Tribute: @BarackObama Urged U.S. Women to Build a Bi-Partisan Movement for Equal Pay for Equal Work. Will We?
“So the way things get better is by that next generation taking ownership and being inspired, and seeing their mom working a tough shift and then going out there and still rabble-rousing. That’s what we want….You can remake this thing.“ ~ President Barack Obama, 4.15.15, Charlotte N.C
I loved being CEO and Co-founder of BlogHer — puffy-pink-heart-loved it— but my job was rarely glamorous. Take Friday, April 10, 2015, for instance: At lunchtime I was parked in a tiny rental car in Burbank, California, sweating through a conference call. My hair was in five barrettes, my yoga pants hole-y and I was working my phone to develop deals to pay women to write.
Suddenly, an interesting Twitter direct message popped up.
Could I call the White House right away?
Um, yes…yes I could.
Within the hour, it was confirmed: I would moderate a conversation between 200 American women and President Barack Obama, by invitation of the office of Valerie Jarrett, Chair of the first-ever White House Council on Women and Girls, and Senior Advisor to the President of the United States.
And so it was that a sitting president hopped Air Force One to Charlotte, North Carolina, dragging the White House Press Corps with him. For over an hour President Obama focused the free world on the concerns of working mothers, trending on Facebook and reaching more than 50 million people. Audience members — including these BlogHer influencers — asked him unscreened questions on live streaming video about equal pay, paternity and maternity leave, tax credits for childcare costs, and public investment in early childhood education and more. (See transcript and video.)
Today I’m unearthing this memory as a tribute and as a personal call-to-arms…
Let’s talk about today and the end of an era
Today is the final day of President Barack Obama’s two terms in office. For the record, I am proud of and grateful for the service of our 44th president, his family and his unique leadership and legacy. Certainly on this topic his policy agenda, legislative advocacy, executive orders and ongoing statesmanship is unparalleled: Equal pay.
President Obama has talked for eight years about the unfair treatment of women, especially women of color, who are not paid the exact same wage for the exact same job, robbing American families of real income. The Obama Administration maintained this priority during Election 2016, requiring workers on many federal contracts to get seven paid sick leave days (up from zero) and supporting an EEOC action requiring all companies with more than 100 employees to report pay data by gender, race, and ethnicity.
Let’s talk about tomorrow and picking up the baton of personal responsibility
Once president-elect Trump is sworn into office, where will we take President Obama’s legacy on equal pay for equal work? @POTUS provided a hint years ago in Charlotte, fielding question after question while repeatedly emphasizing the bipartisan opportunity he thinks we have as American working families to increase our incomes by getting women paid the same amount of the exact same job. And today, as I read reports of supporters of Mr. Trump, who say they hope he will NOT repeal Obamacare despite Mr. Trump’s campaign commitment to do so, and their votes for the Trump campaign, I begin to think President Obama is right.
President Obama’s recommendation? It’s time to build a movement and act.
“ I think what we need to do is just build a movement, build political pressure. Educate people. Make sure that women know and husbands know that this is a family issue and an economic issue. And the thing is, if you ask anybody — I don’t care if they’re Democrat, Republican — if you ask them what’s fair, they’d say, well, women should be paid the same as men. But it becomes somehow this political issue when this is not political. I mean, there are some areas that are tough where there really is differences of opinion in this country about issues — when it comes to issues like gun safety laws, for example. I mean, there are real passions on both sides, and sometimes they’re not completely reconcilable. But on this one, I guarantee you, the majority of Republican voters, they support equal pay for equal work. But when it gets to Congress, somehow it becomes a political issue. We’ve got to stop that.”
~ President Barack Obama, 4.15.15, Charlotte N.C
Yes, we do have to stop that
I know one thing: I’m going to have an opportunity to prove I was right. On Tax Day 2015, in Charlotte, I said that American women certainly don’t all vote alike, but as leader of a community reaching 100 million women a month in rural and urban areas, I’d learned that on topics like taxes and family benefits, health care and wages, women can come to agreement on two things regardless of political party:
- We want to be able to get ahead to take care of our loved ones
- We want better solutions from our government and from our employers to help us do that.
Looking to the future, I’m picking up the gauntlet Barack Obama and Valerie Jarrett have thrown on equal pay for equal work.
I’ll start by listening. I’m headed to Washington D.C. where I will spend Inauguration Day at an omnipartisan meeting designed to train women to organize and advocate for the policies they believe in.
And then, on Jan. 21, I march. And yes — I’ll be thinking about how to create a national home-run on the issue of equal pay for equal work.
