There is plenty in her experience as first lady that she has hyped. But one of her undeniable accomplishments, perhaps more important than anything else she did during that time, was the set of global journeys that she undertook on behalf of women’s issues. What distinguishes Hillary Clinton from Madeleine Albright or Condoleezza Rice is where she was willing to go for her education. She did not stay in the air-conditioned hotels and the parliamentary chambers of the nations she visited; she went to tiny impoverished villages, to places where women walk 6 kilometers a day for water, to places where women were basing their families’ prosperity on a $20 loan for a sewing machine. She sat on mud floors and sandy village commons to hear from these communities about their issues and priorities, and she took on controversial and culturally sensitive subjects, such as female genital mutilation and bride burning.
