Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate Women's History Month by highlighting the exemplary life of Frances E. Willard. Frances Willard earned her place in history by pioneering the temperance movement, breaking barriers in the field of education and leading the movement to obtain women's right to vote. Her suffrage arguments hinged on her feminist interpretation of Scripture. She said: ``God sets male and female side by side throughout His realm.'' Although Frances was born in Churchville, New York, in 1839, she quickly made her way to my hometown of Evanston, Illinois, where, among other things, she was the first woman college president in the country to confer degrees, the second president of the national Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and a founder of the National Council of Women. In 1905, the great State of Illinois chose to honor her memory by making her the first woman whose statue appears in the National Statuary Hall Collection. That statue still stands today--just a few feet from us--where she is now a constant reminder of the powerful role of women in American history. This Women's History Month, let us honor the lives of women like Frances Willard who came before us to create equality for women by helping to give us the right to vote, and let's do it by expanding that role. When women succeed, America succeeds. ____________________”