Pelosi Remarks at Induction into Women's Hall of Fame
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks at the National Women's Hall of Fame this evening. Leader Pelosi was inducted for her achievements in promoting women's issues throughout the country and recognized for her 26 years of service in Congress, including her historic and accomplished role as the first woman Speaker of the House. Below are the Leader's remarks:
"Thank you very much for that generous testimonial. Thank you, Beverly; thank you, Beth for your leadership. I want to thank Ellen Riddleberger for nominating me for this wonderful honor. And I accept it with love and gratitude to my family -- to my husband Paul Pelosi, my husband of 50 years this September.
[Applause]
"Stand up, Paul. Stand up, Paul.
"With love and gratitude to our five children, two of whom are here -- Nancy Corinne with her daughter Madeline. And my daughter Christine who is here with her daughter Bella.
[Applause]
"There are two granddaughters. We have seven grandchildren and they are with my daughter Jacqueline. My daughter Alexandra and our son Paul send their best wishes and look forward to visiting Seneca Falls when we can spend a much longer period of time.
"I accept this with the honor of receiving it with so many distinguished awardees today. To be in this company, enhances this honor enormously for me.
"Thank you for your leadership.
[Applause]
"Every one of them, and the persons for whom they speak -- the top of their field. And of course I accepted in recognition. But none of the things that you mentioned wouldn't have happened without my colleagues. Many of whom are here today. Please stand so that we can all see you.
[Applause]
"We'll be back to them shortly, but first I want to say what an honor it is to be here on this occasion. But what a treat it is to in Seneca Falls and to have been in Rochester yesterday. I really have sort of an attraction to this area for reasons other than Seneca Falls, as well as Seneca Falls. And that's because our colleague, [Congresswoman] Louise Slaughter who represents this area in Congress.
[Applause]
"Louise Slaughter brags about it all of the time, about the work ethic, the entrepreneurial spirit, the creativity in the arts. You name it, it is here. And she cannot say enough about it.
"However, I also am pleased to be here because when we saw earlier today the film and the pictures and where the museum was going to be, it was right there on the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal was one of the first infrastructure projects, grand infrastructure project in our country. Thomas Jefferson said, as he was building and buying new territory for our country: "We have to have mobility.' So this is a historic place -- in so many ways it has led the way. Here today, we are leading and celebrating how this area led the way with the rights of women.
"Fifteen years ago, Louise invited us here. Many of the women Members came to celebrate and observe the 150th anniversary of the Seneca Falls declaration -- and to Rochester to see the home of Susan B. Anthony. But to see it all here, it was a transforming experience for all who came because you could see firsthand and learn more about the courage that it took for these women to do what they did now 165 years ago.
"And what they said at the time: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.'
[Applause]
"And they went on to say: "Such is now the necessity for women to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.'
"So, over the next few minutes I will answer some of the questions that I have been asked by the press and by some of you as to what today means to me and to all of us. When I became the Leader in the Congress -- my colleagues have heard me tell this story over and over -- but when I became the Leader, it was after we had been to Seneca Falls. A few years later, I went ot my first meeting at the White House as a Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives and I wasn't having any apprehension about the occasion because I had been to the White House many, many, many times, as an appropriator, as an intelligence committee person. So, I didn't even think about being apprehensive. When I went to the meeting and the door closed behind me and I saw the President, the Vice President, and the other leaders of Congress, House and Senate, Democratic and Republican, I realized that this wasn't unlike any meeting that any woman had ever been to before in the White House.
"Not only me, but any woman. That I was there, not my presence there derived from the President's appointment, but as a representative of my Caucus. And as I sat down and President George W. Bush, ever gracious and welcoming, and while he was speaking, at my chair I felt very, very closed in, very, very closed in. I didn't know what was happening and I could vaguely pay attention to what he was saying. And then I realized that sitting on my chair with me was Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth. You name it.
[Applause]
"They were right there. It was very, very tight. I can't imagine what the President must've been thinking at the time as I was squeezing in to make room for them and the others. And then, I could hear them say: "At last, we have a seat at the table. At last, we have a seat at the table.'
[Applause]
"And then they were gone. And my first thought was: "We want more.'
[Laughter]
"And so, how did I get from the kitchen to the Congress to that seat at the table? What role models did I have on that path? Well, my first and foremost, my role model was my mother. She was a wonderful woman. She had seven children. She and my father were very civically involved and always taught us that in true to our Catholic faith, we had a responsibility one to another, to look after people. And the best way I can explain her to you is to read a little piece of a prayer that she wrote about her mother about what moms means to the world, what our responsibilities are, and how grateful we are to have a good mother. And it goes like this: "Mother, I think of you. Guardian angel of my childhood, who can fathom the real meaning of the word mother? Whose hearts are not filled with the memory of her, who has not stopped loving us from the first moment of our existence when like a ray of sunshine that beams down into our cradle, when the fingers of care and worry had not yet touched our hearts? It was mother who was always around preventing their entrance into the holy island of childhood.' It goes on and on. And then it says: "Even when the word mother is spoken by an old man, it sounds like it comes from the lips of a child.' It goes on and on and then at the end it says: "In a few words, mother is God's co-helper and radiant beam from the mother of mercy.'
"That's part of what her prayer was. And of course, she wrote that in honor of her own mother. But it was a message to us as to how I could be a mother. It was six boys and one girl, so it was really more of a message to me.
[Laughter]
"She was my role model. My brother, Tommy, he is 11 years older than me. He used to say that during the Great Depression that somebody would knock on the door and you never could know if they wanted a job, if they needed a housing project, or whatever they needed. But nine chances out of ten, that they would end up at the dining room table because they needed food and there was never any thought that anyone would be turned away. That was, again, our Catholic faith. Our manifestation was in civic and community action.
"The way I got from getting married, having five children in six years 50 years ago, and so involved in that and trying to remember my mother's words about what a mother should be, as was mentioned, I had some involvement as a volunteer as a Democrat because in our family we were very proud of our Italian-American heritage, very patriotically American, very devoutly Catholic, and very staunchly Democratic. And so, that I had time for in my volunteer activities. And one day, the woman who was a Member of Congress came to me and said: "I'm not going to run for reelection, you must run.' Imagine a woman handing off to a woman, this is highly unusual. There simply weren't that many women around. Sala Burton was her name. And I want you to hear this story about 16 years olds and their moms.
"So, I contemplated. I never intended to run for office -- never, never did. I was a "behind-the-scenes person wanting to promote others. And then, she was insisting that she would feel better if I would run for her seat. And so, other people suggested that that might be a good idea. So, four of our children were already in college. I went to our daughter Alexandra, who at that time was about 16 and a half and I said: "Alexandra, mommy has this opportunity to run for Congress. I love my life. One more year,' because she was young for her class, "one more year you would be in college. So if you don't want me to run, I am happy not to run. I am happy to be home with you.' I said: "I might not even win. I'm just talking about running for Congress.' To which she said: "Mother, get a life.'
[Laughter]
""Mother, get a life.' I had never heard that expression before. This was 26 years ago. So, I had a life but I got a congressional life when I went on to win.
"And here we are, 26 years later. But what I am really here to tell you about is where do we go from here? What is your legacy getting this award? Where do you go from here? And I want to, again, salute my female colleagues in the House of Representatives because we have decided, after observing the scene for a while that incrementalism is not working for us. It's nice to keep adding numbers.
[Applause]
"But we want more. And so, we have to make our own environment. We keep making the battle in the context of an atmosphere that was not set up for the success of women. It was about just trying to beat your way into the door. I believe that two ways for us to change the environment relates to policy and it relates to politics.
"On July of this year, on the 165th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Declaration, the women Members of the House with a good few men stood with us there and we saluted what happened in the words that were used: "All men and women were created equal.' And we decided, had worked together and formed to make a -- what would make the biggest difference? And our initiative was titled "When Women Succeed, America Succeeds.'
"Springing from the Seneca Falls Convention, we said that there are three things that we could do that would change the respect for women in the workplace. What would they be? They would be the following. First of all, under the leadership of [Congresswoman] Rosa DeLauro, this is her brainchild. But working with all of the other Members, working with [Congresswoman] Donna Edwards of Maryland, and [Congresswoman] Doris Matsui, the Chair and Vice-Chair of our Women's Caucus, they put together and studied and listened to people all over the country, these three things: one, equal pay for equal work, equal pay for equal work.
[Applause]
"It doesn't sound very new, does it? But long overdue. And Rosa has the bill, the Paycheck and Fairness Act. We were very proud. Rosa's bill was the Lilly Ledbetter bill, named for Lilly. And Lilly, we could not be more honored. You are an icon, you are our heroine. We are so delighted that you are here today, Lilly Ledbetter.
[Applause]
"The Lilly Ledbetter legislation was very important. But we still have to have pay equity. And one of the elements of it, of course, is also to raise the minimum wage with 62 percent of the people who make the minimum wage are women -- and we have to have better respect for the role of women in the workplace.
[Applause]
"Secondly, we have had -- many of us were part of passing the Family and Medical Leave Act, which was very important, but for many, it is not paid. So, we want paid leave that helps men and women in the workplace.
[Applause]
"And third -- and this is really connected to our suffragettes -- they work so hard to get women to have the right to vote. In fact, when women go the right to vote, finally decades later, the newspapers reported, "women given the right to vote.' Now, that wasn't what happened. Women fought, women marched, women sacrificed, women demanded, and then women got the right to vote. But nobody gave it to women. And it was a tremendous victory for America, not just for women, but for America. And decades later, we had women in the workplace, World War II, Rosie the Riveter, and so that was new. All these women leaving home to go to work, that was good. And then, we had to hire the education of women, women in the professions are choosing to stay home, or to have whatever job they wanted, and perhaps at the professional level.
"But the missing link in all of that was affordable quality child care.
[Applause]
"So, our observance of the 165th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention is this initiative: "When Women Succeed, America Succeeds' and taking us all to the next step. We have the legislation to do this. We need the outside mobilization to make it happen. So that's on the policy side. If we have women free to follow their passion and their profession, or stay home, whatever it is. But they have those options. And it's good for men, too. It's good for families.
"On the political side, again, if we are going to make change, instead of electing 10 more women, whatever it is -- and we are very proud of the way our numbers have increased -- we must change our environment. And I promise you this: if you reduce the role of money in politics and increase the level of civility in politics, you elect many more women to public office.
[Applause]
"And that is something that will be very wholesome to our country. If you do both, you'll be able to see our country benefit from women in our national security, women in our economic security, women in the academic world and athletic world. You name it, in every place. This would be the most wholesome and successful thing we can do for American competiveness.
"And so we have instituted a DARE on reducing the role of money: Disclose where this money comes from; Amend the constitution to overturn Citizens United
[Applause]
"Reform our system to increase the power of small donors to our system; and Empower, remove obstacles of participation to voting for the American people.
"We are fighting for that DARE across the country. People know that it has to be done. And when it is done, more women, more minorities, more young people will have more opportunity to serve our country in public office. And by the way, I am very proud that these women here today are part of the House Democratic Caucus. It is over 50 percent women, minorities, and LGBT community members. Is that not exciting?
[Applause]
"So, people ask me: "Why do you do this? How do you have so much energy to do this all the time?' The only reason why I ran for public office in the first place was because being a mom and seeing all the love and attention and opportunity that my children, our relatives, all the rest of children around us had, and realizing that one in five children in America lives in poverty, it was a completely intolerable -- and has been a completely intolerable idea to me. Not to mention, children throughout the world by incident by birth who have so many needs that are not being attended to.
"So that's why when I accepted the gavel to be the Speaker of the House when I did, I invited the children to come up because I wanted to accept the gavel on behalf of all of America's children and beyond.
"And so, in accepting this award, I want my colleagues to come up so that I can accept it with all of them. Come on up. Everybody wants to see you.
[Applause]
"I'm going to introduce first our New Yorkers, [Congresswoman] Nita Lowey. You know Louise Slaughter, of course, [Congresswoman] Carolyn Maloney, and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez.
[Applause]
"The four of them have been historic women chairs in the Congress and they will be again.
[Applause]
"Then from California, there are nine of us. Can you imagine that there are nine of us from California? We have Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, a champion on breast cancer. [Congresswoman] Lois Capps, a health care provider herself and a champion on the Affordable Care Act. Congresswoman Susan Davis, a champion for women in the military; Doris Matsui and Jan Schakowsky, the co-chairs of meeting the needs of older women in Medicare and Social Security. [Congresswoman] Jackie Speier our champion fighting sexual abuse in the military. [Congresswoman] Barbara Lee, a champion on issues that relate to women and the poor and Congresswoman Janice Hahn, a champion for women's right to choose.
[Applause]
"Come on all of you. That was just the California list.
[Laughter]
"And as I mentioned Rosa DeLauro, she's the godmother of all of this. Come here, Rosa.
[Applause]
"Congresswoman Donna Edwards of Maryland; Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Minnesota; [Congresswoman] Gwen Moore, the author of the Violence Against Women's Act.
[Applause]
"I hasten to add that when we first had the Violence Against Women's Act in the "90s, Louise Slaughter. She was the first and foremost author of the Violence Against Women's Act. [Congresswoman] Carol Shea-Porter of New Hampshire and [Congresswoman] Shelia Jackson Lee of Texas.
"All of them champions in the Congress of the United States. All of them fighters for the Affordable Care Act where no longer being a woman is a preexisting medical condition.
[Applause]
"In closing, I'll just say this. Before I came to Congress, I was active in the Democratic Party. I was Chair of the California Democratic Party. And we were trying to get the Democratic Convention in San Francisco. So, the group came to see our bid and all of that. And a woman who was a Member of Congress, and really a mother to us all in Congress, Lindy Boggs of Louisiana, she was on the Selection Committee. I knew her. Her husband and my father served together in the "40s in Congress. And I knew her. She was just this wonderful person I idolized. And she said to me: "how are you doing?' I said: "Well, I doing great. I'm the Chair of the party. I'm going to be the Chair of the Host Committee for the convention.' I was telling her some things. And I said: "I think I have too many titles. I think I should surrender one of those titles. And she said: "Darling, no man would've ever said that.'
[Laughter]
"And what she said was: "know thy power.' And I take from her words and say: know your power. It's not just about women for women. It's about women being respected as well as men being respected. It's about diversity of opinion. It's about changing the environment so that we have the fullest participation and therefore the fullest benefit of everyone in our country. These women are here to make it happen. We want their number to grow and increase. I wanted them to be here. Not to honor me, but to honor the National Women's Hall of Fame by saying to you that what you are doing here is important by recognizing women and paying our respects to the other honorees as well.
"I accept on behalf of my sisters here. Thank you all very much!"
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