TEXT: FIRST LADY'S 7/1 SPEECH AT SHANGHAI LIBRARY
(Women can hold up half the sky with freedom, justice)Shanghai -- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the Chinese public to ask themselves what needs to be done to equip and support women to hold up "their half of the sky" as the 21st century approaches.
In an address at the Shanghai Library July 1, Mrs. Clinton used the Chinese saying "Women hold up half the sky," to encourage increased awareness of women's rights in China and throughout the world.
"Women can't hold up half the sky -- if as girls they are not loved and valued by their parents, and given the same opportunities as their brothers to fulfill their potential," she said.
"Women can't hold up half the sky -- if girls are still pulled out of school early, and robbed of the education that they need to thrive in the 21st century."
"Women can't hold up half the sky -- if they are denied the jobs, loans and credit they need to lift themselves and their families up from poverty."
"Women can only hold up half the sky when their feet are planted firmly on the soil of freedom and equal justice."
Mrs. Clinton expressed optimism about the current women's rights movement in China. "I have heard the vital voices of your girls and women, and seen the flowering of independent organizations committed to transforming rhetoric into action to achieve tangible results toward the empowerment of women across your country," she said.
The First Lady announced the launching of five new U.S.-China exchange programs, sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency, to bring Chinese women to the United States in 1999 to share ideas and experiences with their American counterparts in law, business, government, and youth leadership.
Following is the official text of the First Lady's remarks, as prepared for delivery:
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First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Address at the Shanghai Library
Shanghai, China
July 1, 1998It's a great pleasure to be in Shanghai, the gateway to China, the vibrant center of China's economic transformation, and the wellspring of great intellectual, political, and creative leadership. I am also pleased to be speaking here -- at the Shanghai library -- which my husband and I visited yesterday. I understand it is one of the largest municipal libraries in the world; with vast resources -- from ancient Chinese texts to the latest CD-ROMs -- that embrace both the past and the future of this great nation.
My husband and I have only been in China a few days -- yet in that short time, we've glimpsed both China's rich history and promising future. We've visited some of your ancient sites -- from the Terra Cotta warriors to the steps of the Great Wall. And marveled at Shanghai's ultramodern architecture. But we understand that this country's greatest treasures are its people -- men and women like yourselves, who are seizing the opportunities for progress, and helping to transform your society for the better.
When I first came to China three years ago, I had the privilege of participating, as did many of you, in the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. It was an extraordinary gathering of women from 189 nations -- women of different colors, different cultures, and different faiths; from small villages and urban centers -- who had come together from every corner of the globe to discuss our common concerns and our common future. At the conference and the forum of nongovernmental organizations in Hairou, I listened to women giving voice to the voiceless; strength to the powerless; hope to those marginalized.
While we spoke different languages, and came from different places, we shared a universal belief: that women's rights are human rights and that human rights are women's rights.
What the Beijing conference made undeniably clear, and what we all know from experience and history, is that development and progress depend on women having equal access to life's basic tools of opportunity: health care; education; credit; jobs; legally enforceable rights; and full participation in the political, social and economic life of our countries.
The Beijing Platform for Action provided a framework and the impetus for governments to make these tools of opportunity and rights available to women. And the extraordinary potential and energy of women unleashed at that conference has begun to transform lives and societies. Governments are being held to their commitments, and grassroots action is igniting reform in every corner of the globe.
I have seen the changes occurring first hand, from Senegal to South Africa, from America to Australia, and from Chile to China.
During the time I've been in China, I've had the privilege to meet women and men who are working together to ensure that women are not left behind in the 21st century. I have heard the vital voices of your girls and women, and seen the flowering of independent organizations committed to transforming rhetoric into action to achieve tangible results toward the empowerment of women across your country.
Last Saturday in Beijing, I participated in a spirited, lively and informative discussion with women leaders about the challenges and opportunities facing women in China. Although there were only eight of us sitting around the table, I felt as though I were hearing the voices of millions of Chinese women committed to improving their lives.
I listened to the publisher of a magazine for rural women speak of improving conditions for poor rural women through expanded economic opportunities. She told the story of a disabled woman who was made to feel like a burden to her husband. But, through a micro credit program, she got a small loan and set up her own bean curd shop. As she began to make money, the relationship with her husband improved. And she also gained self-confidence, and earned a position of respect in her village.
University professors talked about new efforts to educate women, and change traditional attitudes about women and girls. Participants told me about programs aimed at keeping girls in school, and convincing dropouts to return to school. They showed me illustrated pamphlets used to inform women and girls about their political and legal rights.
On Monday, I met with women lawyers and professors running the Center for Women's Law Studies and Legal Services at Beijing University, which offers free legal counseling to women; arbitrates, mediates, and litigates significant cases with wider legal implications for society; and recommends changes in policies that affect women.
One of the Center's clients told me she had wanted to leave her abusive husband -- but didn't know what her legal rights were. She sought the help of the Center, and finally obtained a divorce and an award for child support. But she and her daughter are still living with her ex-husband, because her apartment was assigned to him by his work unit, and she is unable to get housing on her own. The Center is pursuing ways for her to obtain housing, and collect the support to which she is entitled.
Another client explained how she and the women she worked with in a factory were denied their pay, and are suing the factory's manager for their back wages -- which he still refuses to pay.
These stories and many others, underscored for me that while laws protecting women's rights in China, as in many other countries, are often quite comprehensive on paper, they are frequently not enforced. Throughout the world, I hear the same complaint -- without the rule of law, which includes open access to the legal system and judicial orders that individuals can enforce, laws can be a cruel hoax on women. But based on what I have I have learned here, steps toward better implementation are being made in China. When I asked for a show of hands at the Center of those in the audience who were studying to become lawyers -- all the hands that shot up were young women's. The extraordinary growth in the number of lawyers in China -- including women lawyers -- will further strengthen the rule of law that is necessary for expanding and enforcing women's rights.
And yesterday here in the Library, my husband and I talked with more people in Shanghai who are defining China's future. I also visited a retraining center where women, who have lost their jobs because of China's economic reforms, are learning new skills to prepare themselves for a more competitive job market. I was struck by how supportive they were of each other in the face of daunting challenges. I especially noticed the emphasis that the teachers placed on changing a woman's attitude about herself, so that in addition to skills, she could work for "self respect, self confidence, self reliance, and self improvement."
And I visited a beautiful new children's medical center, with state of the art technology -- and met with the bright, articulate students at the Shanghai Number 3 Girls School: two snapshots of the new China.
My experiences here in China this past week have convinced me how important personal exchanges are between our two countries. So it is with great pleasure that today I am announcing five new China/America exchange programs that will bring Chinese women to the United States next year to share ideas and experiences with their American counterparts. These exchanges, sponsored by USIS, will embrace Chinese and American women leaders at all levels of society, including lawyers, business representatives, local government officials, and youth leaders. And I know they will deepen the understanding and ties of friendship that continue to grow between our two countries.
They will also enable American and Chinese women like us, with education and position, to learn from each other about how we can continue to work toward social change that benefits all women.
One of the great privileges of my position is to travel on behalf of my country. Wherever I go, I speak with women and girls. I find that no matter what nation we live in, we face the same challenges, and dream the same dreams. We all hope for the day when no woman is a victim of domestic abuse and other forms of violence. When no woman is the victim of economic discrimination. When no woman is denied the basic rights of health care and education.
Yet we know, even as we enter this new millennium -- with all of its possibilities for humankind -- that too many women around the world remain on the outskirts of opportunity, and their daughters remain undervalued in their societies.
For as much as progress is being made on women's behalf -- here in China and around the world -- deeply embedded barriers remain. Because for every women who needs more information, we know there are not enough books, let alone Internet access; for every woman who needs her legal rights protected, we know there are not enough legal clinics. For every women who seeks an education, there are not enough families who are able or willing to pay the fees; and for every girl who today dreams of a world of unlimited possibilities, there remain yesterday's attitudes that hold her back.
As some of you may know, I am particularly lucky on this trip to have not only my daughter but my mother with me. We have, as the saying goes, "three generations under one roof." And I think about how many changes the three of us have experienced in our lifetimes. My mother was born before women had gained the right to vote in the United States. And 30 years ago, when I entered law school, there were very few women sitting beside me in the lecture halls. Today, women in those law classes are in the majority. And already in her life, my daughter has greater freedoms and opportunities and choices than I could ever have imagined at her age.
We all must work harder to ensure that all girls have the ability and right to make their own choices. That starts with valuing and respecting our daughters in our hearts and in our homes -- so that they develop the strength and confidence to move forward -- for themselves, their families and their countries.
Since I've been here, I have heard the expression "Women hold up half the sky." And I've seen firsthand the enormous reservoirs of talent, and the boundless potential that exist within the women of China to shoulder this burden.
This is also an image that applies to women everywhere. In my own country, for example, many women feel they are holding up more than half the sky, as they struggle to balance family and work demands, with little help from government or business with their child care needs. So each of us in our different social and economic settings, should ask ourselves what needs to be done to equip and support women to hold up their half of the sky. Some answers seem obvious to me:
Women can't hold up half the sky -- if as girls they are not loved and valued by their parents, and given the same opportunities as their brothers to fulfill their potential;
Women can't hold up half the sky -- if they make up the vast majority of those who can't read or write;
Women can't hold up half the sky -- if girls are still pulled out of school early, and robbed of the education that they need to thrive in the 21st century;
Women can't hold up half the sky -- if they are denied the jobs, loans and credit they need to lift themselves and their families up from poverty;
Women can't hold up half the sky -- if they are deprived of basic legal rights and services;
Women can't hold up half the sky -- if they are victims of violence and abuse in their own homes, or are kidnapped or sold into marriage;
Women can't hold up half the sky -- if they are denied the freedom to plan their own families.
Women can only hold up half the sky when their feet are planted firmly on the soil of freedom and equal justice.
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- adopted 50 years ago by my country and yours -- states "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights." The Platform for Action adopted by the UN Conference in Beijing three years ago lays out a powerful agenda for the empowerment of women based on those principles of universal rights. Economic reforms here have lifted millions of Chinese out of poverty -- an extraordinary accomplishment. But economic and social progress must go hand in hand with the strengthening of other freedoms. The yearning to be treated with dignity, to be able to choose one's own religion, to speak freely, to participate fully in the life of one's community -- knows no national boundary, but is deeply rooted in the human spirit.
All of you here today are playing a role in the great transformation of China we can see all around us. Based on my own experience in America, I am aware of how hard progress can be, and how sometimes it feels that you take two steps forward -- and one step back.
One hundred and fifty years ago this month, at Seneca Falls, New York, a small band of women and a few men adopted a declaration of sentiments that called for women's equal rights. We have made tremendous progress since then, but the work is never finished. For every law the United States passed -- from voting rights to equal pay for equal work -- we have had to work hard not only to enforce it, but also to change the underlying social and cultural attitudes that undermine its meaning. (As late as the 1980s, I met women in America who said they did not vote in elections because their husbands did.)
Almost eighty years ago, in 1919, the voices of the young Chinese intellectuals of the May 4th movement argued passionately that women must gain social, economic and political equality if China was to survive and prosper in the 20th century. That message is even more compelling in 1998, as China enters the 21st century. As we stand at the brink of a new century, no country will be successful in the years ahead if it leaves half its population behind. No country can reach its full potential until all of its citizens -- men and women; boys and girls -- have the freedom and the resources to reach theirs.
Only when we create a world where every citizen enjoys fundamental freedoms and every child is valued and given equal opportunities -- then, and only then, will we be able to say with honesty: yes, women hold up half the sky.
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