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LINK Barack Obama: Women have found themselves “in an impossible situation”

The 19th was recently invited to interview President Barack Obama around a series of themes tied to his new biography, “A Promised Land,” published shortly after the 2020 election. Editor-at-Large Errin Haines engaged him on topics including voting rights, systemic racism, the pandemic and the women in his life.

Below are his written responses, chosen from several questions The 19th submitted in writing.

Errin Haines: The pandemic has been economically devastating for women, particularly women of color, as millions have left the labor force, unable to balance raising children or taking care of older parents with their jobs. What became clear to you about gender inequity and the impact of the pandemic on women at work and at home? What can government do to help women get to a new normal? What should men do to disrupt this imbalance and be more equal partners?

President Obama: Women play a critical role in shaping economies, not just here in the United States but around the world. And if women aren’t participating in the workforce, it makes everyone worse off.

We’re seeing that right now. Over the last year, the pandemic has forced a lot of women to juggle working from home, online school and a lack of child care — on top of everything else they were already doing. They’ve found themselves in an impossible situation, and in many cases had to make a difficult choice.

We all have a role to play in reversing this trend. Government can help by mandating more parental leave and better pay to begin with. But those of us who are spouses and partners need to make sure we’re doing our part, too — sharing the load and helping our sons and daughters understand that marriage and parenting is a partnership.

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HippieChick58 9 June 16
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Pretty vanilla set of questions and the answers hardly worth thinking about. For instance, this question:

Errin Haines: The pandemic has been economically devastating for women, particularly women of color, as millions have left the labor force, unable to balance raising children or taking care of older parents with their jobs. What became clear to you about gender inequity and the impact of the pandemic on women at work and at home? What can government do to help women get to a new normal? What should men do to disrupt this imbalance and be more equal partners?
I would have asked it like this:

The pandemic has been devastating for employers who refused to treat workers well, with equal pay and good pay, and for workers trying to figure out how to raise kids or deal with aging parents. What became clear to you about the needs of workers and how ineptly those needs have been addressed over the last forty years? What can govt do to help our citizens find more power against oppressive employers and how can families better manage their responsibilities together?

See how much more egalitarian it sounds when the focus isn't on one particular identity? How much less insulting to they/them who have been oppressed by their employers as well? I think THAT'S how we should start framing our thoughts for improving conditions in d$A (d=divided). I did like this answer, though, about how we receive information and conduct a conversation from it:

I think a lot of that has to do with changes in how people get information. I’ve spoken about this before, but if you watch Fox News, you perceive a different reality than if you read The New York Times. And those differences have been amplified by social media, which allows people to live in bubbles with other people who think like them.
Until we can agree on a common set of facts, until we can distinguish between what’s true and what’s false, then the marketplace of ideas won’t work. Our democracy won’t work. So, as citizens, we need to push our institutions in the direction of addressing these challenges.

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