The Sewall-Belmont House and Museum presented Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with its Alice Award yesterday, honoring her for putting “eighteen million cracks in the glass ceiling.” The museum also recognized Clinton’s support for the establishment of the Save America’s Treasures program in the 1990s, which designated the Sewall-Belmont House as one of four national preservation projects.
In her remarks accepting the award, Clinton said “there is so much work to be done to improve the status of women and girls in many parts of the world. Every single day, you can pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV or log on to a website and see the reports of terrible assaults on women’s progress. We have to fight these attacks on women’s rights, and we have to address the conditions that hold women back and continue to make them the majority of the world’s poor, hungry, and unhealthy.”
The Alice Award is named for Alice Paul, suffragist and founder of the National Woman’s Party. The award is presented annually to a woman who has “broken barriers and set new precedents for women,” according to a State Department press release. Past recipients of the award include Katie Couric, Senators Mary Landrieu and Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Cokie Roberts.
The Sewall-Belmont House was the headquarters of the National Woman’s Party and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Today the house is used as a facility for education about women’s suffrage and the struggle for gender equality. It is located next to the Senate Hart Office Building in Washington, DC.
