you can't redistrict a whole state. you know, you can only -- so our response has to be organizing and knowing who -- most americans don't know who their state legislators are, and that's why they are able to -- an anti-choice right wing minority is able to do this state by state. and it is very much about backlash against the changes in this country. i mean, they're very clear. white women are not having enough children, they say to me. you know, and it's why the issues all go together. so, you know, anti-immigration, anti-birth control, anti-abortion and so on. so we have to take back our

state legislatures. >> citing the example of working moms versus stay-at-home moms, a questioner asked, what are your thoughts on the way women treat each other? >> well, if we were ever asked a question that included men, we might give a better answer. i mean, do we ever ask men, can you have it all? you know, we need work patterns that allow everybody to work and also have a life and have kids if they want to. men too. the whole idea of stay-at-home moms and moms who -- i mean, the language is bananas. women who work at home work harder than any other class of worker in the united states, longer hours, no pay. [ applause ]

so let's just never again say women who don't work. it's women who work at home or who also work at and let's always ask all of those questions of men too. it's just divisive can you have it all? i mean, not everybody even wants it all, so, you know, and if you have to do it all, you can't have it all obviously whether you're a man or a woman. >> you recently commented on miley cyrus' recent hypersexual public appearance. can you expand on the issue of women using their sexuality to get ahead? >> well, if you have a game in which -- okay, i believe that the miss america contest, if you count up the contests in each state and the national contest is still the single biggest source of scholarship money for women in the united states. this is crazy.

but if a handsomeness contest was the biggest source of scholarship money for guys, you can bet they would be there. you know. [ laughter ] so we play the game by the rules that exist, but we need to change the rules obviously. so it's not that we're not responsible for our actions, we are. if feminism stands for anything, it's that we are responsible for our actions, but we also need to look at the context. as wilma always said, context is everything. and what choices are there? so, you know, if that's the way the game that exists, that's the game people will play. >> miley included or excluded, what is your message for today's young women? >> well, my big serious message is don't listen to me. [ laughter ] listen to yourself. that's the whole idea. and i -- the best thing i can do for young women i think is

listen to them, because you don't know you have something to say until someone listens to you, and each of us has authority and unique talents inside us, so people sometimes, often ask me at this age, who am i passing the torch to. and i always say, first of all, i'm not giving up my torch, thank you very much. [ applause ] but also i'm using my torch to light other people's torches because the idea that there's one torch passer is part of the bonkers hierarchical idea, and if we each have a torch, there's a lot more light. lighting a young woman's torch often means listening to her and supporting what it is that she wants to do and encouraging her. >> do kids today know enough

about the feminist movement, and let's include boys in those kids. should they know more, or is it a victory that it does not occur to many kids that things may not be equal for girls? >> well, it would be nice if they learned history, don't you think? they don't learn the history of the women's movement, the civil rights movement, you know, i mean, you can seek it out. now this, that's a step forward. you can find those areas of study. but, you know, the textbooks of texas are a pretty good example of eliminating the history of social justice movements because heaven forbid we learn how it was done before, we might learn it again. do it again. so, again, i think it's the context that we need to look at rather than blaming the individual.

however, having said that, if you gave me a choice between knowing history and getting mad about the present, i would say get mad about the present even if you don't know history. just keep going. i didn't walk around saying thank you for the vote. i don't know about you. i got mad because of what was happening to me. and i don't think gratitude ever radicalized anybody. you know, so i hope i don't have to choose between knowing history and looking at unfairness in the present. but if i had to choose, i would choose getting mad about the present. >> is there any effort in the groups you're involved with to include more of the women's rights history in school curriculum? >> is there any -- >> any effort to include about women's rights history in the school curriculums? >> yes, no, absolutely. you know, the feminist press was a pioneer, for instance, in integrating women's history into textbooks and creating those textbooks, and there are a lot of schools and a lot of devoted teachers, a lot of school systems, a lot of educators probably in this audience, right, who are trying to do

this. but the average textbook is still pretty slender. and you still -- you know, it's the politics of studying history. i mean, you still learn more about europe than about africa in general. you still -- it is profoundly profoundly political the way we study history, and now we have pioneers and reformers, and at least we know there is such a thing as women's history. the most cheerful thing that happens to me is on campus when i'm complaining about my education where it was like one sentence that said women were given the vote, somebody will stand up and say why didn't you take women's studies? it's so great. so it is getting better, but it's still not the norm. >> you touched on care givers a couple times. this questioner asked women raising families get the least

spoils in terms of political capital in the u.s. what must happen so that women and children they are raising are able to make gains politically? >> well, you know, it has to be said that the voting booth is the one place on earth where the single mom and the corporate executive are equal, where the very richest and the very poorest are equal. so it does have to do with knowing what the issues are on our school boards or in our state legislatures and getting ourselves out there, however difficult that may be, and it usually in my experience comes back to groups. you know, do you have a group with shared experience with whom you can talk and discover that it's not fair and that if you do "x" and "y" and you start this particular campaign in your neighborhood or campaign for your school board, you know, you

need, i think, to have that shared experience. and i traveling around the country all the time as i do, i see mainly women's groups, sometimes men are part of it too. but they have been together for 10 years, 20 years, 25 years, they're alternate families, they have seen each other through unequal education of their kids, through single motherhood, through divorce. i mean, we need these alternate -- these kinds of alternate families. >> a questioner says, women now make up 60% of college goers. should this surpassing males be celebrated, or is it a problem? >> well, as i was saying, no, it's not necessarily a problem but i think we ought to be able to look at all the alternatives. you know, we -- maybe we're, you know, frustrated programmers. and if we learn to code, you know, we wouldn't have to go to

college in quite the same way. maybe, you know, i think we're still a bit of a prisoner of the idea that a woman should be able to go to work in nice clothing and clean and so on and shouldn't be under the sink fixing the plumbing that would make them three times more money. so it's -- it's not that it's wrong, it's just that college has been so oversold. so oversold as a life changing mechanism. and especially when you end up in such huge debt. i just think people need to be able to look at a wider range of alternative alternatives. >> for those of us wishing to earn a world class feminist education without life crushing debt, would you please share some resources?

>> how long do we have? >> actually, you know, maybe we should do this as a group exercise, everybody should pop up. i've already given you sex and world peace by valerie hudson as a great resource, right? there's dark at the end of the street, which is a great retelling of the civil rights movement with more women's stories added. let's tell our favorite books. julie? >> makers. >> yes, thank you, makers. makers three hour television special on pbs now is also a wreb site with about 200 interviews, which is a huge wonderful resource. a very, very important present. and historical resource. what other favorite books do we have here? >> words of fire. absolutely.

great, yes, very, very important. >> stephanie kuntz, the way we never were. i mentioned the mermaid and the minitore earlier, which i think was from the '70s or '80s, but really shows the degree to which the changeover to societies in which men were separated from children and didn't develop those parts of higher arcry. not enough men enter child rearing in the home and develop the rest of themselves. >> bell hooks, feminism is for

everybody. >> yes, the great bell hooks. >> yes, ms. magazine in the classroom. >> ms. is in classrooms and a very important resource. and it also is in women's prisons and a very important resource. >> betty ferdan, absolutely. a classic, especially for women in a traditional role. >> what organizations, what kind of community building do you recommend? >> well, just tell us where you live and we'll find you -- there's no shortage.

and the junior league also has become much more an agent of social change than it ever was when i was growing up. >> i'm going to cut in for one more political question before we wrap it up. >> wilma mankiler wrote a wonderful book, she interviewed 15 women from indian countries. and thank you, alison for saying that, because what you glimpse as you do in various works by women from indian country is a crucial fact that we big time are not learning, even in women's history, which is that the sufficient wrath moment like the underground railway and so many things was mainly a function of native -- of indian country. native women were -- had -- we

would say equal power, but they got to be called a petty coat government, the cherokee, for instance because female elders had to sign the treaties or they weren't legal. women controlled their own fertility and they -- the native women referred to european women as those who die in childbirth. they were appalled at these women who came from the worst stage of patriarchy and couldn't decide when to have children. we're walking around on a history that we don't know. and there are many women trying to bring it back. and there's a friend whose work you should look up as well. who has written a book called everything we want once was here. and that's not only true of native cultures in this country,

but also of cultures in southern afterry car, who will take you out into the desert and dig a hole and show you what they use for contraception, for headaches, migraines. it's true of the original cultures of 95% of human history. don't let anyone tell you that it's human nature that we live this way. no, it once was different, and it still could be. native women are very funny about it, you have to have a sense of humor, given what they've gone through. what did columbus call -- primitive, equal women. >> we are almost out of time, we have one more question. before that, just a couple housekeeping matters. first of all, i'd like to remind you about our upcoming speakers. on december 3rd, we have manuel santos, the president of columbia, on december 16th, dan

agoer son, the president and ceo. chairman and ceo of general motors, on december 19th, ricky skaggs, grammy winner and blue grass legend. and january 15th, christine la guard, head of the international monetary fund. and before the last question, i'm very pleased to present our guest with the -- for a long time now traditional national press club coffee mug. i'm pleased to give you a mug. >> thank you. >> and the last question, what did you do with that tie? >> i haven't the faintest idea, and i don't care. but what a minute, i just have one more book. there is a wonderful small well

written, well researched wonderful book called ex-termen ate all the roots, which is a line from heart of darkness, actually. by sven lindquist, who is luckily swedish, it's about the invention of racism, it is a brilliant brilliant book. exactly why it was that europeans having become over populated because they suppressed women and made women have babies. he doesn't quite say that part as he should, but then in order to take over other people's land invented the idea that those people were inferior. it's a brilliant, brilliant book. and let's keep this going. don't you love all this. at your table, keep doing it, keep handing around ideas.

>> thank you. thank you for coming today. thank you all. thank you to our national press club staff for helping organize today's event. here's a reminder, you can find more information about the national press club online at www.press.org. thank you, we are adjourned.

if you're a middle or high school student. c-span's student cam competition wants to know, what is the most important issue congress should address. make a video and be sure to include c-span programming for your chance to win $5,000. the deadline is january 20th, get more info at student cam.org. members of the senate education committee recently began to consider the reauthorization of the higher education act. considering among other things college afford ability and access for low income and nontraditional students. this is two hours.

>> today's hearing is the second in our series to examine critical issues in post secondary education, as we look to reauthorize the higher education act next year. the topic we will discuss today is of great interest to policy makers in the public. that is innovation and higher education, that we spent time previously in this committee discussing the role of innovation. much of that was focused just on college affordability. that is, of course, of paramount importance and will probably be discussed again here today. i'd like to spend this hearing examining an equally important and related subject. the landscape of innovations and higher education that increased due to learning, engagement and degree completion. if our nation's trying to educate more students, then by the year 2020, we have the status of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. we need to do more to ensure students are persisting toward and attaining quality degrees.

what can colleges and universities do to maximize our force, to ensure students are getting in on time and faster and earning a meaningful credential? today's panel explores erts and progress at the institution and system wide level. both high and low tech, to increase student success and higher education. these innovations can inform our committee's work in designing federal policy, and determine the role the federal government can play in promoting effective change to help america regain and retain its global leadership. >> too often, good innovation can be siloed, either within a college classroom. a key focus of today's conversation will be discussed to allow education to be innovated or scaled up. the impact of these innovations

are having on their students learning experience and success. in completing a degree. as i said at the start of this series of hearings, focusing on reauthorization of the higher education act. this is no time to be complacent with the status quo. everything is okay is not acceptable for this committee. the stakes are too high. so we'll need to take a tough look at reimagining how our higher education system can work better. i'd also caution we should not waste time entertaining innovation for the sake of innovation, we want to know what that innovation is doing, to make sure that students are getting the most out of their college experience. >> the make-up of this panel is indicative of the broad scope of our higher education system, and how that system needs to continue to innovate to meet the needs of all the students they serve, at whatever point those students enter our higher education system.

we all understand that a one size fits all approach will not do. witnessing the emergence of many new innovative models. this is a great strength of america's system. i am proud we have such a diverse system, we must ensure that all current and future models are focused on student success, and agree attainment. i look forward to working with my ranking member and all members of this committee on both sides. to get a good higher education bill, and one of the main parts of it is what we can do to further promote, stimulate, as i said, expand, scale up, innovations that have proven to be effective in different areas. with that i invite senator alexander for his opening statement. >> thanks for this second and series of hearings on the higher education reauthorization, i'm really looking forward to this, this is a distinguished panel of people who know what they're

talking about, and so that ought to inform us in terms of what we should be doing, and what we ought not to be doing. there's a lot of talk in our last hearing about where's the innovation in higher education. and in thinking about that, it occurs to me that innovation for its own sake is not what we're after. as the chairman said, the goal of education is to improve student performance. increase retention and graduation rates. do it in a way that reduces or maintains costs and encourages efficiency that benefits taxpayers and students. so two things come to mind about this approach. and i'll be looking for. you would think we have the perfect environment to encourage innovation and higher education, unlike many other countries in the world. in america, we think the american way is to have a marketplace, an entrepreneurial spirit, we don't have a state church, we have lots of

churches. our music springs up from various places. that's the case with our colleges and universities. 6,000 different colleges and universities of many different ty types from harvard to the university of maryland. i mean, these are all different places, and we honor the awe taken my of each institution. they really operate in a marketplace, where students have a chance to choose them, and they can beat for students scholars. that can produce the largest amount of innovation. innovation doesn't always work, i used to be involved with venture capital and helped start a business that made its way from scratch to the stock exchange. i learned along the way that most new businesses don't succeed. and most new ideas don't work. for example, in the 1980s, when i was governor, and we'll hear

about mr. hall about this, we were worried about the number of students in colleges and universities who weren't prepared for that. we thought that was wrong, we said the way to deal with that was to say to them, you can come to the college or community college, but you won't get credit for a course if you're not prepared for college. we're very proud of ourselves for that innovation. it turns out 20 years later, that probably isn't the right thing to do, and what we'll hear from mr. hall and what our state is now doing is abandoning that approach, and admitting more people, and working harder to move them through the system faster. that seems to be working a lot better. what seems to be a good innovation at one point might not be later, and it's a caution to us that we should be careful about coming up with even a very good sounding idea here, and expecting that it will work ten years from now, or imposing it on all 6,000 institutions around the country. a second concern i have, though

is that one would think that at a time when the world is changing so rapidly, and we have this marketplace of 6,000 institutions that we would be seeing more innovation. we would be seeing more. maybe you'll tell us that we -- it's there, but we just don't see it. but there's some obvious things that perhaps we should do to correct that, one may be that the federal government's in the way. for example, with too many rules and regulations that consume time. i talked with dr. kerr win for a moment, and we've talked many times about deregulation of our education, and creating more of an environment in which innovation can occur. there's also the definition of credit hour, not having the pell grant available year round. federal aid rules that don't allow students to excel through course work. i'd like to hear your comments whether these are impediments.

they make it more difficult for you to innovate. the one area that seems to me that would be obvious for more innovation. and i think i understand a lot about why it hasn't happened. it seems to me it has to happen is a more efficient use of time and facilities at colleges and universities. forth washington university's steven track ten berg once told me, you can run two complete colleges with two complete faculties in the facilities now use half a year for one. that's without cutting the length of vacations, increasing class sizes or requiring faculties to teach more. dartmouth college has one mandatory summer session for every student in four years. that would improve dr. tracktenburg's institution by 10 to 15 -- it's bottom line by 10 to $15 million a year. those were his ideas.

he never did that at george washington university. so i understand some of the reasons for that, but maybe we need more of a culture of inning know vague. so what i'm looking for today is how do we encourage a culture of innovation in our 6,000 institutions, without throwing a big wet blanket over -- that smothers you by giving you an order from washington that may work at austin peete, but not the university of maryland. how do we do that? how do we get out of the way? i look fword very much to this. and i thank the chairman for the hearing and for these excellent witnesses. >> thank you very much, senator alexander. i listened very carefully to your opening remarks.