Cokie Roberts tells students women’s struggle isn’t over

Ms. Roberts urges women not to become complacent.

By: Jennifer Potash
   Women have come a long way in gaining parity in voting booths and in the workplace, but that doesn’t mean the struggle is over, according to Cokie Roberts of ABC News.
   "It’s important for women in times like this to keep these issues of reaching out to others and making sure the lives of our families and children in our country are improved," she said. "It’s important in a time like this that we need women to stay focused on it, particularly women of faith, because that is our charge."
   Ms. Roberts gave the inaugural Caroline Dawson Lecture Series at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart on Monday. The series is in memory of Caroline Dawson ’89, who died of melanoma last year at the age of 28. Ms. Dawson had received recognition for her commitment to the service of others while at Stuart. A teacher, she continued to tutor students during the last months of her life.
   Co-anchor of the ABC News program "This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts," Ms. Roberts also is a special correspondent for ABC News covering politics, Congress and public policy.
   Ms. Roberts was born into a political family. Her father, Hale Boggs Sr., served as a congressman from Louisiana until his death in a plane crash in 1973. Her mother, Lindy Boggs, was appointed to fill her husband’s term and won the seat in subsequent elections. Ms. Boggs recently completed her term as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
   Ms. Roberts’ older sister, Barbara Boggs Sigmund, was the mayor of Princeton Borough.
   Speaking to Stuart’s all-female Upper School students, Ms. Roberts urged them not to become complacent about fighting for issues important to women.
   While women won the right to vote in 1920, she said, it wasn’t until 1980 that they were taken seriously as a voting block. Also, women legislators had to be persistent to get legislative victories on issues like child care, health care and education, she said.
   "It was like Chinese water torture," she said.
   While derided as a "mommy issue," a ban on assault weapons passed Congress due to the strong support by female legislators of both political parties, Ms. Roberts said.
   In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Ms. Roberts said she could think of no better "mommy issue" than national security "to ensure the safety of their children and the safety of generations of children to come."
   During times of crisis, women candidates for political office can be overlooked, Ms. Roberts said. During the Gulf War in 1990, several strong women candidates "fell off the face of the earth," she said.
   When asked if a woman would be elected president soon, Ms. Roberts said the more likely possibility is a female vice president.
   "And then something happens to the guy. Women have gotten a lot through inheritance and that works fine for me," she said, adding that she wishes no harm to any male president.
   Ms. Roberts also recalled her sister’s early days as a Latin teacher at Stuart in the late 1960s.
   "She didn’t know any Latin and had to stay one chapter ahead of the students," Ms. Roberts said.
   Mayor Sigmund died in 1990 of cancer.
   Stuart Middle and Lower School students lined the hallways to continue a Sacred Heart tradition of waving white handkerchiefs to visiting dignitaries.
   Ms. Roberts, who graduated from Wellesley College, is an alumna of a Sacred Heart school — Stone Ridge Country Day School in Washington, D.C.