Mrs. Obama shares thoughts on professional women

[babylonsister]

Mrs. Obama shares with Twist

Laura Varon Brown • July 19, 2008

snip//

When my turn came, I noted that the issues surrounding families struggling with unemployment and access to health care -- well, they simply can't be ignored. Those conversations are daily threads of the campaign and should be.

But what about professional women like me who may not fit the working families model that Sen. Obama seems to be talking about? We are working harder than ever and struggling with a work/family balance that gets only more impossible in a tight economy when flexibility and support programs in the workplace are in peril as budgets tighten. What about those families whose livelihood and contributions to society are enormous and are enormously at risk?

Mrs. Obama said it was a question she had never been asked by the media before, and then without missing a beat, she said the balance we struggle with as working mothers, does not get easier with the size of our paycheck. The struggles, the guilt are the same. And she's right.

Look, I don't consider myself a Democrat or a Republican -- I vote for people, not parties, but the one thing I am, every day, every minute, is a woman and a mother. Mrs. Obama and I have that very much in common.

So how can the conversations she is having help women? You don't have to feel sorry for us, but our struggles and fears through this economy are real.

Mrs. Obama told me about taking her daughters on job interviews when a sitter wasn't available. She told me when she was up for a promotion, she went to her boss and laid out the flexibility -- and pay -- she would need to do the job at work -- and at home. She told me to be vocal, not be afraid. As women, we need to be brave, with the demeanor, "OK, you want me in your workplace, here's what I need."

We shared a laugh when I chimed in that no one gets more done on the job than a parent with a soccer game (or diving meet) at 6 p.m.

Mrs. Obama said that as working women, we are modeling for our own girls. By empowering ourselves, we empower them.

By the time we got around to what the definition of success is, I felt like I was talking to my girlfriend.

more...

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080719/TWIST01/807200308/1128

[dkf]

1. I wish I could set preconditions on work.

My boss isn't in line with this thinking. When I started working right after college he gave me a piece about how women were having kids later in life.

That should have been my clue.

[Cha]

2. I'm betting there are a lot more

women out there like Laura Varon Brown and Michelle Obama.