Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) on Friday spoke to Annie's List, a group dedicated to electing progressive women to political office in Texas, telling the audience that "we march in pinky pussy hats" to push back against mistreatment by males in the workplace.
Warren focused on sexism in politics and the workplace, calling out the media's treatment of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. The senator also told the left-wing crowd that women experience discrimination at their jobs because of their sex, focusing on the disputed wage gap.
"Women know what it's like to get 75 cents on the dollar for doing the same jobs as their male coworkers, and to have good ideas that they put forward, and then those ideas get scooped up by some man who later decides it was his idea," Warren said.
"Nevertheless, we persist, Warren said to loud applause from the audience, referring to a now-infamous quote by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) when he invoked an obscure rule to block her from speaking against the nomination of Jeff Sessions for attorney general last year.
"Women know what it's like to get talked over in meetings, passed over for promotions, and screwed over in salary negotiations," Warren continued. "Nevertheless, we persist."
"We persist and we march," she added. "We march in pink pussy hats. We march carrying hand-made signs. We march with our moms and our sisters and our daughters."
The Massachusetts Democrat then invoked the Women's March from last year, garnering loud applause.
Warren's comments came weeks after members of the Women's March movement decided to no longer wear their trademark pink "pussy hats" out of concern they might be offensive to minorities and transgender women.
During Warren's speech in Austin, Texas, she decried America's lack of access to child care compared to that of other developed countries. She praised Clinton's position on the issue, saying, "It wasn't until we had a female nominee for president of the United States that someone even thought to run on a platform of universal child care."
"To borrow a phrase from that female nominee, Hillary Clinton, women's issues are economic issues and economic issues are women's issues! Can I have an amen on that?" Warren asked, before chiming in with an "amen!" herself.
Later in the speech, Warren again invoked Clinton, this time about the 2016 presidential candidate's perceived treatment after her election loss.
"We'll have to give graceful speeches and politely concede to male opponents that never respected us. We'll have to listen to the pundits say, 'Well, if she just sounded like that during the campaign,'" Warren said.
"And we'll have to watch men who lose get talked up for other races while we'll be told to take up knitting," Warren said, referencing a controversial joke from a Vanity Fair video telling Clinton to take up a new hobby in 2018.
Warren also gave a "fun fact" in her speech that the United States has never elected a female president.
"We need to fix that," she said to applause.