Remarks by Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield at the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum’s International Women’s Day Celebration Dinner
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield
US Representative to the United Nations
Washington, D.C
March 8, 2023
AS DELIVERED
Thank you Meroë for this kind introduction.
And thank you for not saying how long I’ve been in the Foreign Service — but I’ll tell you, it’s been more than half my life. [Laughter.] But that doesn’t tell you how many years. [Laughter.] And thank you too for sharing your story of ministry and all that you have done for women in your life and what you will do for this new museum and for our country.
Let me thank you all for being here tonight to celebrate International Women’s Day and the promise and progress made at the Women’s History Museum.
This progress is so important. Because when I think back over the past year, even as we push for progress, I see an unfortunate pattern. Women and girls are being attacked all over the world. It’s sad and it’s terrifying. But unfortunately it’s true.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have banned women from working with NGOs. They have restricted half the population in their participation in public life and in the economy. And they have prevented women and girls from entering secondary schools and universities.
Last month I met a young Afghan refugee whose family had settled in Virginia. She told me how grateful she was to continue her education in the United States, but how painful it was to know that girls in Afghanistan — their cousins and girlfriends — are denied that opportunity. I promised her that the United States would continue to take action against these archaic attacks on universal human rights.
In Ukraine, women and girls face a dramatic increase in human trafficking and gender-based violence. When I traveled to Kiev last year, I met women who had been raped and tortured by Russian forces. The pain on their faces is really hard to put into words. We will not rest – none of us should rest – until Russia, Russia’s armed forces, are held accountable for their atrocities.
In Iran, we watched the Iranian people – led by brave women – take to the streets under the banner of “Woman, Life, Freedom”. I saw a video of young students in Karaj taking off their hijabs and shouting, “If we don’t unite, they will kill us one by one.”
If we don’t unite, they will kill us one by one.
All over the world, women and girls are taking this lesson to heart.
That also applies here at home. Today, on International Women’s Day, we must recognize that America’s women and girls are also at risk. The recent Supreme Court decision has deprived millions of Americans of their established, basic, constitutional right to abortion.
At the United Nations, I can feel how this decision has made my own country an outlier among the developed nations of the world.
But as President Biden says, and I repeat, the fight is not over. From the Women’s March to the protests that erupted after the Dobbs decision, we stand up for our rights – rights we can never take for granted.
And on our side, the entire Biden administration is deeply committed to protecting and promoting the rights of women and girls domestically and around the world, including at the United Nations and through our foreign aid. We work to build a country and a world where women and girls are equal and included. Where we serve as ambassadors for peace and examples of leadership.
To do this work – to come together, stand up for human rights and fight for equality – we need two things: we need education and we need inspiration. Education to teach us what we need to know. And inspiration gives us the courage to do the right thing.
Throughout my life I have had the privilege of receiving an excellent education and meeting inspiring role models.
Women like the late Madeleine Albright, who once sat in the same chair as I did at the United Nations, and who served as a powerful example to all of us in this room.
Women like Liberia’s former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first female head of state.
I’ve admired them from afar for a long time – I was in Liberia for the first time in 1978 – that was a long time ago. And Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was a powerhouse back then. She was a minister in the government. And when there was a coup, she was arrested. And that changed her entire life path. And I was delighted when, some 30 years after I was a student in Liberia in the 1970s – in 2008 – I became the first woman ever to be appointed ambassador to Liberia and to work with her and my Danish colleague Ellen Løj, who was the special envoy of the United Nations. And we called ourselves the Troika. And we really made a difference in this country.
They say you never meet your heroes, but Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was a heroine. She was a hero I met and she became a friend.
I also think of women like my mother, who raised me without a high school diploma. She made sure me and my seven siblings got a great education, and then she got one for herself — she got her GED in 1989, in her fifties. [Applause.]
There hasn’t been a prouder moment in our family as we sat in the audience and watched our mother walk across the stage to receive her diploma along with 12th graders who were graduating with her.
Now it’s our turn to pass on education and inspiration to the next generation.
Luckily for all of us here, and for all women around the world, the Women’s History Museum at the Smithsonian will do just that. It will teach us something about our past. It will teach us about our rights. It will teach us about our hard won and hard won freedoms. When its doors finally open, it will unlock knowledge for countless visitors and spectators. And the museum will raise the voices and stories of women and girls around the world who inspire us. In fact, you are already doing so by being in this room today.
Through your online exhibitions and through the American Women’s History Initiative, you share and expand the stories of our nation’s women with children, learners, and people around the world. They tell the stories of women who stood up for our rights, expanded our knowledge, served our country, shaped our history and touched our hearts – I can’t wait for the museum to open. [Laughter.]
And that can make a big difference – it’s going to make a big difference when young girls see what they can be, because as a young person I didn’t see that. I did not see Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. And now I know that little girls all over the United States, everywhere, from poor families, from wealthy families, from disadvantaged families – all over the United States can now see me and see them. [Applause.]
So let’s educate. Let’s keep inspiring. Let’s continue to be role models for this next generation. And let’s do all we can to uplift women and girls in this country, but also around the world.
Thanks very much.
###
