We're going to school for higher education in higher numbers, but the numbers still show we're not breaking though the glass ceiling. For every Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton there are millions of women stuck in cement on the floor that are not getting up.

The proposal that men and women should be treated equally under the law is hardly a controversial concept.

Where are the women? The women are here.

A friend of mine was married to an assistant church pastor who regularly beat her up. He was smart ?- he'd do it in a way that the bruises didn't show. For the longest time, she dealt with it. Who would believe the minister was a wife beater?! Meanwhile, my friend ? - An attorney! ? - Suffered in silence.

More women are working because they have to, that's what it takes to put the food on the table and pay the rent. And yet we have not changed our policies to support the family. The right wing goes to the floor, and they did when they were in power, and talk about family values. Well, where are they? Family values is support for child care. Family values is equal pay for equal work so that women are paid appropriately.

One of my mentors was Patricia Schroeder, and one night she came to me on the floor and she said to me, "Why are we sitting in Congress, when a lot of women would try to do it and couldn't? Why are we here and others aren't?" And I thought back and said it was because my father believed in me and she said the same thing, she said her father believed in her and thought she could do anything.

Because it's important. Laws can be reversed, Supreme Court decisions can be overturned, gender classifications can continue.