On being a woman and a diplomat Madeleine Albright

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