On May 31, 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to iVillage President Deborah Fine about issues facing women today, from the political to the personal. Read on for the results of our exclusive interview:
We recently launched iVillage Cares in the spirit of helping 17 million iVillagers work for change on the issues that matter to them. What are the issues you care about most on a personal level, and what are the issues that you care about on behalf of women?
SECRETARY RICE: It may sound strange for a Secretary of State to say, because obviously there are a lot of issues that I'm concerned about, but I'm more concerned than anything about freedom for people. I believe that individuals are only able to completely reach their potential in societies that are free and societies that are tolerant. And I have also come to believe that in places where you have an absence of freedom, you're going to have the emergence of extremism. That then comes back to haunt us in terms of national security, whether it's a place like Afghanistan, from which al-Qaeda came to haunt us on September 11th, or what could happen in Iraq if we do not see through the task of helping to secure a foundation for freedom there. I think freedom is very much at the core of both what is right and what makes us more secure.
On behalf of women — and in fact for all people, but particularly on behalf of women — I am just a tremendous advocate of educational opportunity. And I mean broad opportunity, not just to sit in a classroom and learn math and science and languages. That's very important, but for instance, consider opportunity in sports, which helps create team-building skills. I'm a big advocate of Title IX. I think it's made a huge difference in our society. I graduated from college in 1974 and Title IX came about in 1974, the next fall. For somebody like me, whose gymnastics group had to have a bake sale in order to be able to go and compete, you can imagine what Title IX means. I see its impact cascading from universities into high schools and into elementary schools. So when I talk about educational opportunity, I mean, broadly, opportunity to pursue extracurricular activities like music and sports as well.
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