Tireless women’s rights campaigner honoured

by Jean-Michel Berthoud, swissinfo.ch

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Marthe Gosteli, the 94-year-old doyenne of the Swiss women’s rights scene, was honoured for her life’s work with a human rights prize.

Marthe Gosteli says she's been on the receiving end of everything from honours to slander (Elsbeth Boss)

She received the prize at a ceremony in Bern on December 10 – Human Rights Day – from the International Society for Human Rights Swiss Section.

Despite her age, Gosteli - who receives the award along with Bern emeritus professor of history Beatrix Mesmer – is still involved in the Gosteli Archive on the history of the Swiss women’s movement, “although it doesn’t really need me anymore,” as she laughingly told swissinfo.ch.


The pioneer described the women’s rights movement as “one of the biggest liberation movements of the last century”.  “And it remained without bloodshed,” she added.


Gosteli was born into a farming family near Bern which was very interested in politics. Her grandfather sat in the Bern cantonal parliament and her father was very active in centre-right circles.


Her mother was upset about her lack of legal rights in her marriage, “although my father was no macho” , remarked Gosteli. This was what prompted her lifelong interest in equality for women.

Suffragette

When Gosteli joined the women’s movement in around 1940 she recognised that some ground had already been laid by 19th century pioneers.


By the beginning of the 20th century the loosely organised radical women’s rights activists were, however, being denounced as “suffragettes”.


“I was also called a suffragette,” Gosteli said. “In my life I have experienced everything – from the highest honours to the nastiest slander.”


Opposition – not just male – developed to the activists who were perceived as being a bit too militant and not always acting in the right way. Society was not ready to accept women having the same rights as men.

" Many women who work for state institutions have told me that they don’t want to be quota woman. I wouldn’t want to be one either. "
Marthe Gosteli

Milestone

It took 50 votes – all decided by men – before Switzerland finally allowed women to vote in 1971, one of the last European countries to do so. Gosteli said a lot of work had been done to convince people of the merits of the change.


But opponents had carried out a fierce campaign, using rather crude posters to warn of the “perils” of women voting.


Gosteli said that she was surprised at just how many educated women took part in the “no” campaign, despite the fact that “they had only been able to study thanks to the early women’s movement”.


Women’s suffrage 40 years ago was an important milestone. But the whole fight was exhausting and Gosteli found that even when she learned of the positive result, “it was a relief but I was not jumping around for joy”.


“I was simply happy that we had won.”

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Hawa Abdi - Guardian Top 100 Women Science and Medicine

Emine Sane
The Guardian

One of Somalia's first female gynaecologists, Hawa Abdi now uses her own money to run a small hospital treating everything from war injuries to malnutrition and disease

Dr Hawa Abdi. Photograph: Martin Roe/Retna Ltd.

In 1983 Abdi, one of Somalia's first female gynaecologists, opened a small clinic for women and children on her family farm. When the country descended into civil war in 1991 she opened to all and now the camp near Mogadishu is home to around 90,000 people. , mostly displaced women and children seeking refuge and treatment for everything from war injuries to malnutrition and disease.

When Islamist militants invaded the camp, they took Abdi hostage for a week, saying women should not be allowed to be in control of such a place. "I may be a woman, but I'm a doctor," she said. "What have you done for society?"

As aid agencies have abandoned the dangerous country, Abdi runs her small hospital, often with the help of her daughters Deqo and Amina, who are also doctors, on her own savings and donations. She also helps provide food and clean water, runs a school and literacy classes for women and campaigns against female genital mutilation. This woman, with her education and one-time family wealth, could easily have left her lawless country but she chose to stay: "We women in Somalia are trying to be leaders in our community."

Leymah Gbowee: An Interview With the 2011 Nobel Prize Winner

Leymah Roberta Gbowee was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, Oct. 7. She is an African peace activist responsible for organizing a women's movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. This led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia, the first African nation with a female president.

In 2001, Gbowee began organizing the women of Liberia and by 2002, the women joined together in an effort to stop the civil war which was tearing Liberia apart. Under Gbowee's leadership, they stood up to the violence and to the government.

She just released a new book called "Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer and Sex Changed a Nation at War."

Thanks to Odyssey Networks for this fine video.

Women's right activists win Nobel Peace Prize

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen for their work on women's rights.

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to three champions of women's rights in Africa and the Middle East on Friday in an attempt to bolster the role of women in struggles to bring democracy to nations suffering from autocratic rule and civil strife.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee split the prize between Tawakkul Karman, a leader of anti-government protests in Yemen; Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to win a free presidential election in Africa; and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, who campaigned against the use of rape as a weapon in her country's brutal civil war.



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Women's rights activists win Nobel Peace Prize

Carol Ann Duffy - Guardian Top 100 Women - Writing and Academia

• Homa Khaleeli
• The Guardian,

First tipped for the job 10 years earlier, she finally became the first female poet laureate in 2009

Carol Ann Duffy. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

The first female poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, 55, was first touted for the job in 1999, but was reluctant because of her status as a mother in a lesbian relationship. Ten years later she accepted, but insisted it was a prize for other women, saying: "I look on it as recognition of the great women poets we now have writing."

It was certainly a long-awaited acknowledgement – the first woman to be considered for the laureate, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was overlooked for Alfred Lord Tennyson. And after his death, rather than award it to Christina Rossetti, the position was left vacant until Alfred Austin was appointed. Yet it seems fitting the first woman would be Duffy, not just critically acclaimed, but loved for her witty ways of filling the gaps left by women's silences in her collection, The World's Wife, which saw every poem told in the voice of a wife of a great historical figure, and Feminine Gospels.

Maya Angelou - Guardian Top 100 Women - Writing and Academia

Homa Khaleeli

Writer, academic and activist, who chronicled the African American experience in literature

Maya Angelou. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

When she started to chronicle the African-American experience through her own life, Maya Angelou, 82, had a lot to work with – enough to fill six books of autobiography, the first of which was the longest-running non-fiction paperback on the New York Times bestseller list.

A friend and supporter of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, as well as being Oprah Winfrey's mentor, it is her willingness to share the wisdom she gained from the struggle of her early years that inspires her generations of fans.

As a child she was raped by her mother's boyfriend. When her attacker was kicked to death she didn't speak for five years – believing that by naming him she had killed him. After becoming a teenage mother, a professional dancer, prostitute, playwright, television producer, film director and lecturer, one of her volumes of poetry was nominated for a Pulitzer prize and she was asked to read at Bill Clinton's inauguration. As one reader said: "When I was a teenager her books opened up a world to me that made me consider who I was as a person and who I wanted to be. Her writing showed me that I could do or be whatever I wanted because of - rather than despite – my gender."

Secretary Clinton Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers a message highlighting the celebration of the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day on March 8, 2011, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Xinran Guardian's Series: Top 100 women: Art, Film, Music, Fashion

Emine Saner

The Guardian

Xinran, the author who started off as a Chinese radio agony aunt. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

In 1989, she started presenting her radio show, Words on the Night Breeze, China's first agony aunt programme. Thousands of women contacted her to tell their stories, and for the first time women's voices and experiences were being heard – they told of rape, incest, violence and childhood abuse. "I discovered that women had no idea how to talk about themselves. In family tradition, in education, in society, even if you asked them, women had never talked about what happened in their own lives." The programmed turned Xinran into a successful broadcaster, but she felt constrained by the state and the demands of her job. She spent two years travelling around China, listening to the stories of more women, before leaving for the UK in 1997, where she worked as a cleaner and a waitress while she learned English. Her book, based on her research, the Good Women of China, was published in 2002 to acclaim, and she continues to write about women's stories. Xinran also set up a charity Mother Bridge of Love, to support British families who have adopted children, mainly girls, from China.

Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court's First Hispanic and Third Female

President Obama's Historic Choice of a "Wise Latina" Justice

By Linda Lowen

http://womensissues.about.com


When Justice David Souter announced his retirement from the Supreme Court in May 2009, the resulting vacancy on the bench enabled President Barack Obama to make a historic choice. His nomination of federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court demonstrated his ongoing pledge to bring about change. Seventy-two days later, the Senate cast a groundbreaking vote to appoint the Court's third female and first Hispanic justice.

Even before it was known that the president would nominate a woman, Sotomayor was an early front-runner and the target of personal attacks. Once she became the nominee her previous rulings, public statements, and law school lectures all came under scrutiny. Both supporters and opponents sought clues indicating how she might vote on such issues as abortion and affirmative action.

Although most political observers knew she had enough votes for confirmation, the racism and sexism that surfaced, along with partisan pressure to vote against her, shadowed the entire process.

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Margaret Chan Guardian's Series: Top 100 women: activists and campaigners

Director of the World Health Organisation, battling international viruses, and championing improvements in all of our most pressing diseases

• Homa Khaleeli
• The Guardian

Margaret Chan, director of the World Health Organisation. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Margaret Chan, 64, has been on the frontline of the global fight against swine flu, Sars and bird flu – and is now said to be the most powerful international public health official in history.

Originally a teacher, she trained as a doctor in Canada before returning to Hong Kong and heading the health department – just in time to have to deal with an outbreak of bird flu. After initially trying to reassure people chicken was safe to eat, she ordered a cull of all 1.5 million ducks and chicken in the country – and her decision was seen as crucial in stopping the virus. She was also at the helm when Sars hit, and while she was criticised for what was seen as a slow response, the then director general of the WHO was so impressed that he headhunted her. saying, "You are the only person who has managed crises. I have many armchair experts. I need generals."

As well as battling international viruses, she is also trying to champion improvements in maternal care, HIV and Aids care, malaria, and all of our most pressing diseases. When she was made director in 2006 she was clear about her priorities: "What matters most to me is people. And two specific groups of people in particular. I want us to be judged by the impact we have on the health of the people of Africa, and the health of women."

However it was not long before she has to turn her attention again to global viruses. In June 2009 she became the first WHO chief in 41 years to announce a worldwide pandemic when swine flu swept across the globe. This time around critics complained the public health expert had overreacted. The Council of Europe accused the WHO of having "gambled away" public confidence by overstating the dangers of the flu pandemic, in a draft report. But Chan is unrepentent, firmly stating,"That was the right call," - and in the UK at least the response to the pandemic was proportionate and effective, according to an independent review.

Oprah Winfrey - Guardian's Top 100 Women - Entertainment

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Oprah Winfrey

The talk show host, actress and philanthropist is not satisfied with having conquered the US and is now taking on the whole world

Oprah Winfrey. Photograph: Evan Agostini/AP



Being black and a woman has not stopped Oprah Winfrey becoming one of the most powerful people in the world and her claim to influence lies on stronger foundations than her ability to get stars such as Tom Cruise over-sharing on her couch.

The importance of an appearance on her talkshow was underlined when the then President-elect Barack Obama was a guest – it was seen as providing a boost to his profile not hers.

She rose to become the world's first black female self-made billionaire from a childhood so poor it sounds like a punchline for a joke – she adopted two cockroaches as pets and wore sackcloth as her grandmother could not afford to buy her clothes.

Her willingness to talk about her years of being sexually abused, her teenage pregnancy and the loss of her baby, her constant battle with her weight and childhood poverty have made her a hero to millions of viewers around the world.

Her endorsements can make careers (books she mentions routinely become bestsellers) and she doesn't always pick perfectly (Jenny McCarthy appeared on her show to explain why she thinks vaccination caused her son's autism), but her support for gay rights, Aids awareness, sexual abuse victims and literacy campaigns are impressive and consistent.

As is her philanthropy: she founded a school in South Africa, Oprah's Angel Network, which gives educational grants, and personally donated $10m to rebuild homes after Hurricane Katrina.

At 57, she's hardly self-effacing – her latest venture is her own television channel to add to a magazine called O, The Oprah Magazine – but few have done as much to put women, poor black ones at that, on the international map.

Aung San Suu Kyi - Guardian's Top 100 Women - Politics

http://www.guardian.co.uk


The Burmese pro-democracy leader who has inspired the world with her non-violent resistance to a brutal dictatorship

by Sarah Brown

Aung San Suu Kyi. Photograph: Getty Images

Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for me embodies one of life's most important lessons; you don't need to be fierce to be strong.

Throughout decades of humiliation, a long imprisonment and searing severance from her husband and children, the woman the Burmese affectionately call "Daw Suu" an honorific title given to revered women, has inspired the world with her campaign of non-violent resistance to one of the most brutal dictatorships the world has known. The courage to face down the military regime has come from her belief that, in the end, no junta is stronger than a people's yearning to be free.

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The Guardian's Top 100 Women

http://www.guardian.co.uk


They have led countries, broken through glass ceilings and even been in space ...

• Top 100 women by category

• Activists and campaigners

  Nawal El Saadawi: Egyptian doctor, psychiatrist, feminist, university lecturer and writer

• Art, film, music & fashion

  Lady Gaga: Outlandish dresser, performer and politicised pop icon for the Twitter generation

• Business & trade unions

  Carol Bartz: The first female CEO of a major software company, Yahoo

• Law

  Gareth Peirce: Lawyer whose battles against miscarriages of justice have changed legal history

• Politics

  Aung San Suu Kyi: The Burmese pro-democracy leader who has inspired the world with her non-violent resistance to a brutal dictatorship

• Science & medicine

  Jane Goodall: Primatologist and environmental campaigner, who has conducted groundbreaking work on chimpanzees

• Sport & adventure

  Caster Semenya: Young athlete who overcame global gender taunts to win world championship

• Technology

  Martha Lane Fox: Entrepreneur who founded lastminute.com and is leading the government's campaign to get people online

• Television

  Oprah Winfrey: The talkshow host, actress and philanthropist - not satisfied with conquering the US - is taking on the whole world

• Writing & academia

  Doris Lessing: Nobel prize-winning novelist, celebrated for writing a pioneering work of female emancipation

Remarks by the First Lady at the National Women's Partnership Luncheon

Washington, DC--(ENEWSPF)--June 9, 2011 - 1:26 P.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA: Thank you. (Applause.) You all, thank you so much. (Applause.) Oh, I can’t really see you out there, but I feel you. (Laughter.)

It’s great to be here. First of all, let me thank Debra for her leadership and her passion and her smarts and her grace and for that really nice introduction. (Laughter.)

I also want to thank Ellen Malcolm for her leadership on your board and for all of her work on behalf of women across this country.

I want to recognize Sally Susman for her leadership with today’s luncheon. I got to see her in the U.K. with the Queen. She looked mighty fine. (Laughter.)

And of course I want to thank all of you for inviting me here to your annual gala luncheon. This is a pretty big deal here. It’s a lot of you out there. (Laughter.)

It’s really nice to be back with all of you at the National Partnership for Women and Families.

And as you know, I was here three years ago. I remember it really well. You honored Deval Patrick, one of our favorite governors. (Applause.) It’s a great event. I was happy to be there then and I am joyful to be here today, especially on your 40th anniversary. Forty years. Forty years of progress. Now, that's something to be really proud of.

You know what, let’s think about it. Let’s think about the challenges women faced 40 years ago. For example, in 1971, there were no women in President Nixon’s Cabinet. None. There was one woman in the Senate. And we were still 10 years away from the first female on the Supreme Court.

I mean, back then, the ceiling wasn’t just glass, I think it was more like concrete. (Laughter.) There were no female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Only eight percent of women had a college degree, if you can imagine that. The number of women being appointed to the federal bench was actually declining. And women earned just 60 cents for every dollar that a man earned. All that, and we had to deal with polyester, too. (Laughter.) Some tough times. (Laughter.)

And that was the world we were living in when this organization was formed. It was a world where a young girl looked to the future and saw many more hurdles and barriers than open doors and pathways to opportunity. It was a world that made many of you say, “enough, enough.”

And that was when a small group of you gathered in a kitchen to talk about what you needed to do to fight for discrimination -- or fight against it and inequality.

So, you began by volunteering to take on a few important cases. And soon enough, you needed more help so you hired some staff. And before you knew it, you were opening an office. And as your efforts grew, you began tackling more and more issues, steadily becoming one of the most influential organizations for women and families in our country.

And today, as you stop and take a breath and look back for a moment at all that you’ve accomplished, you will see that over the last four decades, you have made such an amazing imprint on nearly every single one of this nation’s major policy achievements for women and families. And that's something to be proud of. (Applause.)

I’ve heard about how back in the ‘80s, one of your staff attorneys spent countless hours in her office with little more than a vision, a typewriter -- because yes, there were typewriters -- (laughter) -- and a whole lot of white-out. Remember white-out? (Laughter.) It’s very challenging. (Laughter.) She was pounding away at the first draft of a document, a document that, nine years later, would become the historic Family and Medical Leave Act.

The Partnership was also a driving force behind so many other major legislative achievements including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the paid family leave laws in California, Washington, and New Jersey, and the nation’s first citywide ordinance for paid sick days in San Francisco, and, as Debra mentioned, any day now the governor will sign the first statewide paid sick days law in Connecticut. (Applause.)

Thanks to your tremendous efforts, the landscape of this nation has been fundamentally changed for the better: our workplaces are more family-friendly, women and girls do have more opportunities, and many discriminatory practices have been completely abolished.

Because of you, America is better. It is a better country, it is a better place to raise a child, it is a better place to work, it is a better place to pursue a dream.

But, fortunately, this isn’t a group that rests on its laurels. Every one of you here knows all too well that there is still so much work left to be done. And that’s what I want to speak briefly with you about today –- the work that remains and the people that are needed to finish that job.

And I just want to start with the work of my husband’s administration. Since day one, we’ve been fighting for American women and families. As you know, my husband made the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act the very first bill he signed into law as President of the United States. (Applause.)

He created the White House Council on Women and Girls to make sure that the entire government pays attention to the interests of women, girls, and their families. We’ve improved the earned income and child tax credits, which means that more than 12 million families will find it just a little easier to pay the bills and put food on the table.

My husband signed the Affordable Care Act, as you know, which makes it easier for millions -- (applause) -- millions of Americans to afford a doctor. Because of this legislation, more women can get mammograms and other preventative services with no cost out of pocket. No one will have their insurance dropped solely because they get sick, and a child won’t be denied insurance because he or she has a pre-existing condition.

We’ve held forums and launched pilot programs to promote workplace flexibility because we know, all of us, that flexible workplaces translates into more productive workers, more satisfied employers, and more importantly a robust economy. We all know that.

My husband nominated two phenomenal women -- Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan -- to the Supreme Court. (Applause.)

He has made women nearly half of his nominees to the federal bench, which is a greater percentage than any other President in history. (Applause.)

And the important thing is that all of these advances benefit not just women, but every American. Yeah, they benefit men. (Laughter.) We’re still looking out for you guys. (Laughter.) They benefit our communities, our economy, and the very system of laws on which this nation is built.

And we know that none of that could have happened without all of you. You all are the people who have been fighting for all of these victories. You all have been building that broad base of support that makes this happen. You have created a chorus of voices speaking out on behalf of families all across this country.

And as we look ahead to the work that remains, we know our continued progress on these issues depends on all of you.

The President established an equal pay task force to mobilize the full force of the administration in support of equal pay. And, as you know, he supports the Paycheck Fairness Act. But -- (applause) -- that's my cheerleader right there -- (laughter) -- but this bill and this issue will not move forward without your help. To make sure that we do not lose ground on the progress we’ve made on health care, we also need your help to better educate people about their rights and how the Affordable Care Act benefits them in their daily lives. They have to know. We need your help to continue to give a voice to all of those Americans who will ultimately be affected by these conversations and debates here in Washington.

It is up to you to tell their stories -- stories of mothers who can’t afford a child care provider, but don’t have the luxury to take time off work; stories of families that will lose their insurance if this health care law is rolled back. Without you, millions of these families will have no voice.

And we need your help as we push forward on issues like paid leave and paid sick days, balance in the judiciary, educational equality. We need you, because even today, with all the advances that we've made, too many women face barriers and roadblocks for reaching their full potential. Too many girls are held back by narrow expectations and limited options.

So it is our job to just keep working not just for us, but for them. We’ve got to make sure that we do everything we can so that our daughters and granddaughters can pick up wherever we leave off, which leads to the other part of what I want to talk to you about, and that is the people we need to get this job done.

Now, all of you have been leaders on these issues for decades. You have played a critical role in the battles and the victories that we just talked about, celebrate. And each of you have made progress. As we’ve made that progress, you looked ahead to the next frontier. You've looked at the next way to make an impact for women and families.

But if we truly want to keep moving forward, our focus must not only be on the next set of issues, but on the next set of leaders, as well. And it’s our responsibility to engage and inspire that next generation. It’s our responsibility to reach back and keep pulling up those promising young leaders.

And that’s something that I’ve tried to do as First Lady, because I know that my role gives me this unique opportunity to impact young people. So I feel a deep obligation to do everything in my power to make the most of this limited moment.

And that’s why I've devoted so much of my attention to working with young women and girls right here in D.C., through the White House Leadership and Mentoring Initiative. (Applause.) We are celebrating those girls right after we leave here. (Applause.)

We’re bringing in girls who have never been inside the White House or, for some, have barely been outside of their own neighborhoods, and we’re taking them to places that they’d never thought they’d go. We’re taking them to meet with Supreme Court justices, sitting in the chambers. It's a powerful image, meeting with members of Congress, famous musicians and artists, because I want these girls to hear those stories. I want them to see themselves in these leaders. And I want them to realize that every path in this world is open to them, even if it doesn’t always feel that way.

And that’s the same message that I carry with me as I travel outside of our borders, because in so many ways, especially for young people today, those borders really don’t mean much anymore. Our economies, our health, our dreams globally are all interconnected.

So when I visited London just a couple of weeks ago, I told teenage girls there that no matter where they come from, if they push themselves and believe in themselves and work hard, they can succeed just like anyone else. We know that. And I delivered this message to them at Oxford, because I wanted those young women to walk through those courtyards and hallowed halls, be a part of one of the most renowned universities in the world, because I wanted them to talk to students and faculty there and begin to envision a life for themselves in such inspired settings. It was a beautiful thing to watch.

In Chile, I told young girls that they can compete with boys, that they can break with tradition, that they can build their own careers and fulfill every last one of their dreams.

And, in a couple of weeks, I’m traveling to South Africa and Botswana, because I believe that today’s generation of young women leaders in that country can carry forward the legacy handed down by those who led the fight for freedom and democracy. (Applause.)

And I do this work joyfully, because I know how big an impact young people can and must make on our world. And I believe it is so important for them to know that there are so many of us here in America who not only care about them, but who believe and will invest in their future.

But, in the end, no matter the issue -- whether you’re organizing a campaign for health care, or workplace fairness, whether you're putting more women on the federal bench -- the truth is so many of these issues may not be resolved in our lifetime.

And we can never forget that it’s the next generation that will carry these issues forward. It will be our sons and our daughters, our grandchildren attending this luncheon in 20 or 30 years. Yeah, kind of scary. (Laughter.) But they're ready. They’ll be the ones fighting for every last penny in the pay disparity. They’ll be the ones who sit down in their office with some next-generation iPad to write tomorrow’s landmark legislative victories. They're going to be the ones to do it.

So it is up to us to inspire them, to engage them, to make them believe that they have the power and the ability to get this done. It is up to us to reach back and keep pulling and pulling and pulling more people up, so that we make way for the next leaders and they can keep this country moving forward.

And I know we’re up to it, particularly the folks in this room. You all have shown that kind of leadership and passion throughout this organization’s history. Every time a challenge has come your way, you’ve delivered. It's been a marvel to watch. Every time there was a need, you’ve filled it. And I know that as long as we’ve got you, as long as we keep making progress on today’s issues and then building tomorrow’s leaders, then we will achieve the progress we seek. We will do it.

So I want to thank you for all of your work, because it has inspired me. It keeps me going. Thank you -- and for all that you’ll do in the years and decades ahead not just for women, not just for families, but for our country and for our world. Congratulations. Take care and let's get to work. (Applause.)

Source: whitehouse.gov