thank you notes to nancy pelosi and patty murray. it's friday december 13th, and this is "now." speaker john boehner can breathe a sigh of relief at least for now. after the dust settled the ryan murray budget vote was overwhelmingly passed, 332-94 with 62 republicans voting against their leadership. of course, in boehner's strange wonderland having only 62 members of your conference defect is considered a victory. unsurprisingly boehner made sure he was holding the speaker's gavel to announce the results. if yesterday's votes saw boehner loosening the iron grip of outside conservative groups and delivering a slap back to them that seemed as cathartic as it did sassy, those same conservative groups are promising revenge. take the senate conservative fund. john boehner has apparently

decided to join mitch mcconnell in the war on conservatives. conservatives everywhere need to understand that the party's leadership has declared war on them. them is literally fighting words from the tea party patriots, another ransom note. not upholding conservative principles is how you lose credibility with voters who will find someone else if you are not willing to do your job. and from the proverbial thorn in john boehner's side heritage action ceo made it clear just hours ago that the battle is not yet over. >> the speaker wants to turn this into a boring washington, d.c. process story, who is up, who is down. this is about whether or not american people want their taxes to go up and have government spending more money. >> for the speaker and new set of boxing gloves, bunches aren't just coming from outside the ring. inside hooks from inside the party are flying fast and furiously. as "washington post" reported, represent tim huelskamp said he

thought the moment of candor was prompted by belief of some republicans he will not return for speaker next term. i don't think the speaker is too worried. the rumor is he's not going to be here in a year and a half. joining me correspondent for "the guardian" ana marie cox, former senator from texas kay bailey hutchison, melissa harris-perry host of her own show on msnbc and comedian and founder of lady parts justice, liz winston. i love that we worked lady parts justice into the very beginning of the show. senator hutchison, i want to go to you first. the notion, litmus test of conservatism to some degree is a national outkrochicropping of a still trying to figure out where they are going in the future. but to call john boehner and his house caucus not true conservatives seems like a wild, wild overstatement. let us not forget this is the

same group of house republicans that voted 46 times to repeal the affordable care act, to cut food stamp funding by $40 billion, that passed an abortion ban after 20 weeks. when there is a list of conservative bona fides, why the anger? >> i think there's a built up frustration. i think that john boehner realizes he has to govern. i think when you're elected by your constituency, you can't go to a group of 435 or 535 if you count the senate and expect to get your way or the highway. you can't do it. i don't like this deal. john boehner didn't like this deal, but he knew that if we went into next year with the possibility of a government shutdown that it was going to be much worse for the overall future of america and the

ability to govern. so i think that these conservative groups are being harder on republicans than they are on democrats. >> absolutely. targeting the speaker and saying you better watch out basically. we're not talking santa claus style you better watch out, you better not shout. melissa, what's interesting to me, it was this that brought john boehner, this kind of small ball two-year budget was the thing, the straw that broke john boehner's back apparently and gave him what i think he feels is the leeway to lash out at heritage action and say enough is enough. >> i keep wondering whether or not something is, in fact, shifted in the sorts of structural challenges that this speaker faces that perhaps other speakers haven't quite faced. and your point that people from the right that are organized are actually being tougher on the speaker and on what is not a

particularly moderate republican caucus. it just feels as though something about perhaps because it's 2014 instead of 2016 that looms and in house districts gerrymandered and more ideological extremes that this speaker of the house is being held to a set of standards that are really quite different than what other speakers have been held to. despite my dislike for him i had lodgesically just personally in terms of getting his job done, i do have a soft spot for the difficulty he faces. >> all those tears have worked. >> right. >> this is a special day, we have an all female show. we're going to focus on the issue of equality in politics ana marie. it's to note paul ryan had a good party with patty murray and john boehner would not get this passed had it not been nancy pelosi doing what she calls embrace the suck, we know it has

things democrats don't like, we know long-term -- benefits for long-term employed aren't part of this package, but we're doing this because it's for the good of the country. >> i was looking at that, too. who is wearing the pants in this relationship between patty murray and paul ryan. i think we know. i think women got this done. i think this is a case, i'm sure senator hutchison can agree. the women in the house have proven to be the most pragmatic and deal makers. it's the guys that are getting hysterical if i can use that word. i want to say something about the fellow from heritage, boehner wants to turn this into a boring process story. budgets should be boring. we have to figure this out. it shouldn't be the source of controversy and drama. that's what these outside groups want to bring to this. they want to make this a pitched

battle, they want sarah palin saying whatever she's going to say. they want this outrage. in the media, sometimes we like that. sometimes we may a little too much attention to that. really there are stories that should be kind of boring. >> in terms of that process story, liz, patty murray was on the pbs news hour and this is how she explained how the deal got done. >> we started out having breakfast many months ago here in congress and talked about our families and what motivated us and what we cared about. we have spent time jabbing each other on football teams and fishing expertise and have learned to trust and respect each other. i don't agree with congressman ryan in everything but i do respect him for what he believes in. >> we had breakfast, we talked about football, we made a deal. >> here is the thing, my role in life is to break down what all y'all said and bring to you what regular people think. regular people have watched this

mess now forever and go nothing has changed, why now. it's like when you have horrible in laws and every year you are screaming and saying i hate spending christmas with your family but i am going to. but this year we're going to spend 30 minutes, and you're going to bail me out and we're going to signal, and you negotiate. you know you have to go every year. nothing changes. a mother-in-law doesn't get any better, the father-in-law is nuts. none of that changes but you make it work. that is the way life is. regular folks look at this and go why are you exempt from negotiation when no other part of life exempts anyone from negotiation. >> and it has been the women of congress that have been drivers in that inherently logical conversation. even in the last government shutdown -- >> quintessential fighter pilot john mccain stood on the floor and said, i hate to admit this,

but it was the women who made this happen. i laughed out loud when i saw that. it's true. it was wonderful but he hated it. >> at least, senator, he did. when we come back, who is really getting it done? my interview with house democratic leader nancy pelosi is coming up next. all we do is go out to dinner. that's it? i mean, he picks up the tab every time, which is great... he's using you. he probably has a citi thankyou card and gets 2x the points at restaurants huh the citi thankyou preferred card. now earn 2x the points on entertainment, with no annual fee. go to citi.com/thankyoucards for all those who sleep too hot or too cool, for all those who sleep now there's a solution. sleep number dual temp, the revolutionary temperature-balancing layer with active air technology that works on any mattress brand, including yours. it's only at a sleep number store, where this holiday season, the hottest sleep innovations make the coolest gifts - including sleep number dual temp.

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and while you are taking xeljanz. tell your doctor if you have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you are pregnant, or plan to be. taken twice daily, xeljanz can reduce the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe ra, even without methotrexate. ask if xeljanz is right for you.

earlier this week i sat down with house minority leader nancy pelosi. the many things we spoke about, what made her jump into the political swamp to begin with. >> well, i was born into politics. my father was in congress when i

was born. he was mayor when i was in first grade and when i went away to college, he was still the mayor. i really didn't think in terms of running myself. i never did. but when the opportunity came, i was ready, because i did care about the issues. i did know about them. i did have political instinct about how to get something done, and i knew how to win elections, so that's what i went and did. you never know when the opportunity comes along. that's why i say to women, don't ever let anybody trivialize what you have done pref coming up women's lib is dead. long live women's lib. i asked speaker pelosi if she considers herself a feminist. we'll have that answer for you after the break. every day we're working to be an even better company - and to keep our commitments. and we've made a big commitment to america. bp supports nearly 250,000 jobs here. through all of our energy operations, we invest more in the u.s. than any other place in the world. in fact, we've invested over $55 billion here

in the last five years - making bp america's largest energy investor. our commitment has never been stronger. of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza®. he said victoza® is different than pills. victoza® is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. it's taken once-a-day, any time, and comes in a pen. and the needle is thin. victoza® is not for weight loss, but it may help you lose some weight. victoza® is an injectable prescription medicine that may improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. it is not recommended as the first medication to treat diabetes and should not be used in people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. victoza® has not been studied with mealtime insulin.

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which may cause kidney problems. if your pill isn't giving you the control you need ask your doctor about non-insulin victoza®. it's covered by most health plans. when i sat down with leader pelosi, one of my first questions is whether she was surprised by the recent

onslaught of legislation targeting women. >> it doesn't surprise me because we've been living with it for 26 years. for 23 i told people republicans in congress are against family planning. it's not about terminating a pregnancy, it's about disrespect for women in terms of their decision making about the sizing and timing of their having a family. people didn't believe me until the republican said they would shut down government rather than fund planned parenthood. the reaction was pretty loud and clear. that said to people, see what he told you, they are not just about abortion and being negative about that. that's one subject. if you don't like abortion, and who likes that, you should then

support family planning, but they don't. they told me over and over again, we're not for family planning domestically or internationally. it's a stunning thing. >> what is it, you think, that keeps them on an anti-woman crusade and wind the clock many years. >> one word, disrespect. disrespect in terms of a woman's right, disrespect in the workplace for not passing equal work, equal pay, pay equity, not raising minimum wage, 62% of the people that make minimum wage are women, valuing the time of women with paid sick leave, which is something we've been advocating, without joining us in our -- when women succeed, america succeeds, whether it's pay equity, raising minimum wage, paid sick leave or support for what we call early learning but the broader issue of child care in our country.

our economy again, wen we succeed, america will succeed better. in our economy, were academic life and certainly in the political process. >> what shocks me about this platform we're talking about, three pillars of economic agenda for women. pay, work and family balance, child care. these shouldn't be partisan issues. every man in congress had or has a mother that had to in some way deal with these issues. do you ever say to speaker boehner, you have a mom, came from a big catholic family in ohio, you understand the importance of family planning. do you ever engage as humans -- >> no, i don't talk to him about what his mother and his family did because that's up to them. i do ask them more broadly, do your children breathe air, drink water? they are very much against almost every day here we'll be voting for something that

degrades the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food safety issues that relate to the health of children. i think that every family says, you know, i want to do the best for my family, the best i can do but you can't ensure they will have clean air, clean water, food safety. that's a public-private partnership that has to have a government role that goes with it. i confine my questions to them. on the subject of family planning, of course i have five children exactly in six years. i say to them, do you have any idea what's going on in your families. not to mr. boehner but to our colleagues more generally, because the fact is that have a little respect for the decisions women make or that families make, but it's not the business of politicians to make about the size and time of your family. >> let me ask you, do you consider yourself a feminist? >> of course. yes, indy 500. i do indeed. >> that word has come to mean a

lot of things. it's been used as a cudgel in many cases against women with power, women who get things done. could you tell us just from personal experience what it has been like shattering the glass ceilings you have. >> first of all, i shattered the marble ceiling. much more difficult than the glass ceiling. i always thought we would have a woman president long before congress would recognize women should lead the way. american people are way far ahead of congress in terms of recognizing the leadership of women in our country and the desire to have a woman president, now we have a prospect and that's a great thing. you know one thing for sure. if you're a woman and you're effective, you will be a target. it isn't a problem for me, because i care more about being effective than i care about being a target, but it is a problem when i'm trying to attract other women to run, younger women to run who have options in life.

if they had no options, we wouldn't want them to run. so they have to choose what course they are going to take. we want them to run for congress. i could never subject myself or my family to the kind of criticism, to use a gentle word, the attacks you received. i said, i'm the speaker of the house. they had to take me down because we were passing affordable care act, repealed don't ask, don't tell, lily ledbetter, so many things about the environment flying in the space of status quo special interest mentality of washington, d.c. but i'm in the ring, throw a punch, take a punch. that's okay with me. my family went along wit. they didn't like it. for young women coming up, if they have options, they want to go a different direction. >> i would love to know, when you started out, some of the things said about you are really deeply personal. they are sexist, misogynist. how have you learned -- how have

you built your armor in your career? >> i don't care about that. >> i say going into a feet, don a suit of armor, eat nails for breakfast, no holds barred, you're going in for a fight. you are challenging status quo. that's not a friendly place to women, children, clean air, clean water or the rest of it. it has to be worth it for you. >> eat nails for breakfast. that's my favorite line from that interview. michigan passes a bill dubbed rape insurance forcing women to buy separate health care coverage for potential abortions. we'll take you to the front lines of the war on women next on "now." people don't have to think about where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch-- and the light comes on. it's our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce enough energy for about 600,000 homes. generating electricity that's cleaner

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cover abortions, regardless of the circumstances surrounding their pregnancy. i'm about to tell you something i've not shared with many people in my life. over 20 years i was a victim of rape. and thank god it didn't result in a pregnancy, because i can't imagine going through what i went through and then having to consider what to do about an unwanted pregnancy from an attacker. how extreme does this measure need to be? i think you need to see the face of the women you are impacting by this vote today. >> that was michigan state senator earlier this week telling a profoundly personal story to her colleagues in the state senate. but even after her and her colleagues shared rape and miss charge michigan's senate circumvented their own republican governor and voted on wednesday to require women

seeking medical coverage for abortions to purchase an additional insurance policy even in the case of rape orincest. it is being called rape insurance. michigan will join eight other states passing similar laws restricting private insurance coverage for abortions. melissa, there are now nine states that do this, targeting a very, very small percentage of women. there are 13 states that passed 20-week abortion bans and there are 24 states, half the states in this country, have banned insurance from being sold on the federal exchange under the affordable care act if they provide abortion coverage. what's going on? >> in every way this is appalling. if we just begin with conservative free market assumption about sort of the desire for government not to intervene particularly in the marketplace, take out the questions of women and women's rights and our bodies, just the basic free market belief if you have a product you offer it,

safe and legal product you offer on the marketplace, the question of whether or not it does well or poorly should have everything to do with whether you have consumer who want to bly it and the do. should not be regulating that. that should be 101. republicans are saying we are going to decide what the insurance policies can and cannot cover based on our own relatively limited beliefs about what is moral and ethical and not even -- not even medical, right? the last thing i would say on this is what we know is those typically seeking termination services after 20 years are often people who actually are carrying wanted pregnancy and something has gone terribly wrong in the pregnancy and they are having to terminate the pregnancy not because they are making a decision not to bear a child but rather something has gone terribly wrong threatening their lives or the lives of the unborn fetus. those aspects are completely ignored by this kind of policy. >> it makes the provision of

those abortions harder, more dangerous, further away. the same is true for abortions covered under medical insurance, they tend to be unwanted pregnancy. liz, gretchen whit mer is a champion for putting herself forward by that. part of me is distressed that women have volunteer incredibly painful moments in their life for an explanation why a basic constitutional right should be offered to them. >> the fact that you have to drag that through the mud again and that woman trying desperately to not have that define her is now forced to because people are trying to legislate her. last night on twitter anti-choice movement started a hashtag called pray to end abortion. i just said, it is simple. you do not pray to end abortion. birth control ends abortion. that is the fundamental problem. i've said it time and time

again. they do not care about the experience of women. they don't want to see the faces. stories matter. when you see them cut off the stories of dreamers, you see them cut off the stories of women telling those because they know stories are effective. the fact women have to tell their stories is painful to me. the fact they are brave enough to do it, there are people seeing that and say i'm going to sign that petition in michigan. theres a petition in michigan, 160,000 sign it, they can -- >> that's what confuses me. this was 3.3% of the population who signed this petition to then override the governor's veto. what i don't get, melissa, you talk about gun control, reproductive freedom, the far right seems better organized about this. how is it the vast majority of women in this country who use contraception, who know a friend who has had an abortion are not

more up in arms about this and willing to make their distaste, anger known at the ballot box. >> i think there's a couple of things. one, it does go back in part to what liz was saying. the idea that birth control ends abortion, only in certain kinds of cases and certain kinds of abortion. it doesn't change anything for sexual assault and birth control doesn't necessarily change anything. if you're trying to get pregnant and your pregnancy goes wrong and has to be terminated. the problem is particularly women voters, educated, more income, a whole variety of things are in circumstances they believe they can make and are empowered to make a set of life choices that won't put them in these circumstances. we know people have a bias about l own lives in general that says one of the ways i protect myself and protect myself from believing i can be victimized or find myself in this circumstance is to tell myself i'm safe. i can be safe in this way. it can make it difficult to organize politically around those more vulnerable. >> what i would say, part of the

lady parts justice thing we're doing, the one thing the left does, they use church and religion differently. these big mega churches, they get get together and are organizing. what we want people to do is get together with women and form leagues so they can target city council and legislators and get together and make a movement. what we need to do is get rid of people who start voting and making these decisions. >> for those women. local level is right, liz, lady parts justice.org. >> dot-com. >> after the break, while women make up more than half the population in this country, we still remain vastly underrepresented at all lechls of government. when will this change? senator kirsten gillibrand and only sitting female democratic governor in the united states will join us next on "now." and ah, so you can see like right here i can just... you know, check my policy here, add a car,

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for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start taking xeljanz if you have any kind of infection, unless ok with your doctor. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests, including certain liver tests, before you start and while you are taking xeljanz. tell your doctor if you have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take, and if you are pregnant, or plan to be. taken twice daily, xeljanz can reduce the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe ra, even without methotrexate. ask if xeljanz is right for you.

the 2012 election sbrot plenty of attention to the record number of women in congress, 20 in the senate and 79 in the house. despite these gains and the fact that women make up 57% of the country, they still make up only 18.5% of congress. in fact, when it comes to the number of women holding office, the u.s. ranks just 79th in the world, tied with albania. why so few of us? one study last year concluded gender bias may not be as much of a problem as it has been. one reason women did well in the 2012 race, they likely did not face the kind of systematic gender stereotyping that has traditionally made it harder for female candidates to succeed. instead the study for center for women in politics concluded the problem is recruitment. the center found women legislators were more likely to

say they decided to seek elected office after receiving the suggestion to run whereas men more likely to say the decision to run wasn't entirely their idea. insert scoff here. women were more averse to fundraising, a highly necessary skill in today's electoral landscape. that is also changing. once women get in the money game, they are increasingly winning it. "new york times" reported over the last decade women running for congress have raised on average more than their male counter-parts. but all of this doesn't mean women stem don't have to put up with todd akins in the world. witness mark jacobs, republican looking to be the next senator from iowa. >> what's the biggest difference between men and women. >> you have to connect with women on an emotional level. >> jacob's men are from mars,

women from venus comes as speaker boehner meeting with top aides and coaching them on what to say in this brave new estrogen-filled world. >> i try to get them more sensitive. lou around congress, there's a lot more females in democrat congress than republican congress. some of our members aren't as sensitive as they need to be. >> sensitive. joining me center gillibrand from new york and joining me from new hampshire is the state democratic governor. p senator gillibrand thank you for appearing on the "now" women's special now an annual event. what do you say of recruitment, you have worked to get women off the sidelines and into the political arena. do you think we're getting better at that? >> i think what's most important is for women to understand how important their voices are. when women are heard, the

outcome changes, it's different. we wouldn't have wasted two years debating access to contraception. we would be talking about the economy and national security and all the issues can we care about. a call to action, not because it's what america can do for women but what women can do for america. women's voices will make a difference putting them on the agenda. things like equal pay, affordable daycare, things that matter, raising the minimum wage. these are things that affect all families but women in particular. >> governor, many moons we sat on a panel at our alma mater at the university, there was some discussion about fundraising and how reluctant women are or have been traditionally to ask people about money. there's an anecdote about patty murray who is no shrinking violet as we know.

the first time she ran for local office she was so embarrassed to ask people for money for her campaign, she and her husband held a garage sell. her husband gave away an expensive lawn mower so they netted negative on the garage sale. from your experience, getting passed that threshold of i don't just need your vote but i need money. how hard is that for you. >> first of all, thank you for having me on. i would echo what senator gillibrand just said about the importance of women running for office. we need lots of perspective and experience at the table. without women there, we really are losing a great share of that. in terms of fundraising, it's a practiced and learned skill like anything else. i think one of the messages i'd have for women who are considering running for office is first and foremost we need you, we need your life experience, we need your perspective, we need your skill and we also need to remind women that they can, in fact, learn a

lot of the skills that you need to run for office. fundraising is one of them. as you do it more and more, you get better and better at it. >> senator hutchison, lets discuss the climate in politics and how women can do a better job of encouraging other women to run but also what it is like once you're there. it seems fairly vitriolic at this point. how much did you feel like you had to put on a coat of armor every day. >> of course you do. it is a tough game. but you know what, alex, it is in the corporate world, too. if you're in the professional world, i think that you take a step at a time and you start getting used to it. when i first ran for the state legislature, i wanted to be liked and be touchy feely. as you progress you're going to make people mad and you have to be ready for that.

sometimes women aren't brought up to take a stand and stick with it but you do learn that as you go forward. i'm actually encouraged. i think because we have so many women now who are coming up through the ranks with the same experience levels that the male candidates have but with the added experience of growing up with their particular areas of interest, i think it's making for a better candidate quality on both sides and also making our corporate world as well as our political world better. now, it's a hard thing to say with what's going on in washington right now. i think the women are making a difference because collaborative spirit is winning the day. >> senator gillibrand, i want to ask you about, you spoke specifically of legislation that congress seems preoccupied with, unnecessarily targets women.

what is the mood among you and your other female colleagues in the house when you hear about stuff like the things, the law that just passed, bill that passed in michigan making it very difficult for women to get medical coverage for abortion. is there a sense of indignation? is there a sense of we have got to correct this wrong? >> when speaker boehner said his members need to be more sensitive, no, what his members need to do is listen to women and stop trying to pass legislation that directly harms them. focus on empowering women. focus on equal pay or raising the minimum wage, things that benefit women overwhelmingly. 64% of minimum wage earners are women. if speaker boehner wants to speak out to women, pass universal pre-k. you want to do something moms across america care about, take care of their children, give their children something to succeed. that's the problem. they don't listen to women.

they don't focus on their interest and pass laws that help them. they keep focusing on taking rights away from them. >> governor hassan, i've got to ask you, the republicans often point to their governors as their great hope for tomorrow, the chance at taking 1600 pennsylvania avenue. they do have a fair number of republican governorships. a lot of them are women. you're the only female sitting democratic governor in the country. why is it that democrats have not been better at taking back state houses in your mind? >> well, we have been in the past. one of the reasons i'm the only democratic woman governor right now is four of my colleagues or three of them were tapped by president obama to run. >> the country. >> the federal government. but part of it is, and i'm working as hard as i can to encourage other women to run for governor because i would like some sisters in the democratic

party, too. one of the things we do have to do is focus on recruiting women and senator gillibrand referenced continue to focus people on the importance of economic issues for women. i would also argue that some of the things that the michigan legislature is focused on, for instance, they aren't just in the category of social issues. these are economic issues for women. if women have to buy additional insurance that men don't have to buy for basic health care, that puts them at an economic disadvantage. women need to be at the table to make these points, point to the fact when you respect individual liberty and freedom of every american, men and women, then, in fact, you reach the talent and energy of every american and we can move forward. >> a very fair and important point. senator gillibrand and maggie hassan, thank you both for your time. up next we have come a long way but we have not come far enough. we will look at women in the

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see the first female head of the federal reserve, gm named the first female ceo. some things stay the same. a new video by the representation project has gone viral with 3.7 million views. in it the video highlights just how far the media has to go in providing positive female role models in programming and advertising. editor in chief of "glamour" magazine. thank you for coming on the

show, landmark block for us. i want to ask about "time" magazine, great magazine and we have many friends of the show there. "time" magazine only had two women as man of the year and last man of the year was the queen in 1957. >> oh, my gosh. it was called man of the year until 1999 when they changed it to person of the year. in terms of magazines and media, we still have a long way to go. >> definitely see far more representations of men in tv shows and movies than you do of women. women make up 51% of the population. if you look at the news stories online, in tv and mainstream papers they are 24% of the subject. that is up a bit over the last 20 years, that's because coverage of celebrity has gone up so much. that's not a bad thing but

doesn't make up for all those stories we're missing about the amazing things women are doing in the world. >> nancy pelosi as speaker of the house did not make one national magazine cover. that is unbelievable to me, anna. >> it is unbelievable. not only are women doing amazing things. we need to talk about that. women are adversely impacted by a lot of the policies we've been talking about. sequester cuts affected more women. more women in poverty. more single wage earners for families. >> they are the breadwinners. >> more than ever before. not only we need to be celebrating their accomplishments and recognize when we talk about politics, every issue is a women's issue. every single issue is a women's issue. i sometimes get push back saying my concerns about gay marriage or abortion rights, reproductive rights are women's issues. i'm like, no, they are economic issues. economic issues are women's issues. >> by the way, it took a man to make that baby anyway, so it really actually is.

>> human issue. >> i think it's more than just sort of more women on more covers, i think it's also the way in which we talk about women and the narratives that we accept. i want to bring up the selfie-gate scandal. michelle obama is looking off to the side. salon had an interesting analysis of this. a lot of the twitter commentary derided as racist and sexist was silly. behind those jokes are an uncomfortable persistent story about women. the notion an attractive woman, michelle obama, in a position of power and authority, will first and foremost be sexual p for men and second, wives will be jealous of their interactions with attractive if he mills even when their interaction is professional. >> we are presuming a lot there. you cannot read catfight into the photo. that's basically what all the headlines are about.

fine, you can think about what you want about the photo whether it was inappropriate. you need to be there in the moment to judge that. that's gotten so much coverage. when do you see anything female prms are actu prime ministers are actually doing. >> the stereotype about women, i love the representation video. the kinds of stereotypes we're pushing back against women depends what woman we're talking about or which group of women. it's quite different of the challenges lesbians have seeming insufficiently sexualized versus women oversexualized. african-american women particularly someone like the first lady who is read as angry rather than neutral. poor women seen as reproducing too much. it's also part of the challenge around this question about women, we always have to ask the question which women and recognize sometimes women are

not in coalition with one another but adversarial. >> who has the decision matters. kathryn bigelow was the first woman to winos car for best director. that was in 2011, which my clock tells me was two years ago. in terms of hollywood, i think it's 11% of protagonists were female. there are not a lot of stories about women, also because the structure of -- the corporate structure in hollywood tends to be male dominated. >> when you talk about women in the media, you count it as a victory no matter what you're saying about women in the media. one time sitting in my pajamas and started counting on my hands how many women featured on tv, reality shows that featured women being horrible to other women. the real housewives, what that says is if you're not a horrible person like that, eventually you will be. that's how real women are,

inevitability. >> women, that's such a false presentation. actually, when we see women in power and behind the scenes, they are the ones getting stuff done. >> negotiating through the gridlock. >> women who are leaders in real life, every day level, talking to senator hutchison off camera, the reason we get stuff done in congress, we know what it's like to run a family. women actually do work together more than they have cat fights. >> i will say, as long as we're talking about media representation, you have claire danes on the cover of "glamour," that's a great female character. she's complicated. by the way, she gets things done. >> a lot of female characters on tv. tv, you have these great characters, claire danes. >> olivia. >> amazing female character there. if you look in general, though, at women in film and on tv, they are four times more likely to have their clothes off than men.

while you know, i think it's amazing women can express their sexuality, no one is suggesting we walk around shrouded head to toe but i do think it's not the only way it should be. that's the message. >> giant burger in underwear. >> you don't have to as much. >> maybe should more. >> there is so much to say on this topic, i wish we had two more hours. unfortunately we don't. "glamour" magazine cindy levy, thank you for your time. awesome powerhouse, melissa, senator hutchison and so many more, thanks for your time. that is all for now. "andrea mitchell reports" is coming up next. so i c

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