I first met Madeleine Albright at a 7th-grade sleepover. A single mom to three daughters including my friend Katie, she was hosting a gaggle of 13-year-old girls. As a mom myself now, I can appreciate that she was probably ring-leading the s’mores and directing the layout of the sleeping bags, all while cogitating on her next presentation at President Carter’s National Security Council.
For the next 40 years, I followed Madeleine Albright’s historic trajectory and contributions from both up close and afar. I am one of thousands of women who consider her a mentor and role model. There are so many chapters of appreciation to be written about Secretary Albright, her iconic journey from refugee to Secretary of State, her statecraft, her academic and literary contributions, her political influences. But none were more important than her impact on women and girls around the world.
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From afar, I saw her commitment to gender equality play out in her fierce advocacy for women and girls in every role she played. She was deeply committed to women’s leadership, whether as a mother at the beginning of her career raising money for girl’s education or as UN Ambassador where she assembled the “G-7″ when she realized there were only 7 fellow women representing their countries. She spearheaded the American assembly to the Beijing Women’s Conference and insisted on meaningful commitments to advance gender equality.
As Secretary of State, she centered women’s issues within the department and elevated gender in U.S. foreign policy as foundational. She fought for women’s rights as fundamental human rights, combating gender-based violence, trafficking and child marriage.
Up close, I saw the personal lessons of leadership that she shared not only by advising so many like me, but by living fully into her own gifts.
She gave an irrepressible “yes” to seemingly every commitment. Yes, yes, yes – as board chair, honorary chair, honoree and speaker. She seemed to never tire. When I took over leadership of a large global humanitarian organization, CARE, I asked her how she managed to travel so relentlessly and do so much. She replied in two words, “sleeping pills.” I loved her pragmatism, but in gatherings from Washington to Aspen, I registered that her true secret was that service to others was her fuel. The more energy she spent, the more she seemed to generate.
She was all in for every occasion and she knew how to play the part, to wear just the right pin (she wrote a whole book on this) or don the full cowgirl outfit for the barbecue. She seemed totally confident in her own boots and also had a sharp self-deprecating sense of humor. She knew how to bring people to the table, serving up delicious food and hosting nightly gatherings in her Georgetown home to broker bipartisan deals with senators for more humanitarian aid or to raise money for dozens of causes.
She called herself a “worried optimist”, but she led with hope and enthusiasm, always leaning into the possible. When I walked through an event with her, I saw how she embodied historic, courageous, change-making leadership for women across generations. She showed women how to live into their own special gifts by doing it herself every day and she was adored for it.
The last time that I saw Secretary Albright in person, it was at a Western-themed dinner with a group of American politicians, academics and policymakers. She was wearing a big cowboy hat and shiny red boots. She was singing, arm-in-arm, with Condoleeza Rice, John Denver’s “Country Roads,” with great enthusiasm. She knew “how to savor the world as well as try and save it.” And she understood about embracing people across differences in pursuit of impact and unifying ideals.
She got into political trouble once for saying, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” But she really never stopped saying that and she definitely never stopped helping women. She passed on that commandment, that commitment, to all of us to carry forward.
Michelle Nunn is president and CEO of Atlanta-based CARE USA.
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