‘We Remember Molly Yard and Recommit to Continue the Struggle for Social Justice and Equality for Every Person'

‘We Remember Molly Yard and Recommit to Continue the Struggle for Social Justice and Equality for Every Person'

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Washington, D.C. - House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi spoke at a Capitol Hill memorial service this afternoon honoring feminist Molly Yard, who passed away on September 21. Pelosi's remarks are below:

"I am honored to join so many important people here, starting with the family of Molly Yard. Ellie Smeal introduced them already, and I want to acknowledge and thank them for sharing Molly Yard with us. She made a significant contribution to our country and a big difference in the lives of so many people here. I am so pleased to see so many young women here who appreciate Molly Yard.

"It is great to join Senator Barbara Boxer and my Senator Harry Reid and so many others who will speak to celebrate the life and contributions of Molly Yard.

"When Molly Yard was born in Shanghai in 1912, her Methodist missionary parents were given a brass washbin by city leaders. A brass washbin as a consolation prize for having a daughter, rather than a son. What an emblematic incident. It's almost as a little baby she could say, ‘I don't think so.' Molly would grow to become a woman undeterred by society's lower expectations for girls. Instead, she would change everyone's expectations and she would become a champion in doing so and would open doors wide for all daughters.

"When Eleanor Roosevelt said, ‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,' she had to be thinking of Molly Yard. Because Molly was a dreamer. She was also what I would call a ‘disruptive thinker.' She knew how to challenge the status quo because she knew that was necessary for change, and indeed change was necessary.

"This started when she was very young. She was fighting for equal participation for women in sports when she was in high school and led a campaign when she was in college against sororities that discriminated against Jewish students. Create change, she definitely did.

"Intent on making huge strides for women's equality, Molly joined NOW, the National Organization of Women. Now. Martin Luther King talked about "the fierce urgency of now." How long must women wait for equality? We want it now. Molly was saying that for over a generation.

"She worked for women's equality in higher education, the workplace, and in politics. Later, as Executive Director, Molly would later take NOW to new heights - organizing women to stand up for their rights, lifting up their voices, and creating a lasting movement for equality. I agree with Barbara Boxer: she ranks up there with the suffragettes in her contribution in the empowerment of women. Her decade-long efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and her successful fight against attempts to weaken Title IX made certain her role as a founding mother of modern society. And of course, we all know of her work in protecting the right to choose.

"Molly Yard spent so much time walking the unforgiving marble halls of Congress that she developed permanent nerve damage in her feet. But with every step she took, she moved women closer to having a seat at the table. It is Molly Yard, through her unrelenting quest for equality, who ensured women would break through the marble ceilings of Congress, much tougher than the glass ceilings, but because of Molly it became easier.

"My own personal relationship with Molly was one that I really treasure. It was at the time we were all working together on so many issues. I'm going back a generation and a half. You have to know that when women said they were going to do something, they were going to run for office, they were going to try for this. People would always tell them about the obstacles, but not Molly. She would say, ‘Go for it, let's do it, let's get out there together, what can we do?'

"You know the word ‘encourage?' It means ‘to give courage.' I thought I could do anything I set out to do after I had a conversation with Molly Yard. I know she had the same impact on all of you. Whether you could do it or not you had to try to do it. You had to make the fight to advance the cause, to promote the issue, to achieve the success, whatever it happened to be at the time.

"Always lifting up the voices of women, magnifying their voices, Molly was a powerful voice on all issues of the day. She brought her feminist perspective to issues like the environment and the peace movement. There wasn't any aspect of our society that she viewed wasn't a women's issue and weighed in and made a difference.

"In 1987, Molly Yard said: ‘Some things never change. The belief in social justice is a continuing concern.' She knew that it was an unending fight. It was always one that we had to persist in. She said, ‘It comes right out of the Judeo-Christian ethic. That does not change.'

"So today we remember Molly and celebrate her magnificent life and that incredible personality. We also recommit to continue the struggle for social justice, to honor that unflagging determination of Molly Yard, to achieve equality for every person and recommit to the ideal that women can do anything, not despite their gender, but because of who they are - and thank Molly Yard for how far she brought us in this struggle.

"We say thank you to Molly, and carry her work forward. That is her legacy; that was her dream. I am honored to be part of her ceremony today. Thank you so much."

http://democraticleader.house.gov/press/articles.cfm?pressReleaseID=1280