Obama: This is what feminism looks like

President Barack Obama may have canceled his first campaign appearance with Hillary Clinton, but he’s not avoiding touting her history-making campaign. “But we also have to remember that progress is not inevitable”, he said, adding that society is still “boxed in” by stereotypes.

“If we’re going to change our policies and our politics, we have to change something else: We have to change the way we see ourselves”, Obama said.

The president saluted women’s advancements but said more work remains. And a hostile Internet environment “where women are routinely harassed and threatened when they go online” needs to change, he said.

“We need to keep changing the attitude that raises our girls to be demure and our boys to be assertive, he said”.

In the speech, Biden declared the issue of gender equality “literally, not figuratively, the cause of my life”, which is in many ways accurate-in 1990, he introduced the Violence Against Women Act (something he did not let anyone forget in this speech), created the Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault in 2014, and later that year, helped launch the It’s On Us initiative.

Biden, who as a USA senator from DE authored the Violence Against Women Act 22 years ago, encouraged both men and women on college campuses to “take the pledge” through the “It’s on Us” campaign, promising to fight rape culture and intervene if it appears someone is in danger of sexual assault.

He also discussed feminism overseas, promoting women’s rights as a national security issue and saying groups like Boko Haram and ISIS perpetuate violence against women and silence them.

The president showed occasional tinges of emotion when dwelling upon his own household, as the father of two daughters.

Obama said that his daughter Malia’s high school graduation last week – here, he recreated a half-suppressed whimper – led him to reflect on “this extraordinary time for women in America”.

“They think discrimination is for losers”.

“It is clear even today, as we gather together as women from different regions and different backgrounds, from different generations and different traditions, to discuss how we can draw our nation closer to the fulfillment of our fundamental belief, that all men and all women are created equal”, said Lynch, the first African-American woman to hold that office. “They’ll catch up eventually”.