Hillary Rodham Clinton launches the new World Questions event series at King's College London

By Navjyot Lehl

In a speech to the United Nations Women’s conference in Beijing in 1995, the first lady at the time— Hillary Rodham Clinton— uttered that now iconic phrase “Women’s rights are human rights”. To mark what will be the 25th anniversary of the speech next year, King’s College London welcomed the former US secretary of State, and the first female presidential candidate of a major US political party, for an amazing conversation with the chair, Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia, as part of the #worldquestions event series. The series is aiming to promote new perspectives, insights and solutions from global leaders.

The conversation began with the impetus that drove Clinton to make that speech. The collapse of the Berlin wall 6 years earlier and the rise of New Labour in the UK meant that new energy had come to the forum.  “People were ready to speak up and speak out” she recalls. The rise of technology in particular the internet, was deemed to be a refreshing innovation that could transform the way we communicate and a platform to spread the message of gender equality.

With the incumbent US president pontificating hate and vitriol (in many cases towards women) and the prominence of the #MeToo movement, Julia Gillard was led to ask Ms Clinton ‘what happened?’ First, going back to 2001, Ms Clinton explains how terrorism fuelled hate. Anyone who was seen as sympathetic or in any way providing facts was instantly seen as a target. Second, the flow of immigration changed the mapping of people and created a vituperative atmosphere. Third, former president Barack Obama’s ambitious plans to improve the country’s health care plans caused a political earthquake, and was criticised from both the left and the right. Fourth, we now live in a very divided world where Brexit has created an identity crisis, between leavers and remainers that is set to dominate politics for many years ahead. And lastly, the rise of social media has changed the way humans interact with each other. As she puts it “It’s seen as a source of anxiety and depression.” Algorithms cause conflict and conspiracy theories which lead to addiction and this takes place in a country where 50% of Americans get their news from Facebook.  All of this put together have provided a fertile breeding ground for haters.

The discussion was supported by new global research conducted by the Global Institute for Women’s leadership and Ipsos Mori which looks at what helps or hinders women’s equality.  Ms Clinton argues that the biggest worry she has is how we are missing out on great opportunities especially in big economies like the UK and US. She believes “diversity is our friend not our adversary” and suggests supporting great universities, research and innovation will mean countries can show the kind of creativity and vision that can fuel positive effects around the world.

You can watch the full conversation here and read Hilary Clinton’s new book ‘Gutsy Women’ co- authored with her daughter Chelsea Clinton.