I think in a society where you can't even pass the Equal Rights Amendment, it's very difficult to women make a progress. Incidentally, we are exactly 160 years after the very first women's public rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, when a handful of women started it all and began the movement to make women equal.

The reports that Media Matters have done about sexism in our society and really the mainstream media called Hillary Clinton "castrating," they called her the B word, they called her all kinds of horrible things. And I think in a sense that it raised the awareness in our country, so that we can have a national discussion about it.

I asked, "What do you think the most important advancement was for women in recent years?" And the majority, the item that polled the most, was Hillary Clinton's run for President. Can you believe that? Women saw that as a breakthrough in something very, very important. She didn't win. And I think another thing that her race did was it showed sexism in our society.

I would say that the race of Hillary Clinton was very important to this country, because it showed that a woman could win the state, that a woman could raise money. I think that every woman is sitting a little taller, not only in our own country, but I think women around the world watch what's happening in the United States.

I was proud to be an original cosponsor of the Violence Against Women Act when Congress passed it in 1994, and was proud to support the previous renewals in 2000 and 2005. These bills always enjoyed large, bipartisan support.

I have always been supported by the men in my life, which is why I think I've been successful in many of my endeavors. My father believed I could do anything. He even wrote to Al Gore and told him that he thought I should be his vice president.

I think that changing stereotypes and attitudes, it takes time. As we progress and we have more women astronauts and more women in construction sites and everything else, then we're making progress. Discrimination is deeply embedded in our community, but we do have the tools to combat it.