Tanden highlights key role of women’s empowerment
WOMEN's economic empowerment is a critical issue for the US administration, a top Indian American official has said, underlining that their full potential is vital to the core issues for democracy.
Neera Tanden, White House staff secretary and senior advisor to the president, made these remarks during her address to the first-ever Shatter Summit co-hosted by the US Department of State and the Shatter Foundation on January 26 in Washington.
‘Women's economic empowerment is a critical issue for the Biden-Harris administration; for the president and for the vice president,' 50-year-old Tanden said.
‘We understand how ensuring that women are reaching their full potential can have economic stability, economic mobility, are vital to core issues for us, for democracy, ensures stable and equal growth, both internationally and in our country,' she added.
Tanden shared with the audience, that included eminent women leaders from India and the US, her own personal experience.
‘I'm the child of Indian immigrants. When I was five years old, my father left and my mother was faced with the choice of going back to India or staying in the US and having to go on a series of government programmes welfare, food stamps,' she said.
‘I remember being the only kid in line using food stamps and those government programmes work. My mother after a few years was able to first get a job at an Indian travel agent office and then a few years after that work at Raytheon,' she said.
Tanden eventually went to UCLA law school and ended up in the Clinton White House where she worked for First Lady Hillary Clinton.
The Shatter Summit is an initiative of the US-India Alliance for Women's Economic Empowerment, a partnership between the Department of State, USAID, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum and George Washington University that aims to catalyze commitments in the US and India to advance women's economic empowerment in India.