Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the 100 Women Initiative at the State Department in Washington, Monday, March 7, 2011. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that she would not want to keep her job as the top U.S. diplomat if President Barack Obama won a second term in 2012.
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Stating that she has no interest in service as president or vice president, Clinton, the former U.S. senator representing New York, put speculation about another presidential bid to rest.
“You know, I had a wonderful experience running and I am very proud of the support I had and very grateful for the opportunity, but I’m going to be, you know, moving on,” Clinton said. “I have no intention or any idea even of running again.”
She proclaimed in a recent speech in China that “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” and that the next chapter of her life will be devoted to advocating for women.
WNYC 93.9 gave her a new title: “Advocate-In-Chief.” I kind of like that. As someone who writes about extraordinary women and the challenges they face in my weekly column, Fortune 52, I know all too well that as far as we have come in the world, there is still so far to go.
But Clinton has shown us that there is no “glass ceiling” anymore. Upon graduating Yale Law School, Clinton became the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation. She was later named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979 and was twice listed as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.
While her husband, Bill Clinton served as governor of Arkansas, Hillary played a vital role in reforming Arkansas’s education system. In 1992, after Bill won the presidency, Hillary played an important role as First Lady advocating for the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance, the Adoption and Safe Families Act and the Foster Care Independence Act.
After the two terms in the White House, the Clintons moved to New York where she was elected senator in 2000, making her the first First Lady had run to for public office and the first female U.S. Senator to represent New York.
She was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006. When she ran for president in 2008 Clinton won more primaries and delegates than any other female in American history but lost to then-Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Obama saw her value as a political partner named Clinton Secretary of State, making her the first former First Lady to serve in the president’s cabinet.
Would the protests March 8 by hundreds of Egyptian women demanding equal rights on International Women’s Day have had the same outcome if Clinton was leading them? Would Hillary have heeded the Egyptian men’s call to “go home where you belong.” No, I don’t think so.
While some women may feel that they’ve achieved equality, especially in the US, globally there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done and there is no one more qualified to shake things up than Clinton.
Hopefully she will return home to New York, as her husband did when he set up offices in Harlem, so we can welcome her back with open arms.
