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State's Hughes Says Women's Empowerment Critical to U.S. Agenda

Under Secretary of State Karen Hughes at a USAID-sponsored reception Wednesday, March 8. (State Dept. photo - Janine Sides)

By Lauren Monsen
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The United States believes that women's empowerment is essential to strengthening democracy and advancing the development of countries around the globe, says Karen Hughes, U.S. under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.

Speaking March 8 at a Washington event marking International Women's Day, Hughes said, "President Bush has made empowering women a priority" and has appointed a record number of women, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to senior positions and is working for women’s rights globally.

"America is a leader in promoting women's rights because we know that by investing in women, we are in investing in a better, more hopeful and more peaceful world," said Hughes.  "When you educate women, they share that knowledge with their children, families and communities, so when you invest in women, almost every other statistic in a society improves."

Hughes cited a number of U.S.-supported initiatives that benefit women, including microfinance projects that help alleviate poverty by enabling women to start their own businesses and training for women entrepreneurs.

The United States currently is involved in programs to increase the participation of women in Middle Eastern societies, Hughes said.  She pointed to a partnership between the Microsoft Corporation and the International Institute of Education to train up to 1,000 women in the United Arab Emirates in computer and information technology skills. This program, she said, will be a “model for similar programs in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and Iraq."

Women in Africa also are taking on larger roles in their own societies, she said.  Hailing African women as peacemakers who strive to settle disputes in their communities, Hughes explained that in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, women have traveled to contested grazing areas, "reaching out to youth with a message of stopping violence and spreading peace."

Liberia, Hughes said, is undergoing a dramatic transformation, after years of civil war that produced abductions, torture and rape, with 250,000 lives lost.  During the civil war, "an estimated one in every 10 [Liberian] children was recruited into militias," said Hughes.  "Today, children are back in school, with books instead of guns in their hands.  Courageous women have begun the task of nurturing society back to health -- and leading the way is Liberia's first-ever woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf."

Hughes said she soon will travel to Santiago with the secretary of state to attend the inauguration of Michelle Bachelet as president of Chile.  She praised Bachelet as an inspiring figure who has suffered enormous hardship and is now working to heal divisions in her country. (See related article.)

Similarly, women leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan who have witnessed hate and violence "now have the opportunity to transform their countries into places of freedom and peace," said Hughes.

She applauded the efforts of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is joining forces with local officials in the developing world to improve the lives of ordinary citizens.  USAID personnel are "helping nearly two million women protect their babies from HIV in Africa, rehabilitating more than 60 primary health-care clinics in Iraq and providing basic health services to nearly 4 million women and children in Afghanistan, focusing especially on reducing maternal and child mortality," she said.

Substantial American support is enabling more than 5 million children to attend school in Afghanistan, Hughes added.  "More than a third of these are girls," she pointed out.  And in Africa, "one of the primary goals of the President's Education Initiative is to enroll more girls in school," she said.  At the same time, U.S. funds help support a new community center in Angola that teaches basic literacy skills, "and the women learn more than literacy: they learn about human rights and political participation," said Hughes.

Hughes placed particular emphasis on the importance of women's growing involvement in the political process.  "In Kuwait, a brave woman named Roula al-Dashti spoke out to the men leading her country with a compelling message: 'half a democracy is not a democracy,'" Hughes said.  "She challenged the status quo, recruited student leaders from Kuwait University to join her cause and helped women gain the right to vote and run for office in Kuwait."

Hughes also quoted Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen of India, best known for his work on welfare economics.  Sen "argued that nothing is more important for development today than the economic, political and social participation of women," Hughes said.  “I agree, and I’m proud that America is standing at the side of women throughout the world, ready to support and partner with them as they make their own choices, raise their own voices and find their own way to a brighter, more hopeful future for themselves and their families.”

For information on U.S. observances of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, see Women in the United States.

The full text of Hughes’ remarks is available on the State Department Web site.

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