HILLARY CLINTON: Hello, everyone! Hi! Thank
you! Thank you all so much. I want to thank Alison for that warm welcome,
and for her and all of the sponsors, the board and leadership of the Massachusetts Conference
for Women. It's a great crowd. I love the energy, and I want to congratulate Deborah,
Imanie, and Andrea for all of their awards and terrific work. And I want to say how lucky
I feel that I got here in time to watch on one of the back screens Lupita's remarks.
Wasn't she terrific, and the advice and her life story, and the extraordinary commitment
she displayed? I also want to acknowledge a friend who is
in the audience, a friend to me and my family, a friend to this city, Angela Menino.
[APPLAUSE] We lost Tom much too soon, and his passing
left a hole in our hearts and the life of this city that he loved. And Angela, I think
I can speak for all 10,000 of us when I say that our prayers are still with you and your
family, and we thank you for your years of service to this community.
Before I begin today, I want to say a few words about the pain and frustration that
many Americans are feeling about our criminal justice system.
[APPLAUSE] I know that a lot of hearts are breaking and
we are asking ourselves, aren't these our sons? Aren't these our brothers?
I'm very pleased that the Department of Justice will be investigating what happened in Ferguson
or Staten Island. Those families and those communities and our country deserve a full
and fair accounting as well as whatever substantive reforms are necessary to ensure equality,
justice and respect for every citizen. Now, more broadly, each of us has to grapple
with some hard truths about race and justice in America because despite all the progress
we've made together, African‑Americans, most particularly African‑American men,
are still more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes, and sentenced
to longer prison terms. And when one stops and realizes a third of all black men face
the prospect of prison during their lifetimes, what devastating consequences that has for
their families and their communities and all of us.
The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population, yet we have almost
25% of the world's total prison population. Now, that is not because Americans are more
violent or criminal than others around the world. In fact, that is far from the facts.
But it is because we have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance.
And I personally hope that these tragedies give us the opportunity to come together as
a nation to find our balance again. All over the country there are creative and effective
police departments demonstrating that it is possible to reduce crime without relying on
unnecessary force or excessive incarceration. And we all know there are decent, honorable,
brave police officers out in our communities every single day inspiring trust and confidence
rather than fear and frustration. So let's learn from the best examples. Let's
invest in what works. Let's make sure that federal funds to state and local law enforcement
are used to bolster best practices rather than by weapons of war that have no place
on our streets or contribute to unnecessary force or arrests.
(Applause.) And I support the President's announcement of a
task force on policing that will make recommendations in about 90 days. He's proposed funding for
technology and training, which are important steps.
But as we move forward, we can't leave to it Presidents, Governors, Mayors, Police Commissioners,
and Chiefs. The most important thing that each of us can do is to try even harder to
see the world through our neighbor's eyes, to imagine what it is like to walk in their
shoes, to share their pain and their hopes and their dreams.
These tragedies did not happen in some far‑away place. Them didn't happen to some other people.
These are our streets, our children, our fellow Americans, and our grief.
Now, being here in Massachusetts, a place that has always called itself a Commonwealth,
I see a history where people slowly but surely overcame the obstacles to living in common,
recognizing we are all in this together, we can all do better. That is true for each of
us. It's true for America. As Michael Brown's father said, we're stronger united.
So it is in that spirit that I am so pleased to be here in Boston with you today. After
all, this is where our American experiment began, and you continue to do so much the
best of what makes us who we are as a people. And, of course, the rich history of Massachusetts
and Boston includes generations of women who did our part to move us toward a more perfect
union. It was from here in 1776 that Abigail Adams penned a letter to her husband in Philadelphia
as he labored over the birth of a new nation. "Remember the ladies," she urged him! "We
will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."
And it was a good reminder ‑‑ (APPLAUSE) ‑‑ that the struggle for women's equal rights
began right at the beginning. It was here in Massachusetts that Deborah Sampson took
up arms, disguising herself as a man to fight for independence.
It was here that Abolitionists like Lucy Stone and Abby Kelly organized to end slavery. It
was here that education pioneers like Mary Lyon insisted that women and girls had just
as much right and need to learn as men and boys. And writers like Emily Dickinson and
Marito Bonner and Margaret Fuller found their distinctive American voices here. Mary Eliza
Mahoney became the first African‑American, professionally trained nurse in the Commonwealth.
So artists and activists, labor leaders and freedom fight others, entrepreneurs and inventors,
the women of Massachusetts have changed the course of history time and again; and I believe
they will continue to change the course of history in your families, your workplaces,
your communities, and your state. You know, sometimes we women focus too much
on our deficits. And I loved what Lupita said ‑‑ you can fear failure and you can fear success.
You can be stalked by the dragons that you feel are peculiarly yours ‑‑ doubt, indecision
insecurity. But women everywhere have driven progress. We stand on the shoulders of so
many of those who came before. Some of them famous, like the names I just mentioned. Some
of them mothers, grandmothers, sisters, students, teachers, so many whose names may not be known
in the history books, but who have contributed to our steady march forward toward full equality,
justice and progress. I think it's fair to say in a place that is so imbued with history
that we have to think about what we will accomplish, what will be our individual or our generational
legacy. I have seen so much progress in my own lifetime.
Yet too many women here and around the world still face ceilings that hold them down, that
make it harder for them to pursue their own God‑given potential. Some of it is the circumstance
of birth or health. Some of it is the lack of nurturing. Some of it is the internal as
well as the external obstacles that stand in the way of too many. But some of it can
be addressed through our political system, through our societies.
A few months ago when we were in the hospital waiting for the grand arrival of our granddaughter,
one of the nurses came up to me and started talking about the families she sees every
day and the struggles they have to balance the demands of work and parenthood. And even
while she is taking care of someone else's baby, her thoughts are understandably with
her own children. Who's watching them? What if her child gets sick? How can she be in
two places at once? We began talking about how hard it still is in the 21st Century for
women to balance family and work. She thanked me for fighting for paid leave, but I told
her we still had so far to go. I remember how I felt all those years ago
as a young mother. I had so many advantages. I had sources of support. Yet like everyone
I still felt squeezed. I remember one morning as a young lawyer I was due in court at 9:30
for a trial. It was already 7:30. Chelsea was 2 years old. She was running a fever,
throwing up. My husband was out of town. My babysitter called in sick from the same illness.
I had no relatives living nearby. The neighbors weren't home. Finally, I called a trusted
friend who came to my rescue; but I still felt terrible, all day, that I had left my
sick child to go to work. I called home at every break in the trial, and as soon as it
was over I rushed back to the house. And when I opened the door, I saw my friend reading
to Chelsea, and she was thankfully feeling better, and for the first time all day my
heart stopped hurting. Now that was an exception for me, but I know for so many moms and dads
that hurt, that guilt, is with them every single day.
I believe that's what drove the voters in Massachusetts to approve a paid sick leave
on election day, being just the third state in the nation to do so ‑‑ (APPLAUSE) ‑‑
and I think you have set a great model. We need to get paid‑leave provisions on every
state ballot by 2016 that we can possibly do because the lack of predictable and flexible
work schedules, now paid family leave, very few affordable and reliable childcare options ‑‑
this is all part of a larger story about how hard it is today for families to hold together
their lives, hold together a middle class lifestyle. It can feel like pushing a boulder
uphill every single day. I don't think that's how it is supposed to be. I think we have
to take a hard look about how we reinstate what is a basic bargain if you work hard,
and if you work hard you can make it, and each generation has it better than the one
before. For women, the barriers to mobility are especially
stubborn. As you know, American women still tend to get paid less than men for the same
work. In 2014 that is hard to believe. Here in Massachusetts, women have been fighting
for fair pay for hundreds of years. It was just up the road that the women of the Lowell
textile mills organized for fair pay in the 1830s. These women and more than a few girls
worked long hours in harsh conditions for very little money, and when their bosses cut
their wages by 15%, they went on strike. Well, generations later they still get paid
less, and the gap widens with the so‑called motherhood penalty. That is, when women become
mothers, they take a pay cut, while when men become fathers they often get a pay bump.
While these challenges are most acute for women struggling to lift themselves into the
middle class, men up and down the income ladder face challenges and ceilings on advancement.
I know here in this room there are so many women who have worked hard, who have made
their way to the highest levels of their fields. You each have your own stories. We all do.
I remember being a young lawyer in different courtrooms and boardrooms and overhearing
people talking about "that lady lawyer." Now, in too many ways those days are not yet behind
us. Our economy has not kept up with the demands of 21st Century living. In fact, it operates
more like it was 1955, not 2014. Women entrepreneurs still have a harder time
accessing capital. Yet we know if more women had access to credit, more businesses would
get off the ground, more jobs would be created, and more revenue generated, which would benefit
everyone. (APPLAUSE.)
I remember working years ago on a project to get more credit for women entrepreneurs
and I met with women starting businesses or trying to expand their businesses all over
the country, and I will never forget what one woman in Denver said to me. She said,
"I tried so hard but I can't get through the door." She said, "I have concluded that parking
lots of banks are the places dreams go to die."
It is still unfortunately the case that too many American women, despite their hard work,
their work ethic, aren't given the chance. Yet despite those obstacles, American women
are starting businesses at double the speed they were just three years ago.
More than 1200 women started businesses a day, more than 9 million in all, generating
more than 1 trillion dollars in revenue. So we can see here in our country what we know
from around the world, when women and girls have opportunities to participate, economies
grow and nations prosper. There have been a lot of studies about this, and we know if
we close the global gap ‑‑ most recent study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development ‑‑ if we close the global gap in workforce participation between men
and women, the gross domestic product worldwide would grow nearly 12% by 2030.
Think what that would mean for the economy recovery for the United States and globally.
We cannot afford to leave that kind of income growth and potential on the table. So to chart
a path forward for women and girls, we have to understand how far we've come, yet how
far we still have to go. And the more people are informed by good data,
the more they request make good decisions and ultimately the more results we will see.
That's why a year ago at the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea and I launched a program we called
No Ceilings, the Full Participation Project. We're working with the partners like the Gates
Foundation to compile the data on the gains that women and girls have made, the gaps that
remain, and what we need to do to accelerate progress.
Now, our full progress report will be out this spring, but the early returns show a
mixed picture. Here's the good news. Around the world, more women and girls are going
to school and opening businesses each year. More family‑friendly policies like paid
sick leave and childcare are at least on the books. And where they are, more women are
able to work to add to their family income, but here's the other news.
There's been a drop in labor participation around the world, and the jobs that people
own are ‑‑ more women spend more time on unpaid labor. But the guidelines can be
half full. Progress is possible. There is work to be done. But you have to keep fighting
for women at home and around the world. As we do so, we have to keep in mind the values
that hold us together, the values that hold us together as societies. We can't rest until
every person everywhere has that set of opportunities to make the most out of his or her life, you
know? Talent is universal, but opportunity is not.
Not far from this convention center there are children who by any measure would be just
as capable of growing up to be Lupita, or Alison, or any other successful woman. But
the circumstances of their birth, the conditions of their family, the restrictions of their
economic well‑being pose real obstacles. There will always be setbacks and it can be
easy to get discouraged, but beyond the headlines there is a movement stirring here at home
and across the globe. You can see it in the families here in Massachusetts who demanded
paid sick leave so they didn't have to choose between their jobs and their kids. You can
see it in the moms and dads in San Francisco who fought for and won legislation to make
schedules for hourly workers more predictable. Think about what it would be like if you were
working an hourly job and you finished on Friday night and you didn't know when you
were supposed to be coming back in again, and all of a sudden you were told you needed
to be there at 6 o'clock the next morning. You are a single mom or maybe you have a husband
whose job is equally unpredictable. What do you do? You can see it in Peggy Young, whose
case against pregnancy discrimination was heard by the Supreme Court yesterday.
(APPLAUSE.) And I've got my fingers crossed on that one.
You can see it in the students and members of the military who want a world that is free
from the threat of sexual violence. You can see it in the fast‑food workers
who from coast to coast are asking for a living wage and their own chance to make life better
for themselves and their children. This is a movement, and it is a movement that
I believe will overcome the obstacles of gridlock and grandstanding. It won't wait and neither
should we. What would our world be like today if we didn't
have all those foremothers like Abigail Adams who spoke up or Emily Dickinson who wrote
and others? For generations like us, let's continue to crash through ceilings and unlock
the potential of every young woman. Let's help each other.
My friend, Madeleine Albright, she was at Wellesley before us ‑‑ Dear '59, Love
'69, our e‑mails to each other. Madeleine said, there is a special spot in hell for
women who don't help other women. And not all of help has to be big or changing
regulations or arguing in the Supreme Court, as important as all of those are. Some of
them can be just a helping hand, a kind word, a bit of mentoring or coaching. But together,
we are stronger, so the more we do for each other, the more obstacles we overcome and
knock down for ourselves and each other, the greater will be the realization of our founding
values about equality. Our Love of freedom but also combined with
community ‑‑ that I think is one of the great pieces of unfinished business, ensuring
the full rights and opportunities of girls and women here at home and around the world.
That can be a part of our own personal legacy, and it's through gatherings like this that
we can take stock and derive energy to keep moving forward together.
So as Abigail might say, our work is not yet done. Thank you all very, very much. [APPLAUSE] To lead a special conversation with Secretary
Clinton, please welcome Hannah Grove, executive vice president of State Street Corporation
and chief marketing officer. HANNAH GROVE: So Madam Secretary, such a thrill
to have you here today. Just a quick housekeeping note. I know you are running a little over
on program, but please relax; nothing will start until we are all finished here. We are
lucky to have a full 20 minutes of questions. So a real treat.
So we start off with a real toughy. I have to get it in there. How was your first Thanksgiving
with Miss Charlotte? HILLARY CLINTON: How much time do we have
here? She's the most advanced, most wonderful, most extraordinary nine‑week‑old baby
in the history of the world! (:‑) I can't stop grinning. I've got that grandmother
glow that doesn't quit. It is really transformational. I have heard this from my friends. I have
watched it happen with others. But Thanksgiving was particularly blessed because she was part
of it. HANNAH GROVE: That's lovely. So it's the season
of giving, Thanksgiving, and now getting into the holiday season, and I'm going to give
you a magic wand. If you could wave your magic wand and enact one policy that would help
working women in America, what would it be? HILLARY CLINTON: That's a great question,
because there is a list, but I think what Massachusetts did in making clear that paid
leave is absolutely essential in today's work world is one of the most significant steps
that can be taken, and I think we are overcoming this false idea that everybody is on their
own in society and in the workplace. I value independence and freedom highly, but I also
think we're stronger together when we are part of a community and figuring out how to
make paid leave ‑‑ particularly paid sick leave ‑‑ work ‑‑ and, of course,
equal pay for equal work and all the other agenda items, but that should fit into the
larger magic wand moment of getting the economy working again, because too many people are
still falling behind, and that erodes relationships and trust in our institutions and people's
belief in themselves. But if it's one policy, we should do paid leave.
HANNAH GROVE: You mentioned paid leave. When I think of your career, one thing I am struck
by is how much scrutiny you are under. Reading your autobiography, if it's not your politics
or opinions, it's your hair, right? And I think of this extraordinary strength that
you have, so it's sort of a two‑part question. I was also struck, when you talk about your
mother and the extraordinary childhood she had, and yet she maintained this incredible
strength. So as you go out in the world and have to face so much, do you take a lot from
her? Or how do you cope? How do you protect yourself?
HILLARY CLINTON: I am sitting here after years of practice, because it doesn't come easily
or quickly. One of my favorite quotes is from Eleanor Roosevelt, where she said, "If a woman
wants to be in the public arena, she should grow skin at the height of a rhinoceros, because
you are going to be criticized regardless of who you are, what you stand for, or what
you try to do." You know, as you mentioned, my mother had
such a difficult childhood, and she put all of her energy and love and resilience into
caring for me and for my brothers, that I ‑‑ once I understood that as I was a teenager,
and I realized how much harder her life was than mine was, I felt like I had to be inspired
by and guided by what she had gone through. And that's what I have tried to remember,
that no matter how hard it is, and no matter how much scrutiny you face or how, in your
view, unfair the criticism might be, you have to hang onto what's most important. And for
me, learning how to take criticism seriously, where appropriate, but not personally, has
been a great lesson. And as I listened to Lupita speaking earlier,
we all go through that. I mean, whether you want to be in public life or when I was practicing
law or whatever field you are in, or in her case, being an actor, you just have to decide
that what you are doing is important to you, and you will learn from criticism because
sometimes your critics will tell you things your friends will not tell you, but you have
to stay committed on your path, and I hope for everybody here there's something in your
personal, professional, public life that just really lights you up and gives you that sense
of passion and commitment that will carry you through what are often difficult days.
HANNAH GROVE: So let me stay on that theme of adversity, because as Secretary of State
you met with many, many world leaders, many of whom would have had very, very narrow views
about the role of women in society. And how did you did negotiate with people that had
that mind‑set? Did you feel that you had to adjust your demeanor?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I feel like I've been dealing with people whose attitudes about
women have been less than progressive, acceptable, for many, many years. Being Secretary of State
gave me a chance to see it on a global platform up close and personally. So I will make a
couple of points. One, when you are representing the United States of America, in many of these
countries you are treated like an honorary man. Right?
HANNAH GROVE: I am trying to think if that is a good thing.
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, it's not a good thing; it's a bizarre thing. But you are taken places
where you will see no other women ‑‑ none ‑‑ and everybody just pretends that
you are the only woman there. But you are not there as a woman; you are there as a Secretary
of State. And you just get down to business. But it is odd.
And what I did was often to make a comment or address it in some way where I would be
at a meeting, I would be the only woman in the room with these foreign dignitaries, and
I would say, you know, we need more women in public life and in diplomacy, and they
would look at me and that kind of ‑‑ (applause) ‑‑ you know that eye‑rolling
way that says, "Okay, now she's going to do her women's thing, let's just be polite and
it will be over soon." It's funny. It was one of those situations
where they knew what I was thinking, and I knew what they were thinking and we would
go through it. I would raise an issue. Sometimes it would be an issue about that laws existed
in these countries where women were not able to work or they couldn't drive or vote, or
they were not given the chance to have access to the same health or education, you know,
a long list. And what I discovered about a year into it is that I had to change my argument
from "it would be better, it would be smarter, it would be right for you to do these things,"
to "Guess what? The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and all of these financial analysts
are saying, the fact that you have so few women in the labor force means that your GDP
is 8, 10, 12, 15 points lower than it might be."
All of a sudden they begin paying attention, and then you have a conversation about what
it would mean for their economies. And remember, while I was there, the great recession was
still very acute. And why it's important to educate women, to open credit to women, to
employ them, to get them into the workforce, you could then begin to see that it was not
just a pro forma discussion that I was leading, because I was the only woman there, but it
was a really deeper understanding of what they were not doing.
Now, for some of them it made no difference; but for others, other leaders, suddenly light
bulbs seemed to go off. So you have to look for ways to find whatever opening you can
to make their argument. HANNAH GROVE: And whatever their bottom line
is. HILLARY CLINTON: Right.
HANNAH GROVE: So turning it into a positive, what did you see was working in countries
for women that you might imports to the U.S.? Were there best practices and examples that
you noted. HILLARY CLINTON: Well, in other advanced economies,
the supports for women in the workplace is much greater than it is here. Leave programs,
for example, are ubiquitous. So you see that it works in places. It doesn't create the
drag on the economic future that one sometimes hears, so you try to make that argument back
here at home. We're also seeing that with the absence of quality, affordable childcare,
the level of anxiety and stress in working women is incredibly high in many instances,
the unpredictability of schedules that I mentioned before, but it goes beyond that. It just is
very difficult to try to find a safe, nurturing place for your child in many parts of our
country that can you afford, and other countries have figured out a better system for doing
that, so when you are looking at other advanced economy, I think it is important to try to
make the argument to learn from them, to see how it would have to be tailored to fit our
circumstances here. HANNAH GROVE: And that issue of balance. I
think every woman and man in this room wrestles with it, and particularly for the younger
women in the audience, what advice would you give them in terms of being able to have meaningful
work life but also a meaningful family life? HILLARY CLINTON: Right. There's now one model
that works. I've had friends who've done everything, had their first baby when they were 20 or
had their first baby when they were 45, and all kinds of options in between. It's so individual,
but there are certain external supports that the workplace and the society should be providing
so that individual women can make the best choices for themselves and for their families.
It's probably the most common thing I'm asked by younger women, how do you balance family
around work? And the obvious thing is, have a support system,
have an intact family, an extended family, a circle of friends, whatever it takes to
make sure that you are supported while you try to both work in the outside world and
do the very hard work of tending not just to children but in many cases now older relatives.
My mother lived with us for the last ten years of her life, and she was, thankfully, mostly
healthy, but not always. And we had a support system within our family and with friends
outside to make sure that she had what she needed, people could errands for her if I
was gone, if Bill was gone, if Chelsea was gone. So I think you've got to construct that,
and too many young women think they have to do it all themselves, that somehow it is a
sign of weakness to ask for help, but that's not the way to go.
Find help where you need it and create your own support system and work for the changes
like what you voted foe here in Massachusetts in this last election.
HANNAH GROVE: Exactly. And it does take that village, in however you assemble it.
HILLARY CLINTON: That's right. I really believe that.
HANNAH GROVE: We have many young women in the audience, some of whom are at college,
some of whom have already graduated, and the theme is about advocating for the next generation
of leaders. What advice would you give, Madam Secretary, to your 18‑year‑old self or
any of the Millennials in the audience when it comes to that degree of advocacy?
HILLARY CLINTON: I think there should be a broad degree of leadership. It's not all about
holding high positions in corporations or any government or in academia. That's important
leadership. And if that is what you are driven to do, that's what you choose to do, get the
best‑possible grounding in it. Learn as much as you can. Watch other people and model
yourself after them. Don't be afraid to take risks. If you get
knocked down, dust yourself off, get back up, keep going. But leadership can be demonstrated
in a lot of different ways. I mean, you can pick a problem that you are concerned about
and put together a group of your own to tackle it, an environmental problem, a human rights
problem, a very personal intervention in the lives of somebody in your community. So I
think leadership should not be put way up here.
What makes our country historically so effective is that people assume citizenship roles, volunteer
roles, leadership roles, without anybody telling them to, because the problem is there, and
you want to be part of solving it. And when de Toqueville came to this country back in
the early 1830s, he noticed how is Americans were always joining associations to solve
problems. Maybe it was making a quilt for the winter, maybe it was putting up a barn,
maybe it was starting the first fire departments or midwife service, whatever it might have
been; and he said that was because we had the habits of the heart of service and of
leadership. So I like to encourage particularly young
Millennials, who are very community‑oriented. I think Millennials really get this unfair
rap. They are so connected, so socially aware, they are willing to put themselves out there,
volunteer, start groups, make a difference. And I would just urge them to be part of the
next generation of advocacy by defining how we do it using technology, how we do it on
the front lines of change. I'm very excited about what is going to be coming from these
young women and men. Obviously I want to be there cheering you on, because I think there
are so many ways to look at problems differently and come up with solutions, that haven't even
yet been imagined, and that's going to be one of this generation's real challenges.
HANNAH GROVE: So take that daisy chain challenge that Alison gave us all. So we have time for
one last question, and Madam Secretary, I've to ask you this. I think it's a question that's
on ‑‑ [APPLAUSE]
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]. ‑‑ the question that's on everybody's
mind. You served for eight years as our First Lady. I have to ask, what qualities would
be most important for a first gentleman? [LAUGHTER]
HILLARY CLINTON: That is very clever. Support.
HANNAH GROVE: Saxophone‑playing? Musical? HILLARY CLINTON: I will say something somewhat
serious about this. I spent an hour with the President yesterday going over a lot of different
issues, and I was thinking as we were sitting there in the Oval Office talking that I have
known a lot of Presidents over the course of the last many decades. And it is such a
hard job. I don't care whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, where you are from, what your
political aspirations are. It is such as a challenging job. And you need people, starting
in your family, but going to your friends, beyond a larger circle, who will really be
for you and continue to treat you like a human being, because you can easily lose touch with
what's real, what's authentic, who you were before you raised your hand and were sworn
into office. We used to have a steady stream of Bill's oldest friends. Make new friends,
because you might learn something. You see people who you are interested in.
We had a steady stream of people who we would spend time with, have dinner with, just to
be able to let down and relax some. And for every single president that is one of the
biggest challenges. So whether it's a man or a woman, the support system is absolutely
critical. You know, it used to be in years past, presidents
like the Roosevelts or Harry Truman, or Dwight Eisenhower, or Jack Kennedy or even Lyndon
Johnson, they would go get on the Presidential Yacht and sail down to Key West. It wasn't
that they wanted a vacation, it was because they wanted to breathe, to think, to understand
what was really important and what was not, if it was in the headlines.
Here is what I worry about. I worry about now the stress on anybody in a leadership
position. Multiply it many times over to be President. The incoming never ends. Technology
connects you around the world instantaneously, so you are constantly being asked for opinions,
to make decisions that maybe you need more time to think about, maybe you need to sleep
on it, maybe you need to bring in some people to talk to about it. But the pace of demands
is so intense that you feel like you've got to respond. So the job is unforgiving in many
ways. And therefore I think you need people around you who will kid you, make fun of you.
I have no shortage of such people in my own life.
[LAUGHTER] I was saying backstage one of my dearest friends
from 6th grade, she's tired of explanting that I could never do my hair. This is not
a new criticism. HANNAH GROVE: Looking good!
HILLARY CLINTON: When I was in 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th grade, I was equally inept.
It is good to be reminded of such historical importance as that.
[LAUGHTER] But seriously, I would think you would want
people who are there because they can revitalize your energy, your thinking, get you to perhaps
take yourself less seriously or, if necessary, listen to you as you try to work through some
of the incredibly hard problems that exist. HANNAH GROVE: Madam Secretary, thank you so
much. A set of broad shoulders. Inspiring. HILLARY CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you. That
was great. Thank you. HANNAH GROVE: Oh, thank you!
[APPLAUSE].
