Quote of the Day

I firmly believe that when half of Congress can get pregnant, we will finally stop arguing about birth control, abortion, and Planned Parenthood -- and we might even fully fund women's health care.

-- Cecile Richards, Make Trouble, p. 17

Quote of the Day

Don't search for your role in his story -- Write your own.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 120

Quote of the Day

Sometimes, when someone is making an idiot of themselves, especially on live television, it's just better to let them go ahead.

-- Cecile Richards, Make Trouble, p. 14

Quote of the Day

I think your battle scars can be a comfort to the rest of us.  They will show us what you have endured and tell us what we can survive.  I hope you will let them show.  I do.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 110

Quote of the Day

For the first time in my life, I'm wondering whether my own daughters will have fewer rights than I've had.

-- Cecile Richards, Make Trouble, p. xi

Quote of the Day

Show us what you have been through.  It tells us what we can survive.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 108

Quote of the Day

The truth is, anything worth doing has its challenges.  And, yes, fighting for what you believe in can be discouraging, defeating, and sometimes downright depressing.  But it can also be powerful, inspiring, fun, and funny -- and it can introduce you to people who will change your life.

-- Cecile Richards, Make Trouble, p. xi

Quote of the Day

We have no idea what beneficial qualities we might be stifling in ourselves as long as we continue to follow an outdated set of behavioral rules that were designed to permit women to play a niche role in a workplace built for men.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 80

Quote of the Day

Men spent centuries building the professional world, devising rules to make sure it was a comfortable place for them and that it was geared toward their particular qualities and skills.  Like any good guest, women have looked for clues on how we are to behave in this foreign land.  We have tried to understand and follow the local customs.  We have intuited that in this world we are to be obliging, calm under pressure, and diligent, and to always keep our emotions in check.  Our adaptive skills have served many of us well.  But we aren't in a man's world anymore.  Now it's our world.  And shame on us women if we don't do something to change the way this game is played so that everybody is able to bring their best to the effort.  Let's embrace a new way of working that is equally geared toward our own qualities and skills.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 79-80

Quote of the Day

The people in your Oval Office should look like the entire country you represent, not just one ethnicity or gender.  Every decision you make will be better because of it.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 71-72

Quote of the Day

On my second go-round serving in the White House, I was a senior staff person.  I ran a department.  When I weighed in, my words weren't just heard but had consequences.  Having a position of power should make you feel more comfortable expressing your view, and yet I found it was harder for me, and I think it was harder for some other women, too.  That's when you have to get over your inhibitions and rise to the challenge to do the job you were hired to do.  You can't think of it as reaching the next rung on the ladder of female empowerment -- it's simply a matter of doing your job.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 69-70

Quote of the Day

If you act like you belong in the room, people will believe you do.  If you act like your opinion matters, others will, too.  Simple, true, empowering, and life-changing advice.  It is applicable for all women in every endeavor we undertake.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 69

Quote of the Day

People take their cue from you.

-- Evelyn Lieberman

Quote of the Day

In my first meeting with him, President Obama welcomed me, made me feel comfortable, and asked me what I thought.  As my time there went on, I came to appreciate that he didn't ask people what they thought because he wanted to be nice, although he is, or because he wanted the women to feel included, although he did.  He asked people what they thought because he wanted to know what they thought.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 66

Quote of the Day

In the Clinton White House, I felt privileged to be allowed "in the room."  I had many generous mentors there, men and women both, who taught me I belonged there and my voice mattered.  I learned to speak up.  It was in the Obama White House where I appreciated that it wasn't just my privilege but my responsibility to speak in whatever room I was in.  You aren't doing your job if you don't.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 62

Quote of the Day

None of us here today created this world where biases about women, particularly women in power, persist.  We inherited it.  Most of us -- women and men alike -- are trying to sort it all out.  But there remains something that makes a lot of people uneasy about women trying to move forward ... I hope you draw less fire, but whatever happens, don't let anyone stop you from continuing to move forward.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 58

Quote of the Day

A number of women I know and respect think it is a mistake to go back over everything that happened with Hillary in the 2016 campaign.  Their view is that it is self-defeating for women to be seen as complaining about how Hillary was treated.  I might share their view if I hadn't lived that campaign.  We need to understand what happened.  We need to make the path easier for all women working to succeed in whatever role they choose.  The unease we felt toward Hillary could hold any woman back anywhere.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 57

Quote of the Day

Is it a coincidence that the first woman nominee of a major party lost a presidential election to a misogynist?

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 53

Quote of the Day

It felt like we had four men running against (the Hillary Clinton campaign) -- Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Julian Assange, and Jim Comey.  I don't believe it is a coincidence that the first woman nominee of a major party ended up being hounded by four men, all taking actions that would influence the campaign in ways never before seen in our country's history.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 51-52

Quote of the Day

TSAHIJDL.  Get to know it.  Whether you are running for president or any woman who challenges the status quo.  "There's something about her I just don't like."  And its sister complaint: "There's something about her I just don't trust."

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 50

Quote of the Day

Underneath all the questions about wiping servers and deleting emails lay the fundamental truth that what all of this was really about was that there was something about Hillary Clinton folks just didn't trust.  And that something was an intelligent, capable, ambitious woman in a position of power.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 50

Quote of the Day

Our culture still tends to characterize ambitious women as pushy, conniving, and selfish.  This is not unique to politics -- it's true for women in any walk of life.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 45

Quote of the Day

The hurdle (Hillary Clinton) never quite surmounted was having us all accept that it's okay for a woman to have the ambition to want to be in charge.  It's that ambition part where Hillary ran into trouble.  No male candidate has ever had to hide his ambition to get elected -- after all, there are few goals more ambitious than becoming president of the United States.  So despite her qualifications, Hillary's ambition made voters uneasy, yet it wouldn't have been possible for her to run for office without it.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 43

Quote of the Day

Does it bother anyone that President Trump has been caught lying?  Does it bother anyone that this is not new?  Does it bother anyone that the president has been shown to be a liar?

-- Dan Balz, "Trump and his attorney didn't tell the truth, if Giuliani is right. Will that change anything?"

Quote of the Day

(Hillary Clinton) was constantly stepping outside the confines of the box in which women had always operated.  She was always confounding us.  Not because we all wanted to keep women in a small box, but because there was no model we could compare her to; she didn't make sense to us.  Looking at all this through today's lens, none of what she did may seem revolutionary.  But it sure made a lot of people uncomfortable in real time.  Forty years later there still isn't a model you can compare Hillary Clinton to, and many people still struggle to make sense of her.  Even with all the gains women have made across the board, Hillary's life experiences are without parallel.  I think that makes it hard for people to relate to her.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 42

Quote of the Day

Since Hillary Clinton first delivered her student commencement speech at Wellesley and landed on the cover of Life magazine as the female face of the baby boomer generation, she has been a generationally challenging figure.  She was the "lady lawyer" married to the governor who hadn't taken her husband's name and made more money than he did.  Next, she was the first major presidential candidate's wife who had her own career and didn't "stay home to bake cookies."  She was the First Lady who worked in the West Wing and took on the touchiest of touchy political issues: health care.  She was the first woman to run for Senate, run for president, become secretary of state, and run for president again.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 41-42

Quote of the Day

Nothing draws fire like a woman moving forward.  In a sentence, I think that's what happened to Hillary [Clinton] and why so many people didn't like her or trust her.  She has been moving forward and drawing fire for forty years.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 41

Quote of the Day

Nothing draws fire like a woman moving forward.

-- Jennifer Palmieri, Dear Madam President, p. 34

Quote of the Day

Any great change must expect opposition, because it shakes the very foundation of privilege.

-- Lucretia Mott