Less than a week after former secretary of state Madeleine Albright implied “there’s a special place in hell” for young women voters who aren’t backing Hillary Clinton in 2016, she apologized for the remarks in a New York Times op-ed.
“I have spent much of my career as a diplomat. It is an occupation in which words and context matter a great deal. So one might assume I know better than to tell a large number of women to go to hell,” Albright opened the column.
Albright said at a Clinton campaign event before the New Hampshire primary, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” which was widely read as her arguing that women should back Clinton solely for her gender.
But Albright wrote that while she “absolutely” believes women should help one another, she used the oft-repeated line in “the wrong context and the wrong time.”
“In a society where women often feel pressured to tear one another down, our saving grace lies in our willingness to lift one another up,” Albright wrote. “And while young women may not want to hear anything more from this aging feminist, I feel it is important to speak to women coming of age at a time when a viable female presidential candidate, once inconceivable, is a reality.”
Clinton defended Albright’s remarks in Thursday’s Democratic debate, and noted it was the first primary debate ever where women were in the majority on stage.
