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Sen. Gillibrand’s book aims to highlight broader challenges for women

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) speaks at a news conference in July about legislation aimed at curbing sexual assaults on college campuses.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) speaks at a news conference in July about legislation aimed at curbing sexual assaults on college campuses.
(Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) says she wrote her new book to encourage more women to raise their voices in the workplace and get involved in politics.

But it has been the book’s passages about sexist and otherwise inappropriate remarks allegedly made by male members of Congress that have gained widespread attention.

Gillibrand wrote that male lawmakers commented about her weight and appearance. After the birth of her second child, one told her she looked “porky.” Another senator told her not to lose too much weight because he liked “his girls chubby.”

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“For me those comments didn’t affect me because these kinds of things happen all the time, and honestly they happen in all industries and at every stage in your career,” she said Wednesday night during an appearance in Washington to promote the book. “I use those specific examples to illustrate this broader challenge of what do women face in the workplace.”

She said during her 2006 congressional campaign, her opponent initially described her as “just a pretty face … intimating [she] was too stupid to be a member of Congress.”

Gillibrand, who has declined to identify the colleagues in Congress who made offensive remarks, said generational differences could help explain them, suggesting older men may not be as sensitized to potentially sexist statements.

Gillibrand highlighted the importance of mentoring and role models. She said that watching Hillary Clinton deliver a speech in Beijing at the Fourth World Conference on Women inspired her to get involved in politics.

“I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to do something in public service,” she said. “I was almost embarrassed to admit that I wanted to run for office some day.”

Gillibrand hopes that more women will get elected to office. She emphasized that women have a greater tendency to try to find common ground, and recalled her own experiences working with former Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to pass a 9/11 health bill.

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“It’s one of the reasons why politically I work so hard to get women elected,” she said. “I want more women [in office] who want to cross party lines, to be practical, get things done and move from there.”

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