Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced support for Oscar winning actress Patricia Arquette’s speech demanding equal pay for equal work in the United States.
“I think we all cheered at Patricia Arquette’s speech at the Oscars because she’s right — it’s time to have wage equality once and for all,” Clinton said in a speech at the Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women.
During an interview portion of the event, Clinton explained to Re/Code’s Kara Swisher that the tech industry is a “Wild West” atmosphere that favors men.
“I think a lot of women find that distasteful, unappealing to be in a situation sort of resembling a locker room in some ways where you just feel like it’s hard to get your voice in, it’s hard to be heard,” she explained.
Clinton claimed that often, women speak their ideas and are ignored until a man comes up with the same idea 20 minutes later and is recognized.
“I’ve had that experience a lot of times,” she said, pointing out that politics has many of the same problems.
She encouraged women to “gird up” for support systems in their workplace calling for both men and women to speak up about the inequality in the industry.
“Men have to be more sensitive to, more interested in creating this environment,” she declared.
Clinton called for women in the public arena to prepare defensive tactics for discriminatory behavior and encouraged them to develop a think skin.
“Develop a thick skin,” she advised. “My favorite predecessor Eleanor Roosevelt said that women in the public arena have to grow skin as thick as the hide of a rhinoceros.”
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