Lois Frankel: “I thank Representative Speier. I will tell you what, it is really hard to follow those remarks. I think all of us--all…”

“I thank Representative Speier. I will tell you what, it is really hard to follow those remarks. I think all of us--all Americans--really all people around the world who have been following the brutality of Putin's war, our hearts are breaking. I thank the gentlewoman for highlighting the special plight of the women. As I said, it is almost hard to talk about anything after that, but I do want to say this. For about 200 years women have been fighting for rights, for rights that White men and then eventually Black men had, but we are still fighting for them. I was just thinking back to my own childhood--and probably your childhood, too. They had limits on how many girls could get into law school or medical school; there were no sport scholarships available. If you were a married woman, you could only get credit in your husband's name. Abortion was illegal. Equal pay was not even a concept. We did finally get the right to vote after women were arrested and chained themselves to the White House. So if you look back in history, we have been fighting very hard to get our rights. I want to thank Representative Jackson Lee, she has highlighted some of the victories over the years and some of the women who led the way, whether it was with Title IX or Roe v. Wade, or the bill that was just celebrated today by the President, the Equal Pay Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act. A lot has been done, but, wait, they are all in jeopardy.…”