Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference Commemorating the 170th Anniversary of the First Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls

Leader Pelosi.   Thank you.  Thank you very much.  Thank you very much, Congresswoman Lawrence and thank you for your leadership of the Democratic Women's Working Group.  To you and to Lois Frankel, thank you for bringing us together with the Hispanic, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and our friends in leadership on the outside of the Congress.

I'm just gonna tell you two stories and I associate myself with the remarks of those who have spoken before.   I know that our longest serving woman in Congress, in the House of Representatives, Marcy Kaptur was here earlier.  Still is, Marcy.  And the godmother of When Women Succeed, America Succeeds, [Congresswoman] Rosa DeLauro.

We have so many champions of women, inside of Congress and outside of Congress. But listening to the comments, I wanted to, I was reminded of two stories.  We were talking a lot about shoulders.  Now, when we celebrate this 100th anniversary of women getting the right to vote, remember a couple of things.

First of all, the proper celebration of that would be to have the highest number of women and women of color in the Congress of the United States at that time and we fully intend to do that.  We've made great progress and it's going to be quite wonderful.

Listening to the speeches about shoulders reminded me of when I went to my first meeting as the Leader of the Democrats in Congress at the White House with President Bush and other House and Senate Democrats and Republicans in leadership.  I thought this was an ordinary meeting at the White House.  I'd been to many as an Appropriator and as an Intelligence person.

But when I went through the door and the door closed behind me, I realized it was unlike any other meeting I had ever been to or any woman had ever been to because there it was, the leadership of our country, all white males and I, as a woman, having a seat at the table.   And why I tell this story is because as President Bush, always very gracious, welcomed me there, said there's a lot of big interest in having a woman, different views here, I felt very closed in to my seat.

Now, my colleagues have heard me tell this story over and over again.  I felt very closed in to my seat.  I was getting squished together in my seat.  I couldn't figure out what it was and then I realized, there I was with Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott,  Alice Paul.  All the suffragettes who fought so hard for the right to vote.  And as they sat with me on that chair, in that instant, I could hear them say, ‘At last we have a seat at the table,' and then they were gone.  And I thought, well, we want more.  We want more women, women of color, et cetera, at the table.

But it was, again, a reminder, that women must lead.  But nonetheless the impression that we are all standing on the shoulders of those who so courageously at Seneca Falls set forth that important proclamation those many many years ago that we observe today.

I also recall a story that when we, when I became Speaker and wanted to have more women and people of color represented in the statues, et cetera, in the Congress.  We were dedicating a bust of Sojourner Truth.  And it was new in the Obama Administration, brand new at that time, and we were honored to have Michelle Obama come speak.  And when she spoke, she said this – she said, ‘you know, I can't help but think what Sojourner Truth would think to see a woman Speaker of the House.  How thrilled she would be.  But I can't even imagine how thrilled she would be to see me, Michelle Obama, as First Lady of the United States.'

Imagine what Sojourner Truth would think to see a woman as Speaker of the House, how thrilled she would be, I can't even imagine what should think of Michelle Obama as First Lady of the United States.  I get emotional just thinking about Michelle Obama talking about the First Family and what Sojourner Truth would think of that.

But this is a time – those women whose shoulders we stand on and all the young people who stand on some of our shoulders have to know that this is an ongoing fight.  The same people who resisted women having the right to vote, resist women having the right to anything and, again, the challenge continues to go on.

And that Supreme Court, hidden a little bit now by the trees, clear in the minds of the American people, holds a place in protecting our rights.  We must fight so that people who go there, for decades, really, honor the Constitution of the United States, honor stare decisis that says that you cannot overturn Brown v. Boardof Education, you cannot overturn marriage equality, Roe v. Wade and the rest of it.

These have been deemed constitutional by the Court before and have the full support of the American people.  So, as we go forward with all of this, we have to remember that this is an ongoing fight and just remember that when women got the right to vote, the headline said, ‘Women Given the Right to Vote.'

Women weren't given, women fought for it!  They fought for it!  They struggled for it!  They starved for it!  They were starved for it, they were rejected by their families.  It's a fight.  It was a fight then.  Women weren't given the right to vote.  Nobody ever gives power away, we have to assert it.

So, I thank [Congresswoman] Brenda Lawrence, [Congresswoman] Lois Frankel and all the leadership for bringing us together here today to reassert our commitment in that fight and to be strong shoulders for others to stand on as we stand on the shoulders of those who, courageously, fought so hard and went before us, as we observe of the 170 Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention.