Celebrating Women: A Note from Congresswoman Doris Matsui

This entry is part of a series in celebration of Women's History Month.

Watching Hillary, one cannot help but feel a sense that this is a momentous campaign. Every day, Hillary is making history, reaching out to people all across America and breaking down barriers, but I also know that Hillary understands the importance of all the historic women who came before her.

There is a Jane Addams quote that I've heard Hillary use from time to time, "The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us." Jane Addams, who spent her life trying to better the world of the urban poor, was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She began her work long before women were even granted the right to vote, but even today, 100 years later women across America still lack the basic securities Jane sought to provide - health care, child care, quality education. For too many, they remain promises unfulfilled.

So while we can and should celebrate Women's History Month for all that we have accomplished, we must remember all that still needs to be done. America is ahead of the times in so many ways.

Throughout history, we have worked to celebrate our differences and encourage equality, but we are still far behind much of the world. In the House and Senate, women are by far a minority of legislators and we have yet to see a woman in the oval office.

One of the reasons I'm supporting Hillary is that I want to see that barrier broken. But more importantly, I want our president to help break down the barriers for all those Americans whose voices have been ignored for the past eight years and whose needs have only grown.

Hillary's campaign is historic because she is a woman running for president. Hillary's administration will be historic because I believe that, in the tradition of Jane Addams, Hillary will work "for all of us." That is a future I will celebrate.