The State of Feminism

I'm Marianne Schnall's daughter, so I'm like older Gen Z. My entire life, I've had feminism in a way that so many people have not, through watching my mom truly wake up in the morning and think about what she can do to help others and to help amplify the voices of marginalized folks, and do that from literally the moment she goes to bed and sometimes can't go to bed because she's so wired thinking about all that she wants to do. So I am full of gratitude for so many people in this room, as well, who have helped her amplify and have been partners.

I've worked in politics for most of my career. I saw the experience of a lot of activists, and I said, "We need people outside fighting, and we also need people inside." So I tried to take up the mantle to do as much as possible. My mom wrote a book, pre-Hillary Clinton, which probably many of you know, called What Will It Take to Make a Woman President? I read that book as a high schooler, and one line that really stood out to me was, in so many interviews, the fact that women are more likely to build consensus. And I think in this moment where we're seeing extreme polarization and we're seeing extremism and echo chambers and just division overall, the ability of bipartisan women senators get in a room and they try to talk about their common ground — that is something that feels so unique to the ability of women. To try and think about how we can build collective power, but also work across all of this division that's here right now in such an extreme way that I think my generation is feeling immensely. And I think that feminism, in empowering women to transcend to higher positions of power, whether that's in corporate or electoral or in any sort of shape — there’s a lot of us at the bottom, but not at the top. So also having that real authentic mentorship to get there, is really important and is something that I think that feminism and women uniquely bring to the table.

These remarks have been edited for clarity and length.