Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a glimpse on Friday of how she will fill her at least temporary role as a private advocate for women and girls, walking arm in arm with Tina Brown at the Women in the World Conference, an annual women’s rights event sponsored by Newsweek and The Daily Beast, which Ms. Brown oversees.
“I have been challenged in boardrooms and official offices around the world, but fighting to give women and girls a fighting chance isn’t a
nice thing to do,†Mrs. Clinton said. “It isn’t some luxury that we get to when we have time on our hands to spend doing that.â€
Mrs. Clinton does have time on her hands now as she transitions to her post-government life and faces constant speculation about whether she still has presidential ambitions.
A crowd of women waiting to get in to see Mrs. Clinton speak moved rapidly, shoving their way into the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center to see the former secretary of state speak. The enthusiasm immediately prompted chatter about whether Mrs. Clinton and her team could bottle that enthusiasm for the 2016 presidential election. The crowd let out a huge cheer as Ms. Brown introduced Mrs. Clinton by asking “The big question about Hillary is, what’s nextâ€
Mrs. Clinton has said she will carve out a role for herself in the Clinton Foundation, the global charitable organization started by President Bill Clinton after he left office. Her speech on Friday gave a glimpse into what that advocacy will look like. Mrs. Clinton evoked her role as the nation’s chief diplomat, but also drew on earlier experiences as first lady.
“It is past time to embrace a 21st century approach to advancing the rights and opportunities of women and girls,†she said. She referred to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for trying to get an education, and a gang-rape victim in India.
“When women are liberated, so are entire societies,†Mrs. Clinton said. “We must understand this, too, and not only understand it but act on it.â€
Mrs. Clinton also touched on domestic issues, like equal pay and the importance of training women in math and science, that she had championed as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. She referred to a “Glass Ceiling Index†published by The Economist that ranked countries based on opportunities for women and other factors. “The United States was not even in the top ten,†she said.
The gender gap in American politics became stark during the 2012 presidential election. Some 55 percent of women voted for President Obama, compared with 52 percent for Mitt Romney. In the 2008 presidential election, Mr. Obama beat Senator John McCain among women by 13 percentage points.
As soon as Mrs. Clinton left the stage, her daughter Chelsea took a seat to host a panel called “Grooming Titans of Tech†about women in
technology.
