>> but i think also when you look at them and you mentioned this, the 70% of single women were basically a big force in the election of obama. that i think in fact the attitudes towards single women are changing in single women's voices, in fact, are having an effect and, therefore, there is more pressure to reinforce the stigma because if these women speak out, things are going to change spend i hope they speak out and are empowered. ..

talk about the issues that they care about and mobilize them as well. >> great question. right here. >> i'm the executive director of the dakota support foundation which is dedicated to a civilian military. my question is more about culture, as opposed to policy. i ended up being a military spouse which was a culture shock for everybody involved. but, if you had mentioned kind of the pushback we get from other women. my experience was interesting coming into the military and when i was trying to raise some of the issues seeing the military families. a lot of the pushback i was getting was from the other spouses either on the group and i ended up writing an article

for "the washington post" and it was the same thing. 90% were thank you for saying something that the ones i did get that for pushing back were from some of the older military spouses and retired and the problem wasn't that i was wrong that i had said something publicly. >> wonderful comment. what do you feel -- it is more of a statement, on a question of culture it's not just the military. my mother was a military spouse and the whole role in the household was never make waves because if you stand up you are then mailed is going to get whacked the that is even before the military. >> i think that -- i was just thinking we have a president right now who was the son of a

single mother. and so first of all, it's an interesting moment the role of women silencing other women, and i think you said 90% were very positive that ten per cent real egos and -- goes its not nobodies named the culture. i'm just wondering does anybody know the word patriarchy? you can't even use the word. but the fact is it is a question of there is a particular culture that is invested in this kind of division among women and i think what is interesting right now is everything my panelists are saying is true there is a lot of

resistance right now and it is a time where things like this could really change, and the culture -- >> final flout? -- thought? >> the one thing on that of course is the increase participation of women and soldiers as military personnel. the whole thing of military wife is breaking down. i just want to repeat that anybody who has the leisure and the wherewithal to be spending the morning here and having this discussion, we have to find in our self the resources, the time and so on to stand and support of all of our sisters who are, you know, really don't have that

many degrees of freedom in their lives. we can't do it. >> i grew up in the house told my mom was just 100-years-old on christmas eve and wrote in 1933 still single and in the democratic newspaper and new haven she wrote an article in the last line was c'mon girls, let's make ourselves heard. that is a touchstone what i try to do in my job and the other democratic men and women in the house are trying to do so when women succeed, america succeeds. >> thank you so much. >> thank you so much. [applause] >> please welcome to the podium

barbara kinny. >> i am a photographer more comfortable behind the camera van in front. when i became involved, maria talked about creating photographs of women in the country today and possibly to become as iconic. i put together a team of the best women photojournalist that i knew and we set out across the country to shoot are subject to show them working, taking care of children and families, going to school, doing whatever they had to do to make it through the day. we photographed women on the east coast and the west and south carolina, florida, tennessee, montana and the navajo reservation. these are the documentation of where women are in the country today. they provide a glimpse in the lives of the women around us that whom we may rarely notice.

from early in the morning until late at night these women were going strong. in chattanooga, one of the women were temporary living with her parents and she dropped her kids off at day care everyday, worked as an assistant in a dental office and sold mary kay cosmetics for extra income. i photographed her throughout the day and my last photograph taken at 10:30 at night as she finally sat down to have a moment to herself on the stoop to the coach started out the next day. they found another woman to come to washington whose husband of 25 years left her with three boys and took their life savings. she was taking a five week course at a nonprofit service for women so she could acquire the skills to get the job. i watched the woman in the class grow stronger and confident together and my subject gained confidence in herself saying at the end of the course she felt she would go back to school, get a degree and teach, something the was always a dream that she never thought she could do.

and on a personal note, related to some of what we are going through. there is one image of a little girl at their house early in the morning and brought back memories from my childhood. my parents, when i was 12-years-old my mom went through a rough time financially, emotionally. she had not gone to college, had no skills, no work experience and struggled to maintain a household with me and my two brothers and had a pontiac that broke down all the time and a mortgage. i would make her bed every day while she was working. when i saw that low coral making her mom's dead it broke my heart a little bit. so, my dream is for these photographs in to the to impact people emotionally, and it

affects you, inspires you and moves you. i hope these pictures moved people to realize the women in the photographs are just like the woman that lives next door to you, just like the woman everywhere around us and here they are. [applause] ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ [applause] >> please welcome to the stage megan and beverley. >> this session and is about why does it matter that the women are on the brink?

if you look at those photographs, you know it is bound to be a profound affect on the nation but why as a nation should we care, why does it matter to our health and education and families and children, to the society and to the economy. in their own fields what is it doing to america to have women on the brink. we have dr. nadine harris for the use of lummis on the workers alliance and the president of spelman college, dr. beverley tanden. [applause] >> as we began the conversation about why does it matter that women are on the brink i want to have each of you start with

answering that question for us so we will start with you. >> we know that the health of children is linked to the health of their caregiver and when women are on the brink and are put into the struggles of poverty, it affects the health and the development of their kids and that is in terms of the leader of the outcome. my area of expertise is in the ad first child experiences and the effect of chronic stress on children, and what we understand is that kids who are exposed to stress have increased likelihood of heart disease, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and adulthood so it is important to understand that they are not only behavioral in

pact but prolonged profound health impacts as well. >> you have looked at the labour market and in distress solutions for them to survive and get traction in the economy. what would you say why does it matter that women are on the brink? >> when you look at the economy today, the women are more than half of the people work force, they are still doing the lion's share. more than half of all college graduates and half of the electorate and by no means the special-interest groups are defining a whole of the american economy and society. so if women are on the brink, dennis says something about the state of the economy. they are realizing their full

potential and really having this base to be creative and to innovate and on the break of struggle and survival than we are going to be profoundly limited as a nation. i'm looking forward to hearing what you've done about those women that were described as being on this foundation. 50% of the students who go to spellman are qualified for pell grants so you are seeing students with families that are on this cracked foundation. what is your answer? >> our neighbors cannot write if we do not invest in the women i see like at spellman. women that have the talent to be the leaders that we need but don't have the resources to have the educational experience that is required in the 21st century and none of us can try with so much of our talent pool that is

undeveloped. >> i want to take a few minutes. you do understand and have done something about it. tell about the public health provider how you had this moment that connected the dots on the kind of stress that this population of that risk families involved with created those health problems. >> absolutely. in san francisco with the california medical center, one of the things i found about working with a very low-income and very high risk community seeing as a doctor like to treat ear infections and pneumonia etc and send the kids out the door, but what i was recognizing is they were being sent on these

behavioral problems, and ultimately when i dove into the research about housedress affects the development and the health of children, what i found was absolutely profound which is that children who are exposed to chronic stress and particularly in the earliest years when you have the greatest amount of brain development happening, you have significant effect on their development, on their neurological functioning and that is something that in, you know, a kindergarten or second grade may present behavioral problems, but ultimately under the surface all of these changes are happening inside of the bodies of children that lead to chronic disease and adulthood. so what we did in san francisco

is that let me to create a new organization called the center for wellness and our focus is on specifically addressing them. now understanding that for kids who are experiencing chronic stress, there is a medical approach which may take a multidisciplinary approach, but there's also a public health approach. >> have you done that as a result of working in the senate? >> no, actually my focus has always been on community health disparities and so when i finished my medical school, i went to the harvard school. >> i think that helped me because for example, when we have children who are affected by lead poisoning, there was a medical treatment where you can clean of the lead out of that child's blood but what is the

ultimate intervention we have to do as a society? we have to take land out of gasoline and paint and the environmental exposures and so it's the same thing for children exposed to chronic stress. >> you have done something amazing. you pediatrics society to recognize the thing that you call toxic stress, and you are pushing to have this diagnostic question included in that evaluation for kids. >> tell us about that because that will have a huge affect. >> the center is actually part of a national effort to recognize and address toxic stressed at a major public health threat to the american academy of pediatrics has taken up this issue and in fact at the last national meeting of the american academy of pediatrics, there was a special session on

the toxic stress where we had specialists from around the country come and speak and one of the things that they had at the meeting was a pledge card on every table for each pediatrician who intended to say i pledge that i will screen for toxic stress. >> and this was your idea? >> i want to call the credit because there are a lot of people working. >> what a great insight and imagine how that the sign change where the patient comes in the door that is looked at and with a huge difference that can make. what do you do for these kids? >> like i said the treatment is multidisciplinary. it includes a physical examination, what we call the developmental test and also includes nutrition, mental health intervention. we have a home visiting model

which means we have a case manager who will go to the home and assess the needs of the caregiver and make sure that whatever the caregiver needs, sometimes it's housing so we see a lot of the female households to sometimes mean housing or need help with employment. >> that is a pretty significant problem. >> you need to understand that when we think about the health implications for the child down the road, when we think about investments that we put into treating cancer or other chronic diseases, for example, this is something that we had the opportunity to do something about on the front side, and actually practice the preventive medicine. and it is, you know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure when you look with the society says right now on health care most is creating the chronic disease but when we think about making investment up

front, and decreasing children's exposure to adversity and chronic stress simply by supporting the caregiver it requires a two generation approach because you can't go in and say this kid doesn't have food to eat, the caregivers are depressed and they are struggling with housing and line going to, you know, treat their asthma that ultimately is foolish. >> you have given me a great segue. i was working at a center for women who were the victims of domestic abuse and you started seeing the big picture. tell us how you ended up being so involved as a leader for the domestic work in america. >> i come from a long line of strong women in my family. my mom and my grandmother or my

hero and so i was always drawn to the women's organizations and i started volunteering in a domestic violence shelter in the community in new york and what i found was that it was merely an possible for women to break out of cycles of violence unless they have a wage job with security. it was economic security, economic opportunity and the ability to support your family. it was so key to so many things. >> was very on a skilled and domestic work might be one of their few opportunities come and get there were so few predictions. yet it is a sector of the economy that has been out there without a lot of political will or leadership behind it. and you have really done a great deal in new york and california and even on the federal level.

>> fair so many jobs that fall outside of protection in the case of domestic workers and they were explicitly excluded for the basic protections that we have in this country. >> what kind of protection? >> the right to organize, protection from discrimination and harassment and all kinds of small exemptions and what you're looking at despite the fact they are doing the most important work in the economy taking care of the most precious elements of our lives and kids and aging loved ones, they are looking for poverty wages unable to take care of their own families and so what we have been doing is supporting women around the country to organize and take matters into their own hands and change the policy so that there are strong protections out there at least to make sure workers

have basic rights and recognitions and part of the problem is the work that goes into caring for families and that makes all other work possible hasn't been recognized or accounted for and we face that as family caregivers that this work that is so valuable hasn't been valued for what its worth in our economy and society there were so many challenges when faced in our economy. >> do you think as the generation grows old and the caregivers are taking care of them that that like everything else that hits the generation of a suddenly discovered? >> i'm glad you brought that up because right now we are experiencing what some people called the silver tsunami which

is the fact that every eight seconds somewhere in america somebody turns 65. 10,000 people per day, 4 million people per year and because of the health care and medicine, people are living longer than other and so we are about to have the oldest and largest population that we have had in the country and if we don't support the caregiving work force to be a small and sustainable work force and caregiving jobs that you can take pride in and support your family on a is going to be the huge part of the economy that is growing and is going to become more important that is going to be unsustainable. so for family and loved ones and the critical work force we've got to make sure that these jobs are good jobs. >> how do we compare to other countries?

>> the work has been associated with women. it's been assumed that women will do this work and paid in addition to everything else we do and that is part of going back to what gloria says about how we have to look at the world and the economy through the eyes of women and really reevaluate this work and that is more important in raising our kids and families and taking care of our loved ones. and in terms of how we sit in relation to other countries i think around the world it needs to be evaluated. and we have a long way to go to say this is a real work, workplace protection should be a given but also it should be a living wage job that you can support your family. we have a long way to go to get there and other countries are working on the same thing. >> we are hearing a lot about a living wage. it's become something we are on

the brink of making changes on that as well. >> you spend most of your career in places where women are valued you are dealing with a lot of kids that are coming out of these households with instability economically. what does that mean for your mission as the president and leader of the institution? >> b.c. students who have been successful. they've done with the nation asked them to do, they worked in high school and in the financial circumstances yet they are challenged by the things many of us might take for granted and

then there's no money to pay for that. family members get sick and then you have to decide between using your student loan to pay for your tuition or help the family member with that hospital bill. the challenge of getting the graduation are really intense for many students and it's heartbreaking to hear from the student that has all the ability to do what is successful and we have pursued the stem fields for example is a topic not enough people majoring to get an e-mail that says i'm a computer science major plant at the 10,000-dollar balance. >> it supplied the economy with workers. we are the global economy and in the country education is free.

what does that do as far as competitiveness? >> she hit the nail on the head when she used the word investment. we have to be serious about making an investment in the next generation and if we don't we are not going to find ourselves at a disadvantage and already there is a lot of talk about the economic disadvantage we are not because we don't have -- from the women and the men who need to be advancing in solving the problems we are talking about here today are the young people waiting to be in college and we are not making the right investment. >> you told the story of somebody that was unable to come back in because of their financial situation. do you have any stories about students who came from families like this who were able to do well?

.. particularly women have when we look at women as the majority of caregivers in our society. when we think about how that impacts health. i will say i came into this work

from a health disparities lens, trying to understand why low-income communities and particularly low-income communities of color tend to have worse health outcomes and what we need to understand is that these seeds that are sown, particularly in childhood ultimately end up having significant effects long term down the road. for example, my work focuses on adverse childhood experiences which is, stressful and tramatic experiences in childhood and the person according to the initial seminal study done between kaiser and the centers for disease control, a person with a six childhood experiences has a 20-year difference in life expectancy. when we're talking about on the brink, the women served by

ai-jen, in perhaps a domestic violence situation, who have difficulty leaving because they don't have the economic stability and we're talking about the children that they are raising, we as a society need to know that it makes a difference in their life expectancy and that ultimately is reflected in the parents of the students that are, that dr. tatum -- >> and workers with ai-jen? >> exactly. this is not just a matter of, we would, these utopian values we would like to see it happen. we are talking about morbidity and mortality for millions of americans. >> and i think that what the underpinning of this we're talking public policy. >> that is exactly right. >> the congresswoman this morning, senator gillibrand has the american opportunity plan, and those houses seem to look at

raising minimum wage, incentivizing child care for businesses and individuals, for making equal pay, that problem go away which would raise the gdp. shoring up women. what would that do for you? what would that do for your population? and, what kind of, do you think the political will is there? are we on the brink, women legislators, anyway of being able to successfully push these public policy initiatives that could change things? >> well, coincidentally tomorrow president obama is convening a white house summit on college opportunity and i will be participating in that as well. and one of the things that i'm sure that will be talked about there is how to increase access for students because we know education is transformational. you know, i just, coincidentally, i ran into an old friend last night when i was checking into the hotel. this is a woman who grew up in the south bronx, first

generation. i haven't seen her for many years. today she's an attorney at a very significant law firm here in the city a partner in that law firm and that story, her story, is repeated over and over again when people have access to education. so pell grants, investing in student loans, i think it is criminal that we are charging the interest rates that we are charging students on student loans. you know, when you can just so shortsighted. in terms of the investments. >> puts us at a disadvantage in the economy. >> absolutely. >> education, health, labor policy can you tell me a little bit more about how you're trying to raise the professionalism of domestic workers in america. >> sure. well, we made a big breakthrough in at the state level in 2010 when new york state became the first state to pass a domestic worker bill of rights which was

won by the way because women like our members like marina who do domestic work every day, took days off from work and went to the capitol and told their stories year after year after year. so it is everyday woman who can make history here in the situation. california and hawaii now have similar bills much the department of labor actually just moved forward a change in regulations that will bring two million home care workers under minimum wage and overtime protections, after 75 years of exclusions. [applause] so we're starting to build and secure the floor and we really need to be moving to raise the minimum wages and live, moving towards a living wage, towards paid family leave, paid sick days and really looking at whether the set of policies can actually turn, transform low-wage work, can we move towards a 10-year plan to end

poverty wages in america? right? can we move towards a 30-year plan to make sure all work is dignified in this country? >> one of the 100 most influential women or people in the world according to "time" magazine. she sets it as a goal i think that's going to happen. so the future without the public policy doesn't look so good. with the public policy looks much brighter as far as you three see it and you are very close to it. >> i think public policy is important but i don't think we can wait for that and i think it is, i'm looking at an audience full of influential people and seems each of us can make a difference. i often talk about the importance of private philanthropy replacing private loans. i think it is important how each of us can make an investment in a young person's life, whether early childhood or health care intervention or at the college

level but it is critical because there is so much talent going to waste. >> and right now there are so many studies, one by credit suisse, one by pepperdine university, not feminist organizations by the way, and they show if you have women at the top of your companies you end up making more money and you can see companies are starting to get it and as they get it, what i think, if workers can push forward all the stakeholders, investors, shareholders, workers and companies themselves and public policymakers can push that so that we see those work place changes. the sad fact is we do have 42 million women and 28 million children who depend on those 42 million women. who are living one incident away, one broken down car, one health issue, one federal government furlough away from

having complete financial ruin. so, nadine, ai-jen, and beverly, you have all, three of you illustrated so vividly why that matters in america. you've also shown that one woman can make a difference in some ways and so we thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] >> bless welcome to the podium, leslie umyam. >> it was said that with the rib came the genesis of women. entire flesh made from bone. my wholeness pieced together by only a fraction of one. perhaps this is why i never seem enough and feel a burden of debt, a sense of existence to exist for another. the way eve is only possible after the sunsets.

how daughters give rise to sons but they're never permitted to shine quite as much. this feeling of debt predates me. with history as a witness it had weighed others before with a force that sinks hearts that can never find the right positions again. when mothers are told to leave their passions in the kitchens, better to break dreams near the sink to avoid a larger mess. when women are left wonting or their worth, searching nook and crannies to see the definition of labor or like strained dough we stretch to make space but often reach a breaking point instead. girls are taught that they're only tall when their heels click the floor, to walk with grace even when it feels more like treading on eggshells. the taller the shoe the better they say with you there are no warnings about low ceilings and discomfort of being boxed into a

label. perhaps it would have been better to stay small. sometimes there's no distinction between better and transaction. for centuries women swapped spaces, switched time zones to trade ourselves both willingly, sometimes by force. we create patterns throwing in and out, up and down the blues and browns of maps with no particular polaris. and with all of this, women have depreciated. no place in the guns and butter calculus because our powers of production are a given and the in a world where demand for guns is high and everyone else can eat whatever they want, except for me because i have to look out for my figure in order to be counted. still we are magic, despite the debt we choose to live free, profit is nothing but a number. we rise from heartbreaks not out of love with another but learning how to love ourselves.

this is what makes us rich. on a budget but we gamble anyway. i want my daughter to take risks so she can make change. made of bone, we create life. the bedrock of the universe. we surpass value as we are the genesis of everything. thank you. [applause] >> please welcome to the stage. jean cshsky, eduardo padron. >> now that we spent a morning putting a face on women living on the brink we'll talk in this panel, about how we can push back from the brink and what do women need to do now in terms of

education, in terms of family, relationships, employment, financial, government services in order to move forward. to do that we've got a fantastic panel. i want to tell you a little bit about the people sitting next to me. patty dor is the global head of diversity and inclusion for thomson reuters. she has more than 20 years of experience in talent, learning organizational development, diversity and inclusion and employer recognition. she also sits on the board of dominican high school which is an all-girls school in manhattan and is a member of the ymca leadership development committee. patsy, thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> ellen galinskyy to patty's left, president and co-founder of the families in work institute. she is credited with developing this entire field.

she is also regularly called upon by the white house, the department of labor and major news outlets to way in on work and family issues. she has written more than 45 books. so i don't know how she has time to do anything else. ellen, we're thrilled to have you here. >> eduardo padron arrived in the united states as a refugee at the age of 15. he calls himself an american by choice. since 1995, he has been the president of miami-dade college which is the largest institution of higher education in america, with more than 175,000 students. his work has been recognized by the last three presidents of the united states as well as by many other governments and he is the recipient of numerous, numerous honorary doctorates and prestigious awards.

thank you so much for joining us. let me start with you. it seems that many of the students in your community, in your population, live on the brink. what are some of the way that is you are helping them combat these challenges? >> well, let me give you a sense of the dimension of the institution. about close to 70% of my students are considered low income by federal standards. about 48% of these live in poverty, again by federal standards. but what we have done simply i call it, we have assumed responsibility for their success. it is not just enough to give them access and we're proud of the fact that we have such a large student population but making sure the students achieve their dreams and are able to fulfill their aspirations is crucial. and unfortunately still in america today we have too many colleges and universities who still subscribe to the whole idea of swim or sink. not enough to provide classrooms

and professors. if you believe as i do that a college, a college-educated woman interrupts the cycle of poverty, i think these women on the brink require much more than just a faculty member and a classroom. they require a whole set of support systems to really help them. if we really care about the students, we have no other choice. it is a moral obligation that we all have to provide that. that is what we have tried to do. of course the guess teachers we can provide mentorship, providing access to financial supports. providing them assistance with non-cognitive skills such as developing self-confidence. the opportunity to have understanding and determination and to know that they belong, they have ownership. it is very easy for some of us to not understand these things but many of these women come to us terrified, very afraid

because they do not know that they belong in there. they're very concerned. they're first generation college students. they are poor. they have two and three jobs, part-time jobs, by the way, who are minimum wage. and they have very often response for children. they're the heads of households. yet they know that that is the only way that they can get out of the cycle of poverty is by getting a postsecondary education. that is what we try to do in short. something that we strife every day to do. >> you mentioned child care issues and ellen and think morning were handling tweets for the today show on many of these issues but child care kept coming up over and over and over again. what tools do we all have in our help women who are trying to forge ahead deal with that particular challenge? >> well it is an important issue because if you look at the low-wage workforce, 59% of them

are single parents and that compares to 7% of higher income women. so these women are doing it on their own and, and it's a funny catch 22 because child care providers are part of the low-income workforce by and large. we can't pay enough that really pays for or supports this important job. we know from brain development research how important the early years are. parents know this. and yet, so many of them are forced to feel like they have to settle. so i, as you know, we interviewed a number of women for our chapter for this shriver report. one woman talked about taking six buss to take her child to child care and back again and settling for child care she didn't like very much. i think that is sadly the story because we don't really support

the importance of the early years which is so critical, the foundation, the architecture of the brain being developed. we don't really support it and we have, you know, often low-income women taking care care of children of loy-income women with little opportunities to advance. among the things we need to do, and this is beginning to happen all over the country, it is partly a values issue. we have to value and understand what's important in early childhood. we have to make sure that child care providers, that it is a career. there is huge turnover. we did one study, six years later only 2% in a center left. it was not that they wanted to be there but they couldn't afford to stay. we need to find ways of helping people in child care and people in the workforce get an education, be paid well, help people have better choices than they have right now and there are states all over the country

that are working very hard to improve family, friend and neighborcare which is what most low-income women use helping to improve center care, creating credentials and standards. so there's a lot that we can do. it is an issue of values and mind-set. do we feel that we have a responsibility for all of our children because they, they are the future. other countries feel that way. we don't always feel that way. >> in your essay, ellen, you make the point that employers need to be included as part of the solution to reducing poverty. patty, can i ask you to weigh in how employers can do that? >> absolutely. i think, first of all from a macroperspective, my view is that we have to educate early, educate ongoing as you talked about here today and also provide sustainability in terms of in the corporate culture. so at thomson reuters we're very much focused how do we actually build a culture that supports

diversity and inclusion. when we think about diversity and inclusion we're talking about inclusion of diversity of thought, style, experience and approach as well as raise gender, ethnicity and cultural background. the reason i tell you that we have a heavy focus on women in leadership and what we see when we look at our stats there are two things very important to us. number one, we don't attract enough women up front. we don't attract enough diverse talent. we're working hard on that. we know coming out universities, graduate schools the population of women is expanding daily and we need to focus on that and we are. the second piece to your point specifically we do see a drop-off at particular levels. we see a drop-off at middle management to senior management level where women, and to be speaking very honesty of a certain age, having children and are leaving the organization. and as a result they're not able to make same career choices other people are. they don't necessarily have the child care options. they may not have a support

system in their family. frankly from a corporate perspective it is our responsibility to ensure the opportunity that is others do. what we're doing very specifically around that as well is a number of things but i will highlight a couple today. number unis making sure as we're looking at our talent across the organization that we're focusing on women, right, as one of those key talent pools. making sure we have our eye towards those women and we're building those support systems to eduardo's point from sponsorship perspective and from a development perspective and also in terms of giving those women opportunities that allow them to work within those constraints of their family environment. >> you talk about having children, causing women to leave the organization. before they even get to the organization they have to stay in school. and one of the most important lessons to come out of "the shriver report" is that in order to keep girls off the brink, we have to keep them in college. how do you do it? >> well, again, you know, when

you deal with students as i do every day, you know that they face terrible choices very often. sometimes it is the, you know the choice between paying rent or utilities or health care or child care or graduation or something else and you know it takes tremendous determination. i feel my students are real heroes. because i remember when i went to college, if the professor didn't come to class most of my classmates would go and drink beer and celebrate the fact that the teacher didn't come. here when the teacher doesn't come to class, my students go as a group to complain to the dean's office. why? because for many of them took two and three buss to get to the class or because they have to rush out of the class to go and to work and they have to pay for parking and they're not wasting time. these are the best students anyone can dream of.

of course they come mostly unprepared for college and they have all these other issues and challenges that make them very vulnerable. but as they are in an environment where they are able to get the support that they need, they will succeed and we see it every day at my institution. i know there are other institutions throughout the united states are doing a wonderful job in doing that but not enough. i think we need tome brace the idea that colleges are no longer places where you just get an education but you also get the kind of support where you're able to achieve, you know, the goals in life that would really help this country and would help individual people. >> i'm going to put heroes and sheroes on a t-shirt. i'm sure somebody tweeted that out exactly. something that he described is something you studied, ellen. how can we help low-income employees who are under more stress than the general population deal? >> it goes back to having what

we call an effective work place. we do a nationally-representative study of the u.s. workforce and we do a parallel stud different work places on going basis at families and work institute. in the study of workers or employees we look for what are the predictors what would help employers and help employees? that mutual win-win we look for it and we, for the low-wage workforce have come up with seven characteristics of what makes what we call an effective work place and they include, mostly they include things that you don't have to pay for. they include things like, treating people with respect. it is not asking a low-income woman why she can't get her car fixed if she can't afford to get her car fixed. trying to take perspectives. it is helping the employee succeed on the job, to kind of support that eduardo was talking about. helping them understanding that

they have lives outside of work and so helping them manage their work and family responsibilities. it also includes decent benefits because that's the way that people have some sort of a sense of security. most of those things don't cost any money. so, we find that stress is really lower if people work in good work places. but i do want to, and we find that, for example, stress is higher in the low-wage workforce than it is in the high-wage workforce. we tend to read articles about harassed executives, et cetera, the comparison is really doctor mike. 39% of the low-wage workforce is stressed compared with 12% of the high-wage workforce. so what is the impact of stress on families? i think that there are things that we can do with the work place and in society but on families and i did a study where

i asked children if they could make one change in the way their fathers or mother's work affect their life? this is a nationally represented group of kids. what do you think the kids would guess, what they asked? more time. 56% of parents would guess. that is not what they wished. they wished their parents would be less tired and stressed. surprised? it was a surprise to most people. only 2% of parents guessed that their children would wish that. so, i think that for parents we do feel stressed but we have to remember that our kids are watching us, like crazy. and it is not just that we shouldn't feel stressed but we can do, we can, okay, sorry, what we can do, is that we can say, i've had a tough day. sometimes you have a tough day at school. here is how i'm going to manage it. because we're role models to you are kids. not that we should try to erase

stress from our lives. not think it is just time but understand what kids are really looking at is the stress in all of our lives. >> patsy, so do you see way that is work places be changed or change to to reduce the stress for their populations? and also to increase flexibility, which i think is another one of those important pieces of an effective work place. >> absolutely. so we have a heavy focus on how do you build as i was mentioned earlier an inclusive work place which is very much around how do people feel valued and how do they feel respected and ultimately you have more engaged work place. that leads to greater productivity at the end of the day and generally greater happiness among the employee population which from the business perspective drives better results, right? so we spend a lot of time how we train our managers and our

leaders to understand what diversity and inclusion means, what the challenges are specifically as it relates to women, what those challenges are and also very specifically and i'm sure you all heard this comment before, how do we train against unconscious bias, right? that is absolutely germane to any diversity inclusion strategy. we're all guilty of it. we go into situations with certain biases in place. so we're putting heavy focus, actually training 7,000 of our managers this year out of 66,000 person population globally on what that actually means to raise awareness around that those managers and leaders who impact the population mostly are aware and respectful of those situations. the second piece is, and actually specific study we conducted recently we dead a serious of focus groups for those women, can i borrow that? didn't realize i wasn't loud enough. so we did a series of focus groups globally recently. for those women i mentioned earlier we saw dropping out of

the work place, right, better? we found that one of the primary reasons, amongst a variety of softer factors if you will around respect and inclusion, et cetera, was actually policies as you mentioned and it was very much around how do we actually provide better maternity and paternity policies by the way. so we were able to increase our maternity and paternity policies by 25 to 50% on a global basis. the second piece to your point specifically was very much around how do you actually create situations where people can have flexible work arrangements? so we have had for a variety of years pockets where certain regions, certain parts of the organization, certain individuals are very good at making that happen but we wanted to and needed to put in place a global infrastructure across the entire firm so that it is safer for managers and individuals to go forward and say look, i need to work four days a week, or i need to work from home two days aweek. we literally launched that about two months ago. >> that is fantastic.

ellen, for individuals who work in companies where there are not such amazing policies, what's the best way to get what you need? >> well, first i want to say that you can have wonderful policy but if there is jeopardy against using it you might as well not have it. >> absolutely. >> so it is the culture of where you're not jeopardized and not taken seriously for working flexibly. i think you have to make a business case for flexibility. that is, you, you need to talk about how it can benefit employer and benefit you. you can't just talk about what you need. tough talk about that. and if you can go with a group of people and, so that it is not individual, if you can go with the team and position it like a pilot or a trial, let's see how that affect the people. . .

>> one of the topics that we heard an awful lot about this morning was unemployment and the fact that once you're out of the work force these days it is so much harder to get back and

neck. i know you've been doing a lot with short-term certification and industry specific programs that can be on ramps to jobs for these women and for the people in general. can you talk about them and how they are working? >> recently it's an institution that is publicly funded and assisted because the realities of most public institutions are being developing in the investment and seeing it as an expense so you have to create partnerships with the corporate sector in your community and partnerships with the nonprofit sector and it takes a village to be able to provide the support. these programs are good because we work closely in the miami

area and we provide progress for those. some of them are very skeptical and the weekends and mornings and we have the internships very often the jobs we have the institutions trying to reach out into the community. we find many of these programs are to your programs with the baccalaureates so you have to. we have the economy with the

situation different from what we used to have 40 years ago. we could go into the offices or even factories in. but they are staying in jobs and for 30 years. creating in the american economy requires some kind of post secondary so going to college today is in the privilege and should be in therapy for every american that really want to aspire to the american dream and that's what i see more colleges and universities are beginning to realize and going to get a significant sector of the population and the economy into the productive side of the

equation. >> media doesn't have to be for your college. with the baccalaureate degree eventually or lifetime makes. they make about half a million dollars more than a student with a high school diploma. without the ability to support a family. the knowledge and the economy that's why it's been baptized in a knowledge economy. >> i see that.

i think in my experience it's extremely important becoming much more important than i would assume based on your comment that when corporations and companies work much more closely with academic institutions, whether it is actually providing internships and opportunities to make those partnerships real but starting from the baseline what are those skills that we need to teach the students today to be successful in the workplace and i think that partnership i've seen in the experience of and my past experience as well and even at the high school age it's to basically say what are those poor leadership skills in the knowledge economy that we need to develop ongoing now starting early and then make them a reality so that we can offer those proper internships. it is to get a job, any job and

then it was go to school and making what we are saying is that the kind of support that we need at work and to support we need at school are critical. it's the the notion of the individual, the american myth of the individual hero verses the fact that it's going to take all of us to do that is really important. i've done a lot of looking at executive functions of the brain and those are skills that take place in the cortex that pulled together the capacities in pursuit of the goals and i strongly believe that in this country we are not going to be the country that we want to be unless we start promoting those skills like taking on challenges like the ability to be a self directed engaged lerner. all of these are driven executive function skills.

and unless we treat those not only when children are young but when they are older. >> another skill that seems to be missing from our educational the way up through college is the ability to handle your own money and the colleges and corporations are getting some pressure to add financial literacy and education as to what they do. can you talk about how that is working? >> it is good to educate people financially. we have a number of banking institutions that are providing the funds and the support to teach financial literacy. we have introduced financial

literacy is that require. they have gone through the formal education and financial literacy. it helps people make it or break it. >> that's part of the support system is to help people with finances that are important the low-wage work force. >> absolutely. i would reiterate that. coming from 20 years in the financial service, we spend a lot of time actually providing that service as it was mentioned just in terms of the certain network groups and to the universities and to the organizations but even then you need to look at the point of having a broad based leadership development curriculum that has those professional skills like communication and influence and learning and agility but also the skills to clarify that and

that is very much around financial literacy so that is in the corporate setting as well. >> let me see if there are any questions in the audience and we will start right here in the first row. >> the first question that i have for you is are the issues that you listed of respect helping people be successful on jobs? life outside of work, are those skills being taught in business schools? >> no. some business schools are. stu friedman has been promoting the skills but know they are not looking at what makes an

effective work place if they for the past ten years we have been giving an award for effective and flexible work places that contain these characteristics and we survey employees and it isn't just asking employers what they do. do they offer sick days. we have had several thousand companies win and we are trying to make that list the clearer that to all employees having the contagion factor that all need to look at this if they want employees who are more engaged and more likely to stay and in better physical and mental health. we talk about the small companies getting started. they can't provide -- they will argue they cannot provide all these things. i find that there is a disconnected because the

companies are not hiring people anymore. well, actually, interestingly enough, we are one of the few that really looks at small and midsized companies all over the company a lot of them are those startup companies. if they really can move into that. so some of the most innovative -- the thing that is so cool about this and i hope that you will all look at when it works on the institute to see some of the best idea that you're dealing with overwork and some of the corporations are not necessarily dealing with or defining wellness as activity in the diet, but a real well-being. and so a lot of these are entrepreneurial start up companies. or the navy is a good example. people think that it can't happen in any becoming uneasy under the admiral mike mahlon and others have been extremely

innovative for women and men with flexibility, so these things can happen. it's just a mind set. >> we are going to go to one more question. >> we are looking where there is decisions. >> [inaudible] based on some of the research that we have done across a number of organizations and also if you look at where the women sit in the organization, the due primarily to a leadership role it's not profit loss related as a scaled organization so that is

absolutely a challenge that we face in the leadership. there's a lot of work being done to push women into that role. that is exactly it and that is where the academic peace also plays an important role. and actually trying to get more women and more girls to focus on the hard earned skills than when we look to the organization that we end up moving into those roles. >> we have to end it there but i want to say thank you all. >> please now turn to the screen for the early look at maria shriver's interview airing this week on an nbc nightly news with brian williams. >> how was that?

>> [inaudible] >> she says what brought her here in 1973 began with one decision. she got pregnant during her first term in college. >> she dropped out, got married and then had three or four children. >> did people judge you? >> [inaudible] she thought her insurance policy would provide for her kids. >> i thought it would be simple and it wasn't. >> [inaudible] sheeran her nursing certificate and then master's in social work

and eventually ph.d. in public health. >> with no political experience, she ran for the mayor of georgia >> [inaudible] [laughter] [applause] if >> is a part of being the mayor? >> i don't think of myself as a major. [inaudible] [laughter] there are millions of women today [inaudible] >> it's not going to be fun every day. >> at the age of 64, she claims that her life has become an example for others.

>> [inaudible] [laughter] [applause] >> it's so great to have you here. you are in a unique position. you've been through a lot of challenges we are talking about today, poverty and homelessness and being a single mom, but you are doing something about it. so what is your message to the policy makers who haven't had that experience? what do you think they fail to understand about having gone through those struggles? >> first of all, thank you for

having me here. for politicians to understand that you can be -- you could have been born on the right side come as we say, with money and everything, but just one day or one hour your whole circumstances can change. and people, all people -- i don't care where you're from over your race, just because your income tax is not 500,000 or your zip code says you can't do anything, i won the politicians to know i don't fit that mold and there are thousands who don't. my kids are successful college graduates. i told my children and i am on the politicians to know all folks need is just a hand. not money all the time, but encouragement, making sure pell grants are available, and when you get on the news i hit the

statistical data sometimes because they say in the environment from which i came that nobody will make it out and i beg to differ in the words of mark twain, that is greatly exaggerated so i need the politicians to understand stop and look. sometimes people do not have that guidance. let's get more mentoring programs available. in clayton county where i am from we have began to embark on the branding and imaging of the city by telling people -- and my family, my children and everybody that your zip code doesn't make you come in your environment doesn't, you make it and that is all people need to know is if somebody would listen and understand because i live here it doesn't mean i'm not worth anything or that i'm not

teachable or that i do not have morals and standards. sometimes people look at your zip code and say they have crime down there. in my city the biggest crime i have is people stealing shoes from wal-mart, not a lot of carjacking -- and people think when you're on that side of the town you cannot grow. in the city of riverdale with a staff i have let me tell you during the recession we had economic growth. we embarked on new programs and it didn't fire anybody. so if you open up your mind and fourier's and listen they will seek valuable people from whatever race or environment you come from. >> i read about politics and these days they do not see it as a solution to anything. they see it as a problem and there is always a lot of talk about getting more women to enter politics especially. your background was in public health and social work.

how did you make the decision to enter elective office of? >> to be very candid to tell the truth it's the fact i never wanted to be in politics. my pastor gave me a prophecy and said he dreamed i was going to be manager and i said are you for real, judah? [laughter] i don't know how to be a politician, i am to blunt. and then i decided to make my life emission of obsession by saying if you deliver me from this homelessness and this welfare, sleeping with these roaches i will make my life, so i started volunteering and one of the council members found my daughter's phone and asked me if i wanted to run for mayor and it's been on ever since. i ask god to give me the wisdom and the knowledge. the people with poverty and

people don't understand politics. they don't know the law. if someone says if you walk in my house i will shoot you but i'm not going to jail. but no, you have to be in the house. [laughter] so its understanding of people knowing selwa. they don't know lot and they don't understand politics. the biggest thing in politics is people stop being like boys on the playground and they get together and say i have to drop my emotions and my feelings. i might be a republican and democrat, but what's there for the people? [applause] in riverdale i fight for my city and we are getting grants and we have a brand new city hall, stuff that has never happened in that area but it took team work, people working together.

if you bite your tongue, you just keep going. that's what politics like down the street i'm going down the delta at night and say this i just wish everybody would put aside their emotions and see how people are affected. take the good from you and you and it will work. people just have to put their emotions down. it's that simple. >> you talk about the shame that he faced when you were struggling in the people that looked and said because you were on welfare they talked about tax payers' dollars and that kind of thing. how do you reassure people and the balance that need for the responsible stewardship with the need for compassion and helping people?

>> avaya experienced similar things to have transparency to come out and let the kids know not every redican be michael jordan i don't want to be that tall. [laughter] but transparency is getting out and letting the kids see the real people. i slept on the floor, i drove the cars, my daughter used to have a birth defect and i would leave, at 2:00 in the morning to get to the hospital at 8:00 to get her legs corrected and now she's here with me today. i used to walk almost 8 miles from georgia state to my house. it's how bad do you want it, to make a difference in your life? you can't take any days off. and once you complete what you do, go pick up somebody. i don't want to offend anybody but the way that ibis taught biblically in sunday school is

if you help somebody then you're not living in vain and you will have created a productive citizen to stand along and let people know. that's what i'm saying. let people know that you don't have to be doctor, lawyer, politician. can make the money. somebody teach you how to budget your money. i didn't know how to budget money, a girl. i learned later that now transparency when i call someone and go to speak, people think i had a good because i have a cadillac and a beautiful home, my kids are successful, george, tony, william -- they are doing good, but at the end of the day, i have to make sure i give god the glory for how he blessed me and tell somebody every day you can make it. forget if you live in an apartment you can see straight through and all that. all of that is void.

and then you ask what right do to anybody to deserve this? i know now everything that i encountered in my life, everything thanks to my dad and my mom, that everybody coming and i sisters, at the end of the day everything that i encountered is to be on a show like this to tell people nationally no matter what it looks like, you don't have to be a victim of your circumstances. you can overcome anything and people that say why you talk about that all the time if you don't understand the glory that some in the audience can hear if she did it, i can do it. how many people have gone back to school and got their degrees because they've heard my story? i have grown men come to my

office and the reason i say i'm the mom of riverdale as we have a wonderful council, city manager and all that but people come to my office and say my life is cut off. people may not know that means. let me tell you. i have people that have been domestically abused and i tell them what to do and how to get food. i have programs and all those things we do, but at the end of the day you have to be a servant. you don't have to get your money when everybody else doesn't have theirs. it's not about that. when you get in that many people have you helped? when you leave office can you go home and sleep and say i might not have felt the thousand but i did help five people, so that's what politics and life is about. and oprah winfrey, when i was really contemplating committing

suicide, i saw her show and i wrote her a letter, i don't think she sent me a letter back, somebody in her office did. [laughter] but it made me happy and one day i will see her but if people are transparent to help others, i encourage everybody i don't care if it is your neighbor, if they don't have shoes, give them a pair. sometimes you can just walk up and put $5 somebody's hand and he will get the blessing afterwards. so that is what mayor wynn-dixon is about. [applause] >> for a young woman today going through what he went through do you think things are easier or harder? >> believe it or not, things are easier. there's more access to things but i think the mentality has

changed. they've taught you if you don't have food, we were dangerous with flour and a little shortening and making a chicken and gravy and biscuits. we learned how to survive. they don't teach children how to survive now. parents taught us we need to learn how to thrive. girls now you go to their house and they say i don't have any food, you look in the cabinet and they have green beans, make a vegetable plate. it's healthy. [laughter] they don't know how to thrive and they think their kids have to have all of the designer things. your mom coming you tell them know this is what it's going to be today. this is what you're going to where and when you finish school you can drive your lamborghini.

laughter to the next thing with mothers now, why it was easy for me, discipline and respect to the your trying to live and look like your daughter that's 18. [laughter] you don't tell them, they tell you. we have let the conflict, our kids tell us what to do and we agree. not while you are in my house. we need to take control of our children. you will have better control and you won't be scared going out at night. my son william is 6-foot 2 inches and i am five. i will look up and say i will take you out. [laughter] but the women and now need to get a strong mentality that if you are a single parent or a d4

-- divorcee, you don't have to have a man. we need to have respect for ourselves. i see so many women compromise the light bill and gas bill to be paid. i haven't dated for 17 years. do i want a boyfriend? i do. [laughter] with the one thing i'm not doing any more, not compromising. we compromised too much, and we lower hour standards. [applause] >> the clip that we saw starts with you on that bridge reliving that moment when you almost jumped and it doesn't tell what brought you back from the brink. was it oprah? >> not write them, that came later. i didn't have tv then. [laughter] what happened for me, i was going to jump off that bridge, and imagine this in your imagination, i was going to jump

over that bridge but i happened to see a tractor trailer truck and i looked and said i'm not going to be able to do that. i can't jump off this bridge. and then i went home and i took some aspirin. we didn't have tylenol back then. i had a gun but i didn't have any bullets. i cut my wrist right here and that's when i came from the brink. i didn't want to die. i wanted to take a way out. i went to my secret place. everybody ought to have a secret place. i prayed and i said i can't kill myself but i don't know how to make it and i had a penny where i heard my mom say to me why don't you open your eyes. and a sense of peace came over me and she said education is the way. i got up and i went to school and registered and i graduated

pretty decently in my class and after then i just caught on to faith and hope and trust and then i knew the end would be -- and i tell you, being on the show today, i've got to say it again. i pray that somebody in the audience today who is going through, lonely, divorced, you're not a voluptuous size fight anymore, that doesn't change your character or your self-worth. you are somebody. look in the mirror every day and say i am somebody. i can be what i want to be. >> mayor wynn-dixon, thank you so much. [applause]

[laughter] >> why don't people greet me that way? i heard that you are invested in all hall of fame. [applause] it was pretty sentimental. what was it like? >> it was exciting to be in the senate falls in the hall of fame and for my whole family, the 20

house democratic women came up from washington for the ceremony, so that made it very special because for us, this is what we are doing. imagine 165 years ago they left helm. imagine the courage, they spoke out in the helm and outside of the home so on the 151st anniversary in july, we had a ceremonial step on the capitol and some of the men came, too. [laughter] and in honor of those women standing on their shoulders as we introduced the initiative when women succeed, america succeeds. >> can you talk about what you have been hearing around the country and what people have been telling you? >> relating it to seneca falls, these women made the first statement that all men and women

are created equal so for decades of a right to vote some years later leaving, they were helping in the effort and then following that, higher education, women in every aspect of the work force and then women at home but the missing link in all of that was the issue of child care so when women succeed, america succeeds and it relates to women in the workforce. respect and in this case the value of women's work, raise the minimum wage. clearly over 60% pay equity.

a paid leave and child care and education. those are the three elements that unleash the power and we have a national tour across the country planning sessions with people as all of you already working on these initiatives. so we are very excited. it gives much bigger visibility and left as that of a national awareness. so for every individual woman that is working very hard to make ends meet, to balance home and work in the rest they know that people making that public policy understand to the extent that we can their plight. >> what are the kind of things you hear out there?

to people talk about raising the floor, minimum wage, child care, what is it that the women are the men talk about as their first priority? >> no matter what we can say about public policy initiatives and all the rest, we try to have solutions, but the stories are so compelling and inspiring. the first event we had as you could imagine was in the district. she is our god mother of all of us in the congress and working with donna edwards, who is in the house putting this together. so we start in her district, and in her district this is the story you have heard many times. a woman put her life together, single mother, all of that, and she got to tell her story. now she is dreading the school bus, but she said i'm not going to talk so much about myself as what i see.

and what i see is when i pulled at the bus up i can predict what's going to happen. a mother in tears will be putting her child on the boss knowing that he is sick but having no option. if she stays home from work she has no paid sick leave. if she stays home from work more than a few times, she's lost her job. she doesn't have a job. she has no child care to take care of the child or can she afford it. but the paid sick leave peace, and maria has been on this, it is a real differentiation. it really makes a difference in people's lives. so she said i will see a mother putting a child on the bus, the child is sick and a matter of blocks either the child will throw up or whatever it is, the

other kids can catch and it's not a good idea all-around. and it really is heartbreaking to see the tears in the eyes of the bomb that has to do this. we went to the district in sacramento, and there it was interesting because all of the conversations we had about equal pay and all that equity and raising the minimum wage, it's when you are talking about all this, be sure not to talk just about child care but what's important to women, too is elder care and in fact some of our male colleagues when we can approach them about all of this said that they have taken more days off work to care for their parents than they ever did to care for their children. you can identify with that. whether it is in the women in the military that have said we

have served our country and now we are in that aspect, but the story that i love the best is we are in a college in new york and we are having one of the sessions similar to this and we are talking about headstart, just child care and the universal preschool and the rest so she talked about the story, five kids, a single mom, everything you can imagine. and now she's got to speak to hundreds of women about her situation. she said i feel very confident about my work and role as a mom but i was nervous about speaking to all of you today. so i practiced my speech on my children last night. and i made the speech and i said to them at the end you have any

questions? and my 4-year-old who is in head start said i just have one question, who gave you permission to use my name in your speech? [laughter] >> it's about respect, it's about who you are and that is an argument for more head start, and i am pleased that you were able to get into the omnibus bill that we are increasing the funding for them. >> i don't even know a nice word like neanderthal. we are basically one of three countries in the world that doesn't have paid maternity leave. we are really, really behind the and so my question is to really think about why he, like you have been at this along time and people think that it is counter to the american entrepreneurial

spirit. it has to do with it being considered the things for women so what is the psychological barrier to having the basic family leave policies almost every country in the world has? we have been talking about the family medical leave act when president clinton was elected and people like pat schroeder and all the rest had been working on it for a very long time and that is a great thing. 100 million families have taken advantage of the family medical leave in the country, but for many people it is not paid and that is a big difference. so that is a part of this initiative that we have to see the change in and that is why i am so grateful to maria shriver and the report because everybody is working in so many different ways that this raises the ability and it gives people hope

that something can be different if the way in with their voices that we can have paid family medical leave, again, for children as well as for other family members who may be sick and it affects what men as well as women we have to get it done. other countries look to us and say what you get about the same thing about child care but on the subject, the competition for the real talent has made some difference. if they want to attract real talent, the women in the workforce are just going to have to adjust to some of these policies and if we are going to unleash the power of women. so with all of this and i don't want this in any way to be interpreted as a political remark. we have to build the public support for that and make sure that elected officials from all sides of the aisle understand

that this is a priority of the american people. they say the public sentiment is everything. he has had heavy lifting to do. the public wants this and officials have to hear that. it ads to the subject so that it's not countered with its going to cost jobs, no it is going to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit. it is similar to that as well in terms of the cost to a family. but this could be done and i think the report is a bridge to getting it done. >> there are as many women struggling before their families in the red states and blue states and there are many more women struggling to support

their families than the red states and blue states would be my guess. the atmosphere that we know exists in washington where is the hope to building bridges in the way that so many americans are struggling with of the women and men of priority, public sentiment i keep saying that. the officials are aware that the public is aware makes all the difference in the world. we have been planning this for a long time, researching because there are many issues as you know and prioritizing is very hard to do because everything is important and what are we going to focus on with the sick paid leave and child care for the focus of the women in the workplace. we have been planning this for a long time. we never expected that the

affordable care website wasn't going to work. we were in sync with the 150th anniversary of the declaration, but president kennedy, thank you again for the family, president kennedy signing the fair pay act and he was surrounded. we have one under the auspices at the library of the institute about that anniversary come and they had pictures of the women surrounding all these incredible people including eleanor roosevelt and they formed the commission on the status of women, and what was the recommendation? raise the minimum wage of equal pay for equal work. it was 50 years ago. well, let's just do it. there is nothing partisan about it. [applause]

>> it is said that women pay more attention to these issues when they legislate. there is a growing number of women in congress. do you feel like it actually has made a difference to have more women on both sides of the heil? >> i absolutely do, and we want more. and it's certainly not enough. there is not enough and i know that it makes a tremendous difference. and that is not to say that we have had some -- chris dodd and others that have been champions -- >> how much more can we ask of him and his family. but yes, she is a champion for our children in every possible way. but it is really important and i say this in the hopes that some of you are entertaining thoughts of entering the public arena. it's really important to have

many more women there, no legislation on some of the great work that they have done. but every issue is a women's issue. i assure you that if you had more women in elective office it would help the national security, the economic security, our academic life, every aspect including obviously all of the issues that we know firsthand about and want to improve. and i will tell you how to get more women. if you reduce the role of money and politics and increase the level of civility, more women will run for office and that is a very wholesome thing. [applause] is that because women don't like the profits of fund raising or why can't they get into politics?

>> i have had probably $100 million mischaracterizing who i am. they say i could never take that and they want women with options. so they have options and we are saying included among those options, the service to the country. now a young woman who might be considering this they say i can do this, this or this and i can have somebody that spends millions of dollars mischaracterizing who i am so my children come home crying from school from what somebody told them about their mother that they saw on tv. and again, so the money thing is brutal. i think that they are fully capable of raising whatever

money is necessary to do. it shouldn't happen that way though. where is the money coming from and amend the constitution of reform so that it's a citizen participation and well, public financing of the campaign and empowerment. the goal of reforming because we found that this country or for the democracy of the government of the money and not of the money. so all of them got elected over these years and now we want you to go and so just yourself to $10 million of negative publicity, and by the way if you are forceful in your presentation, you are striving to be strong. so, we have to make sure that it is one of ideas and competition of ideas and what people have in their hearts and minds about how

to make the future better for the country. and i'm telling you it isn't worth it to get in there and have that opportunity and more when of course again nothing could be more wholesome for the country than to have more women in the political process. >> we are going to move to q&a and we only have a couple more questions. while you are thinking of questions i'm going to ask one more thing. is it true that you eat ice cream for breakfast? [laughter] that inspired me to eat donuts. [laughter] >> i have said and migrant children have overheard this but i tell them it's too late for me. if i only had one of food, of very dark chocolate ice cream morning, noon and night. [laughter] cementer and going to choose one person from each section.

>> good morning and thank you for being here. my name is valerie with the national association of the centers. as part of my job i try to encourage women with children to become politically active and to be familiar with the issues. i'm going to start by speaking in a couple of weeks about the family act, and i want to be able to say to them it only takes a number of e-mails to your elected representative office for them to know. years ago the number was 15. if we get 15 fact and phone calls we know each of those represent thousands of the constituencies paying attention to the issue. can you give me something to say to them nancy pelosi says you count because she only needs five, ten, 20 to make a difference to her. >> you remember that i have a privilege and honor of representing san francisco in the congress, so anything we do not even notice the very

politically active. [laughter] i would just say that they all should be writing and 15 will not make much of a dent. culturally or whatever it's a very forceful on the other side with their messaging. so, whatever it is, the sincerity counts for a lot. you want it to be a true grass-roots message, not astro turf that they figured some organization true this up, but the real grassroots. but i would also say that there is nothing more eloquent to a member of congress than the voice of his or her own constituent and the sense that they can make a physical appearance, it's hard because some of the districts, but to the extent that somebody that lives nearby can say i represent a number of people who are

concerned about this, it is really important. let's put it another way instead of clarifying the number, let's just say nothing of really good will happen unless it ends because we can do all of the maneuvering that we want on capitol hill. the outside mobilization is what makes the good things happen. public sentiment is everything. >> to somebody from the middle have a question? okay. cohen. >> i actually worked for an organization called foster for word and i come from a foster care background and i was in foster care myself and utilize a lot of the services, and i actually know about my bachelor's degree and that is the type of work that i do. [applause] but my question is on a deal with a lot of use who do not think -- they are single parents

and stuff like that. my question is how do we motivate women who walk the walk and is showing these people with a proper guidance, we can make this and part of that. i'm nervous, sorry my book is -- my voice is like this. so before, the mayor said support can go so far and it's not always about the money. how can we put the service is providing the support -- like i had someone like this who need be put on my cap and gown because i missed my graduation because my daughter was sick and i didn't have a sadr. how to get more of the support systems to be part of our lives and then have the women representing the things that are going to change? >> for your success come in your personal success, thank you proposing that question. one is maria and i have had these conversations and one of the beauties of the shriver report is that it not only gives a big picture to the country

about holding women back from the brink and defining the challenge that's their -- there, but it's changing - and changing policy, that is essential because we want to make the difference. but the difference is made in every person's individual life. so the not reach that you are doing especially to even younger women so they know they have better prospects than they might think is really important and as i said it is a giant kaleidoscope. there are so many organizations that are counter leading to the design of something that looks like a better future because we are unleashing the power and that means in their personal lives as well. so, and everything that we do, the outreach to making people

aware of what their opportunities are is as important as changing the public policy. i know you had barbara here this morning and i want to tell you years ago when she first published book nickel and dime, we said to her at that time, you know her story, but she worked at that minimum wage now. do these people know that we are fighting for them to raise the minimum wage and this and that? all these issues that we are talking about, she said they do not have the faintest idea. she said i would have gotten caught. she said i would have gotten caught if they saw me reading the paper. unless i move to write to the sports page because the do not have the time to know about what's going on. they are keeping their families together and they have all these

things going on. but they do not have the faintest idea. so if they haven't the faintest idea that we are making the fight, when we win in some of these fights and struggles, it's important that they know how it affects them. so that outreach, that is why the duty of the report that i mentioned is the fact that it's getting so much play is something that we have been trying to say this is the story of women in america. cover this. [applause] one last question. >> i'm with a grass-roots organization, so i want to follow-up on matt. because what i had the privilege of training people to do in those degette meetings with policy makers that make their voices heard. if you can talk about all of the women who are on the brink and want to make their voices heard, some of the tips to be effective

with policy makers and generally how to make sure that we are making these issues real. >> i was in new york several months ago and you will know when i show you. we loved animals and we vote and this was the humane society having an impact on the race in new york and they did. ..