but what is the story this is breaking
the glass ceiling oh that was well
chosen I would say for last then when I
get up in the morning is trying to
figure out what's going to happen you
know and none of this pin stuff would
have happened if it hadn't been for
cedam who say I'll tell you what
happened I went to the United Nations as
ambassador and it was after the Gulf War
and I was an instructed ambassador and
the ceasefire had been translated into a
series of sanctions resolutions and my
instructions were to say perfectly
terrible things about Saddam Hussein
constantly which he deserved he had
invaded another country and so all of a
sudden a poem appeared in the papers in
Baghdad comparing me to many things
but among them an unparalleled serpent
and so I happen to have a snake pin so I
wore it when we talked about Iraq and
when I went out to meet the press they
zeroed and said why are you wearing that
snake pit I said because said I was
saying compared me to an unparalleled
serpent and then I thought well this is
fun so I went out and I bought a lot of
pins that would in fact reflect what I
thought we were going to do on any given
day so that's how it all started so how
large is the collection then pretty big
it's now traveling at the moment it's in
Indianapolis but it was at the
Smithsonian and it goes with a book that
says read my pins so is this a good idea
I remember when you were the first woman
as Secretary of State and there was a
lot of conversation always about what
you were wearing how you looked even
thing that happens to a lot of women
especially if they're the first in a
position so how do you feel about that
the whole well it's pretty irritating
actually because nobody ever describes
what a man is wearing but people did pay
attention to what clothes I had what was
interesting was that before I went up to
New York as UN ambassador I talked to
Jeanne Kirkpatrick who'd been ambassador
before me and she said you've got to get
rid of your professor clothes go out and
look like a diplomat so
did give me a lot of opportunities to go
shopping but still there were all kinds
of questions about did you wear hat how
short was your skirt and one of the
things if you remember Condoleezza Rice
was at some event and she wore boots and
she got criticized over that and no guy
ever gets criticized but that's the
least of it it is for all of us men and
women finding our ways of defining our
roles and and doing them in ways that
make a difference in the world and shape
the future how how are you how did you
handle that balance between being the
tough diplomatic and strong voice of
this country to the rest of the world
and also how you felt about yourself as
a mother or grandmother nurturing and so
how did you handle well the interesting
part was I was asked what it was like to
be the first woman Secretary of State a
few minutes after I'd been named and I
said well I've been a woman for 60 years
but I've only been Secretary of State
for a few minutes so it evolved but
basically I love being a woman and so
what happened and I think there'll
probably be some people in the audience
that will identify with this I went to
my first meeting at the first at the UN
and that's when this all started because
that is a very male organization and I'm
sitting there there 15 members of the
Security Council so 14 men sat there
staring at me and I thought well you
know how we all are you want to get the
feeling of the room and do people like
me and will I really say something
intelligent and all of a sudden I
thought well wait a minute I am sitting
behind a sign that says the United
States and if I don't speak today then
the voice of the United States will not
be heard and it was the first time that
I kind of had that feeling that I had to
step out of myself in my normal kind of
reluctant female mode and decide that I
had to speak on behalf of our country
and so that happened more in various
times but I really think that there was
a great advantage in many ways to being
a woman I think we are
a lot at personal relationships and then
have the capability obviously of telling
it like it is when it's necessary but I
tell you I have my youngest
granddaughter when she turns seven last
year said to her mother my daughter so
what's the big deal about Grandma Maddie
being Secretary of State only girls our
Secretary of State
because in her lifetime that's that
would be so yeah what a change that is
um as you travel now all over the world
what you do frequently how how do you
assess this global narrative around the
story of women and girls where are we
I think we're slowly changing but
obviously there are whole pockets and
countries where nothing is different and
therefore means that we have to remember
that while many of us have had huge
opportunities and Pat you have been a
real leader in your field is that there
are a lot of women that are not capable
of worrying and taking care of
themselves and understanding that women
had to help other women and so what I
have felt and and I have looked at this
from a national security issue in our
Secretary of State I decided that
women's issues had to be central to
American foreign policy not just because
I'm a feminist but because I believe
that societies are better off when women
are politically and economically
empowered that values are passed down
the health situation is better education
is better there is a greater economic
prosperity so I think that it is
behooves us those of us that live in
various countries where we do have the
economic and political voice that we
need to help other women and I really
dedicated myself to that both at the UN
and then a Secretary of State and did
you get pushback from but making that a
central tenet of a farm some people I
think that they thought that it was kind
of a soft issue the bottom line that I
decided was actually women's issues are
the hardest issues because they are the
ones that have to do with life and death
in so many aspects and because as I said
it is really central to the way that we
think about things now for instance some
of the wars that took place when I was
in office a lot of them the women were
the main victims of them for instance
when I started we there were wars in the
Balkans the women in Bosnia were being
raped
then managed to set up a war crimes
tribunal to deal specifically with those
kinds of issues and by the way one of
the things that I did at that stage was
I had just arrived at the UN and when I
was there there were 183 countries in
the UN now they're 192 but it was one of
the first times that I didn't have to
cook lunch myself so I said to my
assistant invite the other women
permanent representatives and I thought
when I'd get to my apartment that
there'd be a lot of women there I get
there and there's six other women out of
183 so the countries that had women
representatives were Canada Kazakhstan
Philippines Trinidad Tobago Jamaica
Liechtenstein and me so being an
American I decided to set up a caucus
and so we set it up and I we called
ourselves the g7 and great girls girl 7
and we lobbied on behalf of women's
issues so we managed to get two women
judges on this war crimes tribunal and
then what happened was that they were
able to declare the rape was a weapon of
war that it was against humanity
so when you look around the world and
you see that in many cases certainly in
the Western world women are evolving
into more leadership positions and and
even in other places some barriers are
being brought down but there's still so
much violence still so many problems and
yet we hear there more women at the
negotiating tables now you were at those
negotiating tables when there weren't
and there was maybe you one voice maybe
one or two others do you believe and can
you tell us why there is going to be a
significant shift in things like
violence and peace and conflict and
resolution and a sustainable basis well
I do think when there are more women
that the the tone of the conversation
changes and also the goals of the
conversation change but it doesn't mean
that the whole world would be a lot
better if it were totally run by women
we you know if you think that you've
forgotten high school so so that but the
bottom line is that I think that there
is a way when there are more women at
the table that there's an attempt to
develop some understanding so for
instance what I did when I went to
Burundi we got to season Hutu women
together to talk about some of the
problems that have taken place in Rwanda
and so I think the capability of women
to put themselves I think we're better
about putting ourselves into the other
guy's shoes and having more empathy I
think it helps in terms of the support
if there are other women in the room
when I was Secretary of State there were
only 13 other women foreign ministers
and so it was nice when one of them
would show up for instance she is now
the president of Finland bateria
Hallinan was the foreign minister of
Finland and at a certain stage head of
the European Union and it was really
terrific because one of the things I
think you'll understand we went to a
meeting and
men in my delegation when I would say
well I feel we should do something about
this and they said what I mean feel and
so then tario was sitting across the
table from me and all of a sudden and we
were talking about arms control and she
said well I feel we should do this and
you know my male colleagues kind of got
it all of a sudden but I think it really
does help to have a critical mass of
women in a series of foreign policy
positions the other thing that I think
is really important a lot of national
security policy isn't just about foreign
policy but it's about budgets and
military budgets and how the debts of
countries work out so if you have women
in a variety of foreign policy posts
they can support each other when there
are budget decisions being made in their
own countries so how do we get you know
this balance we're looking for than in
the world more women's voices at the
table more men who believe that the
balance is best well I think one of the
things I'm chairman the board of an
organization called the National
Democratic Institute that works to
support women candidates I think that we
need to help in other countries to train
women to be in political office to
figure out how they can in fact develop
political voices I think we also need to
be supportive when businesses are being
created and just make sure that women
help each other now I have a saying that
I feel very strongly about because I am
of a certain age where when I started in
my career believe it or not there were
other women who criticized me why aren't
you in the carpool line or aren't your
children suffering because you're not
there all the time and I think we have a
tendency to make each other feel guilty
in fact I think guilt is every woman's
middle name and so I think what needs to
happen is we need to help each other and
my motto is that there's a special place
in hell for women who don't help each
other
the secretary Albright I guess you will
be going to heaven thank you for joining