United States of America

When I arrived at the Capitol in 2007 to take my oath as a new member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I had the privilege of filling the seat held for so long and so well by my friend Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress. I was so grateful to her.
I felt Patsy’s presence when I cast my first vote in Congress, which was to elect Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House. I rose and said, “In memory of Patsy Mink, I cast my vote for Nancy Pelosi.”

A gathering of Washington's most important military leaders doesn't seem like the obvious place to champion the cause of increasing women's power around the world. Nor does Hillary Clinton seem like the obvious choice for an award from the National Defense University.

Former President Bill Clinton said Monday he would like to see a female president, but he has “no idea” if his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, will run in 2016.

“I hope we have a woman president in my lifetime, and I think it would be a good thing for the world as well as for America,” Clinton said at a conference in China, according to Agence France-Presse.

What, I wonder, explains the gender gap in political corruption?

Women make up almost 20 percent of the current Congress, according to the Center for American Women and Politics, but they don’t come anywhere near that proportion when we are talking about scandals on Capitol Hill.

Will it take breaking news of a female lawmaker doing something truly stupid like former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s tweeting self-portraits of his private parts to strangers to know we are beginning to achieve gender equality?

Hillary Clinton's near-tear on the eve of the 2008 New Hampshire primary was a political game-changer.

"I couldn't do it if I didn't just passionately believe it was the right thing to do," Clinton told a local resident. "I have so many opportunities from this country and I just don't want to see us fall backwards as a nation. This is very personal for me."