Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts produced and hosts a special show during Mother’s Day on TlC. It features five brilliant women and a shared connection — their kids. Here we feature Hillary Clinton
One races across deserts to raise money for her cause. Another represents USA around the world. Still another puts musical instruments in kids hands. Each is tenacious, dedicated and remarkable. One thing they have in common is that they all are mothers.
Margaret Martin, Rosie O Donnell, Hilary Clinton, Christiane Amanpour and Mavisha Akbar are all part of a show airing on TlC this Sunday called Extraordinary Moms. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was responsible for carrying out foreign policy around the world. She worked 14 hours a day. Her routine was filled with meetings, high-level negotiations with world leaders, conference calls and crisis management. She travelled over 350,000 miles, juggling different agendas with intelligence and energy.
Hillary Clinton was born after World War II, and her mother was of the kind of Betty Friedan Feminine Mystique generation. She raised her kids independently, like Baby Boomer daughters.
To really question authority, and question a girl’s place. And when she went to college, there were a lot of colleges still that were all-male or all-female for that matter; so she had to maneuver through the obstacles that were still put in the way of young women.
She changed things at Wellesley by being the first student in the college’s history to give a speech at graduation in 1969.
She changed things as a young lawyer in the 70s by helping to write laws protecting rights of children.
After Chelsea was born in 1980, Hillary became even more determined to speak out on behalf of women and girls everywhere, because now the future of women was the future of her daughter.
Thinking about Chelsea and the world she would inherit, in 1995 as First lady she delivered a ground-breaking speech at the UN’s women’s conference in Beijing.
When she was being confirmed as Secretary of State, she insisted on making women’s rights an integral part of US foreign policy. She was the first Secretary of State to do so.
Her inspiration is Dorothy Rodham, her own extraordinary mom. One of her personal inspirations. She had really young parents, and they couldn’t take care of her. They sent her and her little sister across the country alone on a train at the age of eight, (in charge of a four-year-old), to live with her grandparents. Ms Rodham went to work at 13 in someone’s home and became self-sufficient.
Chelsea has probably been one of the greatest teachers for Hillary Clinton. She remembers when Chelsea was literally an infant and she just wouldn’t stop crying, she said, “look, you’ve never been a baby before, and I’ve never been a mother before. We’re going to have to work this out together.”
And that’s kind of the way it was. Its like, “Okay I’m helping you. You need to help me so we can help each other.”
Chelsea’s wedding was one of the great experiences, as Ms Clinton was sharing it with her mother.
Hillary Clinton got married in 1975 and bought her dress off the rack with 15 people present. So Ms Clinton and her mother were excited organising everything. She thinks one can be Secretary of State, or very successful movie star, but at the end of the day what matters is your kids.
The show is at 8 pm.