Kendrick Meek: “We definitely appreciate the contributions of women. If it weren't for women, there would be no men. And the way I look…”

“We definitely appreciate the contributions of women. If it weren't for women, there would be no men. And the way I look at it, being a mamma's boy, Madam Speaker, and I will admit to that even though I am a big rusty Congressman now, we appreciate all the contributions of women. And it is definitely good having women in the House, in this House, and in the U.S. Senate. I think it is also important to reflect on the future, the opportunities. We talk about innovation here within our caucus. We look for a bipartisan way of approaching that to make sure that we can have more engineers. There are very few women engineers that are in higher education right now, and we have to make sure that they have access and opportunity. We do not want women or men to go overseas to work when we should have jobs here in the United States of America. So when I look at the opportunities and the success that women have had in the past, I know that in the future we still have to fight and make sure that we have inclusion, and that is important. Madam Speaker, I am also proud to say that there are a number of individuals, younger girls, that are trying to develop themselves right now educationally, and we need to make sure that we provide them opportunities for the arts, opportunities in the area of physical education, and to allow a childhood to be broader than just taking a standardized test. And that creativity is going to be important.…”