Let me make something clear from the outset.  The following is not a political statement.  In no way does it indicate my political preferences or party allegiance. Best Friends at the Bar is an apolitical project, by design.  But, there is something regrettable to report, and report I shall.

For years, since the beginning of the Best Friends at the Bar project, in fact, I have enjoyed repeating a famous quote from Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.  If you have read my books or attended my programs, you know it:  “There is a special place in hell reserved for women who do not help other women.”  I like the quote because it speaks to women’s empowerment, to a kind of solidarity that will help lift women to equality in all things, and, let’s face it, it’s catchy.  Just last week I repeated it at an event at the University of Maryland Law, and it always elicits good audience response.

It is an important quote for my project because there is still room in the law profession for more examples of women helping women.  Plenty of room, in fact, and women helping women is an important goal of Best Friends at the Bar.  We still experience senior women lawyers who are reluctant to reach down helping hands for young women lawyers to increase awareness of the challenges ahead and how to survive those challenges and advance in a male-dominated profession.  Some of these Queen Bees need to hear the Secretary’s quote on a daily basis.  Or even more often.

I have met Madeleine Albright, and I have discussed the quote with her and the importance of it to my work.  She totally gets that application because she has three daughters, and all of them are lawyers — more evidence of the perfect fit for her quote to the Best Friends at the Bar project.

However, something happened this week on the way to the New Hampshire Primary.  The quote has now taken on political overtones, which makes it less useful as a generic statement of women-for-women solidarity in pursuit of equity.  This shift took place when Secretary Albright suggested at a Hillary Clinton rally that women who did not help elect Hillary Clinton were headed to the Down Under.  Her exact words were, “There is a place reserved in hell for women who don’t help each other,” followed by a battle cry for Hillary Clinton.

This is regrettable on two counts.  First, it contradicts Ms. Albright’s own words.  You may recall that, during the 2008 presidential campaign, then vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attempted to use those words of Secretary Albright for her own political purposes.  At that time, Secretary Albright pushed back and said, “Though I am flattered that Vice Presidential Candidate Governor Palin has chosen to cite me as a source of wisdom, what I said had nothing to do with politics.”  Wish she had stuck to her guns. 

Second, politicizing such a strong rallying cry for women diminishes its value.  Are we left with a quote that is only useful to one political party or even one candidate and her followers?  Have women outside of those interest groups lost a strong statement of women’s solidarity for purposes quite apart from the political process?   For reproductive rights?  Or pay equity?  Or myriad other social changes?  Have those powerful words disappeared into the ether, tainted now and no longer useful for the purposes for which they were uttered?

Difficult times.  Desperate measures.  Not so wise as it turns out.