I've been here a long time working for women. These are long years and this is an unusual legislator.

I'm not a prejudice person, and I've worked with many male legislators and some have been excellent for us, so I'm not speaking against a class of people.

In New York that probably has more lawyers per square foot than any other state in the union, more women lawyers. I mean, it to me shocking that this can happen in 2008, but fortunately, you had a governor who was sensitive enough to this outrage that he pointed it out to the nation, and is trying to do something about it.

Well we didn't look at it like that. We looked at it: "Why Carolyn Maloney?" Of course, we didn't know about Caroline Kennedy, but we do know and have - this is not against somebody, this is for somebody who we know has had a proven record. It's 16 years in the House, 10 years on the City Council of New York City, that she has shown her determination to pass legislation. She is - she knows how a legislature works.

Carolyn Maloney has been a consistent fighter for Afghan women but also for International Family Planning Bills.

I've known Carolyn [Maloney] for years, by the way. I knew her when she was on the City Council and knew her when she was - when she was running, and we endorsed her very early when she ran for Congress, yet I didn't know some of the stories in here of herself and her struggle, and - and she makes a very - you know, it's - it pulls your heart as well as - but it's very practical.

Nowhere have women been more excluded from decision-making than in the military and foreign affairs. When it comes to the military and questions of nuclear disarmament, the gender gap becomes the gender gulf.