Fifteen years after electrifying a U.N. conference in Beijing with a call for women’s equality, Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that millions of women and girls around the world are still poor, uneducated and treated as inferior human beings.

Then as first lady of the United States and today as secretary of state, she delivered the same “call to action” — to step up efforts to end discrimination and ensure that women and girls everywhere have equal status and opportunities.

Clinton said “real gains” in the last 15 years have led to more girls in school, more women in jobs, more laws against women being revoked, and more women leaving their mark on the world. But she stressed that a long struggle lies ahead.

“It is maybe — if we’re really lucky — the end of the beginning,” Clinton said. “There is still so much more to be done … to fully realize the dreams and potential that we set forth in Beijing because for too many, millions and millions of girls and women, opportunity remains out of reach.”