And this is a good thing. As any Democrat knows, "Working Families" are a staple of any good Dem's rhetoric. The trope "helping America's working families" is so often used, it loses its punch. But the "working women" campaign the Obamas are running brings new urgency to nearly universal battles. The title of Obama's theme "Change that Works for You," sounds a little like an HR policy at a mega-corporation, but I think that's a good thing.
This week at least, Barack Obama is standing up for working women. If this is what happens when a youngish man with young children and a professional wife runs for office, I'm all for it (I don't remember another young candidate with a working wife and young daughter talking about standing up for working women, but I think Bill Clinton was forbidden from talking about women, period).
Obama's remarks today were a real first. And you've got Michelle Obama talking about her experience as a working mother (and her husband's admission that when he was advancing in state politics, he was not there for his children). This is an issue that spans class, education and geography. True, hourly workers face different challenges than Wall Street professionals, but this is a universal American issue. It's not polarizing, and it actually seems solvable if government and business were to have a fire lit and then get together. Not to sound Pollyanna-ish, but this is my kind of politics of hope:
"As the son of a single mother, I also don't accept an America that makes women choose between their kids and their careers. It's not acceptable that women are denied jobs or promotions because they've got kids at home. It's not acceptable that forty percent of working women don't have a single paid sick day. That's wrong for working parents, it's wrong for America's children, and it's not who we are as a country."
For Obama's full remarks, click here.
Follow Morra Aarons-Mele on Twitter: www.twitter.com/morra_am
My mother was a hard working single white woman who raised me by herself.
To all crazy die-hard Hillary supporters-
Hillary knows nothing about your problems-she only say she does-Barack grew up in your situation.
Come into the light.
I'm curious to know if there is a working woman's platform out there. I'd imagine it's something like this:
- support Equal Pay for Equal Work
- support paid family and medical leave
- provide companies and employers with incentives to develop family friendly work policies
- encourage public officials to talk about being working parents. Normalize the discussions.
Thoughts?
they must work the same number of hours a year as guys.
You cant have equality only going one way. You get paid the same, but work the same hours as what the guys work.
I dont think women should oppose this logic. do you ?
Must have missed it when you read the whole thing. Does that help?