"Confidence. The one thing I have learned in government that makes a difference is to be confident. Now some people learn it at Cambridge and Oxford and public schools in England, but we've had to teach ourselves."
- Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam
I have heard many wonderful and fascinating things come out of the late Mo Mowlam's mouth -- but I think that this quote truly demonstrates the unique voice and identity of this courageous and outrageous public servant. These words were spoken by her on March 3, 2003 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Mo joined The White House Project, and other leading national and international experts for an event in which we explored strategies for increasing women's political participation in the United States. At the time of the Why Women Matter Summit Mo was no longer in power as a Member of British Parliament -- nevertheless, power radiated from her as she beat upon the podium.
Mo is generally credited with successfully ushering in an era of peace between Great Britain and Northern Ireland when she was the British Secretary of state for Northern Ireland from 1997 until 1999. But I first learned of her from my friend Theresa Loar, a founder of Vital Voices.
"She's amazing...She's a force. You must meet her," Theresa told me. Turns out that after a few years, Mowlam disclosed that she had a brain tumor, and Loar had heard the stories of how a courageous and good humored Mo -- who was suffering from a brain tumor -- threw her wig aside and kept going when she got too hot during peace talks. Theresa, who had met countless world leaders, couldn't stop talking about this woman.
When we got the Ford Foundation grant that enabled us to hold the Why Women Matter Summit I knew that Mo Mowlam had to be there. She didn't disappoint. As she rushed in -- a bit late for the panel, disheveled and informal -- I could literally hear the confusion in the audience, "who was this?" She explained to the assembled room that she had stopped by to see her friend Hillary (Clinton) and, in the rush, she had spilled coffee down her shirt in the cab and had had to change clothes in the backseat. As always, Mo rose above mundane distractions and inspired us all with her words.
"It's important for women not just to be in office, but to be in power, because often we get put into office but it's not really power." She should know: when she was in office, she harnessed that power and it was partially responsible for her success in Northern Ireland where others had failed. She used money for each leader's constituency as a way to get the male leaders to cooperate and worked with local political women to build a strong coalition across the parties. Mo understood the power women could access when they reached across the boundaries. As individuals they couldn't achieve peace - but together they were successful.
I ultimately discovered that Mo was right about confidence. When, after the Summit, The White House Project began our work on Vote Run Lead, through which we have trained 11,000 women to run for office, our results showed that we weren't just teaching women the skills they needed to run and win elected office -- we were giving them confidence, the missing ingredient in other training programs.
MO, produced by the BBC and shown for the first time in the states on February 13, 3:30pm, Diana Oval, Barnard College, is a great shot in the arm for our own political system. Mo is a bit bawdy, a little outrageous, and very brave and loving. When The White House Project was offered a chance to sponsor this film, I leapt! Mo really knew that adding women would change everything -- she knew because she did it.