Expanding women's education, healthcare integral for stable, prosperous societies: Clinton

Clinton cites local outrage over attack on Malala as evidence of change where social media empowered activists.

NEW YORK: Former US secretary of state called women's rights on Friday the "unfinished business of the 21st century."

Clinton got a standing ovation from the mostly female audience at the Women in the World conference in New York on Friday. She devoted her speech to what she called "the great unfinished business of the 21st century: the advancing of rights of women and girls."

"Too many women are treated, at best, as second class citizens; at worst as some kind of subhuman species," she said.

Clinton cited local outrage over the shooting of Malala by the Taliban and the gang rape of an Indian woman as evidence of a potential sea change in which social media tools have greatly empowered activists.

"We are meeting at a remarkable moment of confluence," she said.

"There is a powerful new current of grassroots activism stirring, galvanised by events too outrageous to ignore and enabled by new technology that give women and girls voices like never before."

"We need to seize this moment," she said.

Clinton said the need to expand women's education, healthcare access and employment opportunities wasn't just "a nice thing to do," but an integral part of building more stable, prosperous societies in troubled, male-dominated parts of the world such as Pakistan.

"Laws and traditions that hold back women, hold back entire societies," she said.

However, Clinton also turned her sights on her own country, noting that women's life expectancy has shrunk in the United States, as has participation by girls in school science.

"On average, women live shorter lives in America than any other major industrialised country.

"Think about that: we are the richest, most powerful country in the world, but many women in America are living shorter lives than their mothers," she said. "The clock is turning back."

Many in the audience clearly wanted more. It only took Clinton's entry on stage in a bright pink jacket to get fans - including several in the press gallery - up on their feet, cheering with cellphone cameras held aloft.