress in January,

she'll be the first lesbian mother
serving in the House of Representatives.

(Applause and cheers)

Or --

(Applause)

Or Lauren Underwood from Illinois.

She's a registered nurse,

and she sees every day the impact
that lack of health care access has

on the community where she lives,

and so she decided to run.

She took on six men in her primary,
she beat them all,

she won the general election,

and when she goes to Congress in January,

she's going to be the first
African-American woman ever

to serve her district in Washington, D.C.

(Applause and cheers)

So women are recognizing --

this is our moment.

Don't wait for permission,

don't wait for your turn.

As the late, great
Shirley Chisholm said --

Shirley Chisholm, the first
African-American woman ever

to go to Congress

and the first woman to run for president
in the Democratic party --

but Shirley Chisholm said,

"If there's no room for you at the table,
just pull up a folding chair."

And that's what women are doing,
all across the country.

I believe women are now the most
important and powerful political force

in the world,

but how do we make sure
that this is not just a moment?

What we need is actually a global movement
for women's full equality

that is intersectional
and it's intergenerational,

where no one gets left behind.

And so I have a few ideas
about how we could do that.

Number one: it's not enough to resist.

It's not enough to say what we're against.

It's time to be loud and proud
about what we are for,

because being for full equality
is a mainstream value

and something that we can get behind.

Because actually, men support
equal pay for women.

Millennials, they support gender equality.

And businesses are increasingly adopting
family-friendly policies,

not just because
it's the right thing to do,

but because it's good for their workers.

It's good for their business.

Number two:

We have to remember,
in the words of Fannie Lou Hamer,

that "nobody's free
'til everybody's free."

So as I mentioned earlier,

women of color in this country
didn't even get the right to vote

until much further along
than the rest of us.

But since they did,
they are the most reliable voters,

and women of color are the most
reliable voters for candidates

who support women's rights,

and we need to follow their lead --

(Applause and cheers)

Because their issues are our issues.

And as white women, we have to do more,

because racism and sexism and homophobia,

these are issues that affect all of us.

Number three: we've got to vote
in every single election.

Every election.

And we've got to make it easier
for folks to vote,

and we've got to make sure
that every single vote is counted, OK?

(Applause and cheers)

Because the barriers that exist
to voting in the United States,

they fall disproportionately on women --

women of color, women with low incomes,

women who are working
and trying to raise a family.

So we need to make it easier
for everyone to vote,

and we can start by making
Election Day a federal holiday

in the United States of America.

(Applause and cheers)

Number four: don't wait for instructions.

If you see a problem that needs fixing,

I think you're the one to do it, OK?

So start a new organization,
run for office.

Or maybe it's as simple as standing up
on the job in support of yourself

or your coworkers.

This is up to all of us.

And number five:
invest in women, all right?

(Applause)

Invest in women as candidates,
as changemakers, as leaders.

Just as an example,

in this last election cycle
in the United States,

women donated 100 million dollars more
to candidates and campaigns

than they had just two years ago,

and a record number of women won.

So just think about that.

(Applause and cheers)

So look, sometimes I think
that the challenges we face,

they seem overwhelming

and they seem like they almost
can never be solved,

but I think the problems
that seem the most intractable

are the ones that are most
important to work on.

And just because it hasn't been
figured out yet doesn't mean you won't.

After all, if women's work were easy,

someone else would have
already been doing it, right?

(Laughter)

But women around the globe,
they're on the move,

and they are taking strengths
and inspiration from each other.

They are doing things
they never could have imagined.

So if we could just take
the progress we have made

in joining the workforce,

in joining business,

in joining the educational system,

and actually channel that
into building true political power,

we will reshape this century,

because one of us can be ignored,

two of us can be dismissed,

but together, we're a movement,

and we're unstoppable.

Thank you.

(Applause and cheers)

Thank you.

(Applause)