Mara D’Amico (Photo by Robert Fogarty)
Dear Clinton is a collection of photographs and letters explaining what public service bridge our students are building. This special collection was produced in partnership with Dear World, an innovative photography venture for social good.
Dear President Clinton,
In her remarks at the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, Hillary Clinton declared that “human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights”. Although women and men around the world have made significant strides in recent decades toward greater levels of gender parity, a significant amount of work remains to be done. Issues such as parental leave, daycare, violence against women, infant mortality, and the gender wage gap are frequently thought of as being women’s issues. I believe that framing these issues as something of interest only to women is limiting our ability to have a real and lasting impact on gender parity. Without including men in the work to prevent and address violence against women, we will never achieve the goal of ending this type of gendered violence.
Through my public service work and during my time at the Clinton School of Public Service, I have gained a nuanced understanding of how violence against women can impact whole families and communities. I have seen how violence has changed the lives of my loved ones. I have worked with women in shelters to take back control of their own lives as they are escaping violent relationships. I have gained perspective on how a prison sentence for a violent crime can impact the life of someone who has been abusive. I have seen the ramifications of violence and machismo on families in a community in Nicaragua. I have worked to ensure that these human rights issues are part of the discussion at the policy level in the Arkansas state legislature.
Through my public service experiences and with the skills I am learning at the Clinton School of Public Service, I have tried to broaden the conversation and more effectively include men in discussions about what is typically thought of as being women’s issues. By reframing these women’s issues as issues of human rights, we can collectively have a more sustainable and powerful impact. These aren’t matters that just impact half of the world’s population; they impact every single person on this planet, making it necessary that every person plays a role in addressing these problems. We should indeed celebrate the many steps forward that we’ve taken about domestic violence, gender discrimination, perpetuated gender norms, and many other related arenas. But we must continue to broaden the conversation to ensure that we continue moving forward together toward a greater level of parity.
Thank you,
Mara