We have to have a Women's Equal Representation Act to help women get elected to public office. And we need a Women's Equality Act which for starters lifts caps on sex discrimination damage awards, extends the statute of limitations on sex discrimination cases, applies to the military and to all benefit programs including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and guarantees equality for girls and women in all public education programs. Because of the suffragists and because of the modern-day women's movement, we do have the power of the gender gap, and we cannot allow it to be trivialized. We've got to make sure that vote registers, and we have got to make sure it guarantees us full rights so that one day we share equal decision-making with men everywhere. Following the speech Smeal took questions from members of the press.
Race does factor in quite importantly.
On the gender gap domestically, it is influenced a lot by race. Black women, Latinas, support women's rights issues more than white women. I believe once you have been discriminated against on the basis of race and ethnicity, you get discrimination. Some of us who haven't experienced quite that intensity of discrimination could maybe explain it away a little bit. But once you've felt it, you get it.