to see the debate and any of the previous debates, visit sctv.org. don't forget to vote on tuesday. good night. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> next, chelsea clinton talking about the importance of women in leadership roles. after that, a senate hearing on implementing safety recommendations. reason and focus on the speaker is because it is the but the full majesty and where at his decision

this point he has not yet entered to. you have an audience that you normally do not half. theinteresting fact is whole tenor of your remarks going back to 1970 i going back to 1972, taking out of context, -- in myhere for one opinion, that was to imply members of your side were un-american in that divinity. -- activity. when you responded, you knew there was no one there. you knew there was no one there. >> cam scam. put those two men from your perspective. give us your perspective on the two. >> speaker o'neill was a giant. he knew the politics of the house. he knew the politics of the house and he kept much of it to himself in terms of other

members. he obviously received a great amount of intelligence all day long from members, what was going on in different places. he always believed that politics was the art of the possible. that nobody got their way all the time and he was a broker within the democratic caucus and within the house. what you saw was newt gingrich, who made a conscious decision that they would always be in the minority because they worked with the majority. he started attacking bob michael, the leader, and john rhodes and everyone else on that side. in his own party. he said the only avenue to the majority is through confrontation and we are going to take them down and this was an argument about the misuse of tv now coming to the fore where he would ask these rhetorical

questions and make these charges and he knew that the chamber was empty. at that time, remember, the camera was very tight on the speaker at the time, wherever they were. it came to show that the chamber either had people in it or was empty and it changes the whole dynamic. that was a process that many years later has torn this institution apart and has paralyzed the institution. >> congressman george miller, sunday night at 8:00 on "q and a." >> chelsea clinton was the keynote speaker at the national conference for college women leaders on sunday. she talked about the challenges facing female leaders and offered advice to students. ms. clinton is the vice chair of the clinton foundation and works with her mother, former secretary of state hillary clinton. this is 50 minutes. >> good afternoon, everyone, and welcome.

thank you all for joining me for the kickoff of the 2014 national conference for college women student leaders. [applause] my name is elba moise and i am a member ofaauw's national student advisory council. [applause] i love the energy in the room. [laughter] i'm currently finishing a duel masters in public health and applied anthropology at oregon state university. [applause] this fall will continue in doctoral studies and i am

focusing on education at the university of washington. [applause] it is with great pleasure that i introduce our featured speaker greater chelsea clinton, vice chair of the clinton foundation, working alongside her parents, drives the vision and the work of the clinton foundation. chelsea's work at the foundation emphasizes global and domestic health. it is empowering the next generation of leaders. chelsea focuses especially on the foundation's health program, including the clinton health access initiative, which strengthens health care and access to life-saving services in the developing world. that organization which fights childhood obesity, and the clinton health matters organization. she also established and continue to lead the clinton foundation day of action program. it identifies and organizes meaningful service opportunities

for foundation staff, friends, and partners and for the wider foundation community. to help advance the full participation of women and girls around the world, chelsea and secretary clinton co-lead the newest initiative, no stealing, a full participation project. as one of the strongest champions of the clinton global initiative university, chelsea works to empower the next generation of changemakers to take action on some of the world's most urgent challenges. in addition to this great work, chelsea is a special correspondent for nbc news. she serves on the board of common sense media, the africa center, and well cornell medical college. she is also the cochair and advisory board of the of many institutes at nyu. without further ado, please give a round of applause for chelsea

clinton. [applause] >> goodness. thank you, elba, for that introduction. thank you for that enthusiastic welcome. it is always awesome to see so many energized women of all ages and a few men who are here. [laughter] i want to thank the university of maryland for hosting us. [applause] and a.u.w. for convening all of us and particularly the staff of a.u.w. and the university of maryland who have already insured this meeting is going so

well and i am sure will continue to go well. i know big offense like this are truly team sports and there are so many people who participate to ensure the experiences are meaningful for us who you never see, but i think it is important to it knowledge. one of my core areas of focus of the foundation is what we are calling no ceilings, a full participation project. it is long-standing and i think well known that my mother has been working on issues of women and girls' rights and advancement for opportunities for more than 45 years.

i could not imagine a better role model or partner that my mom and this is deeply meaningful work to me. not only because it continues to advance a cause that is morally right, but also clearly in all of our interests, whether we are women, girls, boys, or man. we have more data than ever before that investing in women in girls is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do, not only in our own country but around the world. and yet we have not ever really correlated that data in a coherent way and in a way that will be appealing, accessible, and hopefully unavoidable for people of all generations. and ultimately that is the goal of no ceilings. in 1995 when my mom went to beijing and said that women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights, something i think she did not know at the time would be treated as such a seminal event because it seemed so self-evident. we clearly were even further than we were today from full participation. we have unequivocally made progress here at home and in many places around the world. in terms of greater legal

enfranchisement for women, greater economic opportunities for women, cultural and social prohibition easing, and yet in no country, including our own, are women and the roles truly equals at any point -- and girls truly equals at any point. we are looking across the world, working with traditional data partners like the u.n. and the world bank as well as less traditional data partners like google and facebook and telecom companies to really understand, where do we stand? what are our legal rights? what is our economic participation in different countries? how are we using technology? are we using it in ways that

technology revolutionizing the world, not only in access but in access to information and education? or not? and then looking for where we are, understanding where we made the most progress from 1995 until today and trying to correlate that progress to what has really made the most difference. so that we know, those who care about this and pick it is the right and smart thing to do, to harness and focus our energies going forward. what laws have changed that have really made a difference? what social media campaigns around the world have really made a difference? what religious efforts have really made a difference? whether in inspiring more women to run for public office,

whether in stopping child marriage, or anything in between or beyond? i am here today in part to have a conversation, which i am looking to because there is clearly no shortage of energy or enthusiasm and i doubt, ideas or questions in this room today. i'm also here to recruit all of you because we know that if those of us who are already interested and already believe that investing in women and girls is important, that it is the right and smart thing to do, i think there is a strong selection bias in this room towards that -- [laughter] that only if we make it cool, unavoidable, and necessary for others to pay attention will this truly become a movement to ensure that in 20 years, we are having a different conversation than the one we are still having today. i am frequently asked these days, maybe not surprisingly, what i hope for the child that mark and i are thrilled to welcome into the world later this year. [applause] thank you. one of the things that i deeply

hope for is that the conversations that he or she will be having with his or her friends and his or her communities on a campus like this one will be radically different than unimaginable from the ones we have today. because the world will look very different and i can't think of anything that would enable the world to look more different than today dan if women and girls were ultimately and unequivocally enfranchised. i think that there are lots of heads nodding. we know a lot about what works but not enough. we hope that our work at the clinton foundation and in partnership with the gates foundation will inform all of our passion, all of our energy, all of our focus, and appropriately, when necessary, our anger to ensure that all of the children that many of us in

this room will someday have will be in a room like this, if they are so lucky, to raise their hands and to have been selected, talking about what concerns them and what they want to see different in the world. women and girls' rights participation will not be on the table because it will be taken for granted that everyone will be given the opportunities they deserve. that is what i hope. that is what we are focused on working to achieve. i hope that many of you will participate with us in the full participation agenda and i look forward to the conversation that we are going to have. thank you to the university of maryland. and most crucially, thank you to all of you for caring enough to be here on a hot summer day and even more for the work that you have done and more profoundly,

that the work you will do. thank you very much. [applause] >> i want to start out by saying on got for that powerful and moving speech that you just give. i literally have goosebumps and i'm sure the audience feels the same way. if the audience could give one more round of applause for chelsea. [applause] as you know, we are here today in a room filled with 900 plus talented, inspiring individuals here, many who are college students. we talk about leadership and i will start with a fundamental western. what does leadership mean to you? >> i think that leadership is the ability to translate what you want to see in the world, what the world is like in your own family or your school, or your community, or your city.

you translate that vision and it does not have to be an all-encompassing vision. it can be very specific about something you want to change in a recycling program or it can be something quite comprehensive, like something that you want to revolutionize in our health care system. understanding how to translate that vision into a real action plan and then having the mix of humility and courage to pursue it -- humility to be able to ask for help, because none of us know everything all the time. in fact, most of us just know a

little bit most of the time. to be able to ask for help, to find the right partners along the way, and yet enough confidence in the importance of what that original motivation is, that you stay the course regardless of what obstacles arise. leadership is having a vision, translating that into an action plan, asking for help in finding the right partners along the way, and having an enduring sense a purpose so that come what may, your endurance and resilience will carry you through to advance towards that vision. thank you. [applause] >> something that resonated with me when you were talking about the resiliency piece, and i wanted to follow-up with -- what challenges do you see that prevent women and girls from reaching leadership roles? >> wow. lots, unfortunately. i would pick three to highlight.

i think it is hard to imagine what you cannot see. that is hard for all of us. which is why i think it is in so important that those of you who are by definition leaders continue to lead, because you never know how many other young people, and particularly young girls, you will inspire along the way. i think that often one of the ceilings that we face is the ceiling of imagination. it is hard to imagine what you can see. -- can't see. two, i think we need to do more to be honest about what particular challenges girls do face. there are many reasons why there is a drop-off, a serious drop-off between first, second, and third graders who in equal numbers, girls and boys, are performing well in math, are inspired to be engineers or astronauts, scientists, and then fourth, fifth, and sixth raids when those numbers plummet, both

in terms of achievement and ambition. we know there are lots of reasons that is happening and we need to be candid about those reasons, the differences in the way that teachers treat boy and girl students, that sometimes girls are more likely to learn in more interactive ways and need to be engaged with more readily than expected to learn by textbook. we don't have a lot of data to back that up so we need to have candid conversations and candid approaches to ensure that we are not wasting talent or dreams, because that is not good for anyone. and then the third is -- candidly, we also need more forums like this for young women because this is a safe space to have conversation, to be able to talk about the different challenges that so many of us have faced.

i think that the barriers change over time. they are different when you are a fourth grader than when you are a college student or graduate student or young professional. but they are very real and each needs different solutions and i think one of the important solutions for young women who are your age or at my age, a little bit older, is to have forums like this and you have mentors who can help curate conversation and if necessary force the conversation so that we can grapple our internal feelings as much as our external feelings and move forward. >> following up on that, do you have any thoughts or particular advice that you would give

someone who is looking to become a leader? >> i am frequently asked this question in a different way. although i am thrilled you asked it this way. i'm frequently asked, often by young women, how should i engage in the world? in my first response is, think about what makes you angry. if that does not work for you, think about what makes you really passionate and inspired. i think that anger and passion are far more likely to be durable motivators than any other emotion. going back to our first question and resulting conversation, being a leader is hard work. i think it does require resiliently -- resiliency, as you noted. if what you are trying to change makes you angry because you think it is something that is

unjust, inequitable, unfair, or if it is something that makes you really passionate, something that is working and you don't understand why it can't be working for or inspiring more people, i think those are far more likely to ensure whatever cynicism that you encounter, and there will always be cynics because cynicism is the great preserve of people who want to preserve the status quo, or the people who just believe that because it has not been done before, it can't be done, or because people who believe that someone who does not -- who does look like the majority of us, with due apology to the men in the room, can't do something. there will be challenges, but if anger or passion or both are what inspire you, i think it helps to ensure those challenges are treated as obstacles meeting

to be overcome and not as ceilings that cannot be broken through. >> thank you. [applause] >> tying that into this other thought, i know that you faced a lot of scrutiny from the media. you have grown up in the media since you were little and i bet you also learn to develop a thick skin because of that. women in general often face their own kinds of scrutiny. what advice do you have for those women and girls who have been told that they couldn't or that they shouldn't? >> i do think thick skin is necessary in general and life. i am a believer in thick skin as a survival tactic. i think it is important to think about criticism in one of two

ways. or to sort it into two ways. first, to think about whether it is serious. if it is serious criticism, if it is about the quality of your idea, if it is about the quality of your action plan, how you translated that idea into a roadmap for moving forward, i think it is worth taking that criticism seriously, but not personally and to think about whether or not there really is something valid in that criticism that will help make your idea or action plan, your

general approach better and stronger. i think there is a second bracket of criticism, and that is criticism that is not about you, it is about the critic who is saying it. when people criticize how you look -- i have the and dubious honor of being compared to a dog as a 13-year-old by rush limbaugh -- that was not about me, that was about him. [laughter] [applause] you laugh, but that is an important point. maybe that is an extreme example, but unless a lot has changed in middle school and high school since i was a student, much less college, i can promise you that every young woman in this room has encountered something similar. that is not about us. it is not. it is about whoever feels the need to say that to make him or, unfortunately, herself, feel better. that is what i would say. thick skin is necessary but it is important not to deflect all criticism because some criticism can be really useful. think about -- criticism is a nice euphemism for a lot of things in this category --

[laughter] is the criticism serious and should be treated seriously but not personally, or is it not about you and it need to be slaughtered off -- sloughed off? [applause] >> switching gears a little bit, i know that you have been involved in doing a lot of work in the community locally and abroad in terms of empowering a very what does women' leadership in countries outside of the united states? >> i think women's leadership looks like the individual women who are leaders everywhere. i would not say that there is one kind of voyeuristic -- heurisitc that we can

extrapolate from all women. i know that we can say without question that who sits at the proverbial table matters. we have so much evidence to back that up. whether we are talking about northern ireland, or close of oh, we know that when women are engaged in not only peace enforcement but actually in the peacemaking negotiations, peace is more likely to take hold, take root, and be sustained. we know that in countries where there is an appreciable level -- and that has different definitions based on the different surveys or statistical analyses -- but in countries where there are eight

appreciable number of women in parliament, if you look at the budget allocation of those countries, countries are much more likely to make what are considered long-term investments in their country. they are far more likely to invest in expanding education opportunities and ensuring those opportunities are of notable quality. they are far more likely to invest in their country's public health and health care infrastructures. they are far more likely to take a far-sided view that will ultimately benefit the whole country over time then a short-term view would've. the same is true when economic barriers are removed.

we see that not only from a government perspective, but also from a company perspective. when companies actively seek to empower women, they are far more likely to have more sustained growth rates over time. that is not just true in the united states, it is true around the world. thank you. >> following up with that, how can leaders in this room connects with global leaders? what are your thoughts? >> it depends on what you want to do and why. if you want to connect with other college women leaders because you are interested in learning about how women leaders are advancing change on campuses around the world, then i think it is important that you think about

what parts of the world you are most curious about. find out whether there is an analog or not. if there is not, that will be interesting. if there's no hope lent you in given countries all. if you are interested in collecting with political leaders, thankfully, there are now relatively easy ways to do that. so much of the world is online. so much of the world is not as fortified as our political leadership is. if you are inspired by women entrepreneurs in the developing world and technology, there are

clear examples of women who have broken ground. one of the companies that i am most impressed by in the last few years was started as an open source technology platform to enable kenyans to map election violence. that technology morphed into something called person finder to enable survivors of the haitian earthquake to find one another. even members of the haitian diaspora in the united states could find out if loved ones were alive. that morphed into a map which could be used throughout the arab spring. it was recently in istanbul. it is to enable women and men to communicate about particular areas in the process that are hostile. one of the founders of that technology is a woman. she is 36 and very much still a woman. there are examples, but it depends on what you are looking

for and why. if you are looking for knowledge exchange, that is something else. if you are looking for partnership, that is something else. ask questions and reach out to people. the worst that happened is someone says no. you will not know what someone says unless you ask. [applause] >> as you know, we are at a student leadership conference. people think that social change and activism can only happen outside of the classroom. i read that you enjoy and love teaching. how can students and administrators create classroom environment in which transformational learning and student activism can occur? >> when i teach at the school public health, i am focused on

trying to help my students think critically also i am much more concerned with whether or not they will be able to ask critical questions of global health and whether or not they can tell me how many members are on the world health organization executive body. we talk a lot about what makes people angry and what makes people passionate. i would not say that is necessarily the right pedagogical approach for everyone, but that is how i tried to translate what i feel strongly about into the

classroom. >> we are talking about classrooms and learning spaces. given the incidence of violence against women, specifically on college campuses in united dates, how can college women leaders and administrators take proactive steps to ensure the safety of all women, not just those who make the dues. >> it is great that we are talking about this. this is something that has existed in the shadows. it is something that is shameful. it is something that everyone should be ashamed of. we have to eliminate this issue. it is not just an american issue. it is not even one confined to colleges and universities. school-based violence is something that plagues girls and young women around the world. it is for different reasons. there is a core source.

there's a perception and the reality of vulnerability. the reason that it differs from place to place is because much of the developing world there are no safe latrines for example. there are no gender specific latrines. girls are walking to and from school. that is true for little girls and college age students as well. we have different challenges. too often, we have the same tragic result. what can students leaders do? that is unimportant part, but it is important to realize when it is our responsibility to expect that those who are responsible for us take their responsibilities more seriously. and into a greater affect. this is not something you can solve on your own all. that is nothing to be ashamed of. this is absolutely an area where you should expect your school administration to work alongside you to come up with solutions that will help eradicate these challenges. [applause]

i think it is important for each of us to think about what can we solve on our own? what can we not solve on our own? this is something that cannot be solved only by student leaders. it should not be solved without you either. it is equally important. is equally important that young women's voices are enfranchised.

value must be put on you by your friends, families. it is quite serious. you must remove her that you are -- must know that you are not in this alone. we talked about how do young women leaders find each other. this is an area where greater numbers will have a disparate portion impact of. not only on college campuses, but across college campuses. this is an area where the media is your friend. school newspapers are your friend. local media is your friend. for places that have were statistics that in the statistics that range nationally and whether it is one in three or one and five, neither are except well. when someone tries to tell me that it is only one in five, thank goodness. let's forget about the 20% that are affected. find out where your school stands. particularly with the national average. whatever it is. that will depend on the study you want to rely on. if your school is worse than

that, which is already her rent is, make a ruckus -- which is already horrendous, make a ruckus. you do not have to do this on your own and do not forget that you are not alone. [applause] >> thank you chelsea. thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. i would like to open it to an audience q&a. i know there's a lot of great energy in the room of. we would like to give students a chance to talk to chelsea of. please, students only, line-up at the microphone. i will call on you. those microphones are the front -- up front. of. we only had 15 minutes so please keep your questions read. we would like to get through as many as possible. if we can give chelsea one more round of applause. [applause] >> we will start over here.

when you get to the microphone, state your name and what school you are from. >> thank you so much are the presentation. i am from georgetown university. i have a friend in new york. a homeless friend who was raped in a shelter of. it happen by one of the managers. i was wondering, as student leaders, what can we do to help people and women who are struggling with homelessness and violence, both physical and sexual violence. what can we do to empower them? what can we do to make this country safer? >> i would say a few things. one is to find out which organizations in washington are doing work in these areas. could they be more powerful if they had more help?

whenever health means, try to figure how to match that. is that volunteering time? is that legal aid? go to people at georgetown law school. if that is food -- try to figure out what specific needs are and which of those you can really help. the second thing is that i believe that it matters who is in public office. [applause] homelessness is an issue that actually is treated radically differently across our country. there are some issues where there are nuances. homelessness is an issue of radical differences based on who is sitting in the mayor's office.

it is partially a local issue. there are some areas where there's been tremendous rugrats in the housing movement. in triaging the most vulnerable people and ensuring that the most vulnerable are moved into housing and that social services are coalescing around people who of the moved into housing. it make sure that they stay in housing and that they are self-supporting able to continue housing of. find out what is working. convince your local representatives to focus on that all. if they are not focused on it, try to move them out of office.

if you cannot find someone else who is doing what you think should be done then think about running for office yourself. [applause] >> thank you. thanks a lot for coming here and speaking to us. i was curious about what inspired you to get up every day and do what you do. you have done a lot of great things that inspired a lot of us. we are very honored to have you with us. what inspires you to work for what you do today? >> my parents inspire me. partly because they continue to serve. i find it very inspiring. people continue to believe that they have a contribution to make. they find ways in which to make

it all. my ultimate inspiration was my grandmother all. yesterday would have been her 95th birthday. she passed away to 2.5 years ago. she was my mother's mother and she was born to to teenage parents. she had been abandoned twice by the age of -- at 13, she had been kicked out of her grandparent' house. she had to start earning herself. i could not imagine that. i cannot imagine being kicked out at 13. her mantra was not about what

happens to you, but about what you do with what happens to you. [applause] i really believe that. it is about the challenges and the opportunities. it is about figuring out which challenges can become opportunities. her life was a testament to the fact that it was not just rhetoric, but motivation. even though she had not had any model in her own life for her own family of way healthy, supportive family looked like, that is what she created for my mother and my own goals. she viewed in my mother this sense that she could do anything all. for my grandmother, who was born before women had the right to vote, the fact that she lived long enough to be able to vote for her daughter as president and the fact that it was her own believe in her ability to see the best and make the best and do the best that enable that, it is remarkable to me.

i think about her every day. whenever i'm feeling discouraged, i think that it is not acceptable. what should i be doing? [applause] >> it looks like we have time for one more question. >> i am stephanie and i go to the university of arizona. my question started out of a conversation that happened in 2014 this past march. i was talking to other girls and we started talking about public speaking. it applies mostly to this conference because we are talking about women. as we have more student leaders, we will have to have -- we will have to learn how to public speak more. she said she was at a conference or workshop and the women were

saying how they purposely make their voices lower so that people will take her more seriously while public again -- public speaking. i think that idea and she told me about it has fascinated me. it made me question how other people view me when i'm talking to them all. i know when i talk about something that i'm passionate about, my voice gets high and i talk fast. do you think that hurts us? do you think we need to confirm to certain models of people will take us more seriously? >> that is a great question. it has implications and relatives far beyond public speaking. this comes up in the way that we dress and the way that we cut our hair and whether we were makeup in our body type. how we sound over the telephone or how we sound in a one-on-one conversation. how we walk, how we set. -- how we sit. i could go on. i think that the unfortunate reality is that it is both. i think it would be disingenuous to pretend otherwise.

i think if we do want to be taken seriously and if we want to be leaders, part of being a leader is being taken seriously. at least by the people you're trying to lead. i think we have to be candid about what people's preconceptions are leadership and how far we can push those. once we are accepted we need to push them further. it is not just about the situation so much as it is about strategy. you should never go so far as to when you feel inauthentic. he should never make so many sacrifices to dampen who you are

to such a point that you are not able to be yourself. if you are not yourself, you will not be able to be the authentic warrior that you are trying to be on whatever path you are trying to march down. authenticity can never be overestimated for how hard it is to credibility. it is a balance. i think now is when you should be experimenting with what that balance is. if lowering your voice are being aware of not going into a superhigh registry doesn't feel uncomfortable to you and you realize that people are looking at you more seriously, that is ok. if it feels uncomfortable to you, then find another way to

get people to take you seriously and listen to the substance of what you are saying all. not just the tone in which you are -- i hope that people will give you honest feedback. some of the best feedback they ever got was when i was working at mckinsey and one of the partners i was working for at the time, it was my first engagement and i had been there two months, he said, you have. i said, i am so sorry. [laughter] he said, you habitually apologize for everything. you should not apologize for 99% of the things that you apologize people are not going take you seriously.