Can you please give it
up again for Mikaila?
(applause)
What an amazing young lady.
I will be back on the job
market in seven months, so I
hope she is hiring.
(laughter)
I was just told backstage,
when she was asked to
introduce me, there were
some folks who were
organizing this amazing
event that said, is she
going to feel a little
nervous speaking in front of
5,000 people?
And so they asked her and
she said, oh, no, I just
spoke to 11,000 last week.
(laughter and applause)
So we were looking backstage
-- she was on her tippy-toes
with her
entrepreneurial self.
(laughter)
So I know you're really
here to see Michelle.
(applause)
Or Oprah.
(applause)
Actually, they're together,
so you're here to see both
of them.
(laughter)
I cannot compete with them.
(applause)
But I did want to stop by
and make one thing very
clear -- I may be a little
grayer than I was eight
years ago, but this is what
a feminist looks like.
(applause)
Of course, in my household
there's no choice.
(laughter)
It is great to be
with so many friends.
One of my first acts as
President was to establish
the White House Council on
Women and Girls, led by Tina
Tchen and Valerie Jarrett,
and they've worked with a
lot of you very closely.
We're so appreciative of
those of you who helped not
just make this event
possible, but have guided a
lot of our thinking across
our administration.
We've got some outstanding
members of Congress -- of
course including my dear
friend and one of the finest
Speakers we've ever had, and
hope to soon have again,
Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi.
(applause)
And I want to thank all of
you who worked so hard to
make this event happen.
Because this is an
opportunity to reflect on
how far we've come, and why
it is we've got to keep going.
It was almost 100 years ago
that Alice Paul and her
fellow suffragists were
arrested for picketing
outside the White House
for the right to vote.
Today, women make up more
than half of the electorate.
For the first time in
history, a woman is a major
party's presumptive
presidential nominee.
(applause)
And we are here, at the
first-ever White House
Summit on the United
State of Women.
(applause)
Because of all of you, over
the past seven years, we
have significantly improved
the lives of women and girls
not just here at home,
but around the world.
And I could not be prouder
of what we've accomplished.
I want to talk about why it
matters, and why we've got
to do more.
Some of you may know that on
Friday, my older daughter
Malia graduated
from high school.
(applause)
And I sat in the back
and wore dark glasses.
(laughter)
And only cried once, but it
was -- I made this weird
sound because I
was choking back --
(makes crying sound)
--
(laughter)
-- and people looked at me,
people sitting in front of
us turned back.
And then I suppressed it.
(laughter)
But I was thinking about how
she is graduating at this
extraordinary time
for women in America.
The year I was born, in
1961, women made up less
than 40 percent of
college students.
Today, you earn almost 60
percent of college degrees,
make up roughly half
of the workforce.
(applause)
Back then, the pill was
still illegal in some states.
And today, thanks to the
Affordable Care Act, birth
control is free.
(applause)
In the old days, women
actually needed a husband to
open a credit card.
Today, more women are
choosing to be single -- and
all Americans are able to
marry whoever they love.
(applause)
Fifty-four years ago,
Katherine Johnson did the
behind-the-scenes math
to put a man in orbit.
Today, almost 60 women
have blasted into
space themselves.
(applause)
When I was growing up, fewer
than 300,000 girls played
high school sports.
Today, because of Title IX,
more than 3 million girls
are on the field.
(applause)
Women are leading America at
every level of society, from
Hollywood to Silicon Valley,
from the c-suite to the
federal bench to
the Federal Reserve.
And that is progress.
It's real and we have to
celebrate it, but we also
have to remember that
progress is not inevitable.
It's the result of decades
of slow, tireless, often
frustrating and unheralded
work by people like Dorothy
Pitman-Hughes and Gloria
Steinem, who is here today --
(applause)
-- people who opened our
eyes to the discrimination,
both subtle and overt,
that women face.
People like Pauli Murray and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who
insisted on equal
justice under the law.
(applause)
People like Wilma Mankiller
and Patsy Mink, who
redefined what
leadership looks like.
And, yes, people like
Hillary Clinton who've
raised the expectations of
our daughters -- and our
sons -- for what
is possible.
(applause)
In other words, our progress
has been the result of
countless ordinary women and
men whose names will never
be written into the history
books or chiseled on
monuments, but who dedicated
their lives to ensuring that
America lives up to its
promise of liberty and
justice for all.
What's also true is, is that
despite all that incredible
progress, we are living in a
time of great change, a time
where people are
economically anxious.
Unemployment has dropped
below 5 percent.
Wages are growing again.
But while we've made
progress in narrowing the
gap between rich and poor,
it is still too big and the
trend lines, because
of globalization and
automation, are
still upon us.
You hear politicians peddle
the fiction that blocking
immigrants or cutting off
trade or "big government"
are all to blame, but we
know what the causes are.
The rise of global
competition, the weakening
of the labor movement and
participation in unions, the
automation of more jobs, the
race of technology -- all
these trends have the
potential of leaving
workers behind.
They let a few at the
top do even better.
And we see some of those
divisions not just between
groups, but within groups.
There are women who have
never had more opportunity,
but there are a lot of women
who are still stuck in the
toughest of economic
circumstances.
There is an important
reason that so many working
families feel like the
system is rigged, and it's
because the economy hasn't
caught up to some of the
enormous changes that have
transformed America over the
past 50 years.
Those days when the average
family was a dad who went to
work every day and a mom who
stayed at home and did all
the unpaid labor -- that's
not what our economy looks
like anymore.
Household and work
arrangements come in all
shapes and all combinations,
and yet, our workplace
policies still look like
they're straight out of Mad Men.
(applause)
I will tell you, a lot of
the problems that cross my
desk are really
hard to solve.
If they end up on my desk,
it's because other people
couldn't solve them.
But this issue of how we
support working families,
the policies that we could
put in place that would make
a meaningful difference,
here we actually have
solutions right
in front of us.
Just as we know what the
problems are, we know what
some of the solutions are.
We need equal pay
for equal work.
(applause)
We need paid family
and sick leave.
(applause)
We need affordable
child care.
We've got to raise
the minimum wage.
(applause)
If we're truly a nation of
family values, we wouldn't
put up with the fact that
many women can't even get a
paid day off to give birth.
(applause)
We should guarantee paid
maternity leave and paid
paternity leave, too.
That's how you
value families.
(applause)
That's how employers
retain great workers.
And it's good for women --
because when childcare falls
disproportionately on
mothers, as it often does,
it makes it that much harder
to advance in their careers.
So we've got to retool
our system so that modern
families and modern
businesses can thrive.
And let me be clear, this is
not about big government, or
expanding some fictional
welfare-and-food-stamp
state, the 47 percent
mooching off the government.
It is accounting for the
realities of how people live
now, today -- the
necessities of a 21st
century economy.
(applause)
We've gotten some things
done through executive actions.
When we had a cooperative
Congress, we got a whole lot
more done.
So far, a lot of Republicans
in Congress have been
unwilling to act on these
agenda items that I
just mentioned.
But we just keep on looking
for ways to get stuff done.
(applause)
They keep on waiting for
this whole lame duck thing
to happen.
(laughter)
Let me tell you, it will
happen as soon as I've
elected a really good
successor to carry on
our policies.
(applause)
But until then, we're
working pretty hard.
But we've made progress.
The first bill I signed into
law was the Lilly Ledbetter
Fair Pay Act.
And I know some of you have
seen Lilly here today.
(applause)
We passed the Affordable
Care Act to give more
Americans the security of
health care coverage so that
not only people without
health insurance could
finally get it, but people
who had health insurance
were treated fairly, so
that, for example, no
insurer could charge you
more just for being a woman.
(applause)
Dry cleaners are next.
(laughter and applause)
Valerie, we need to
work on that, don't we?
(laughter)
Those little blouses of
yours -- I don't know why
they charge so much.
So my administration has
taken what action that we can.
And we've strengthened equal
pay protections and paid
sick leave for federal
contractors, enhanced work
flexibility for all federal
employees, raised the
minimum wage for federal
contract workers, extended
overtime-pay protections
to over 4 million workers
across the country.
(applause)
We try to set a good example
providing my staff with 12
weeks of paid
parental leave.
(applause)
And by the way, we've been
having a lot of babies --
I've noticed -- in
the White House.
(laughter)
Which I'm happy about
-- I love babies.
They bring them into the
Oval Office and they make me
feel good.
(laughter)
This is the right thing to
do, it's the smart thing to do.
And the great news is, we're
not the only ones doing it.
You've got cities and states
and businesses across the
country that are adjusting
to meet the needs of
today's workers.
In fact, today we can
announce that 28 of
America's leading businesses
are committed to closing the
gender pay gap.
We should encourage more
businesses to join them.
(applause)
We should shop and frequent
those companies that are
doing the right thing
because the truth is, most
folks agree with
each other on this.
We don't have to have
Congress agree with us -- we
can go ahead and make
progress without waiting
for them.
They'll catch up eventually.
They're usually a lagging
indicator on these issues.
(laughter)
If we really want workplace
policies that work for
everybody, I will say,
though, it would help if we
had more women in Congress.
(applause)
It would help if we had more
women in the corner suite.
(applause)
I have a corner
suite, by the way.
(laughter)
Just making that
connection for you.
(laughter)
If we are going to truly
change our policies and our
politics, then we're also
going to have to change
something else, though.
We're going to have to be
honest with ourselves.
We're going to have to
change something else.
We're going to have to
change the way we
see ourselves.
And this is happening
already, but I want us to be
more intentional about it.
I know I'm preaching to the
choir here, but we're still
boxed in by stereotypes
about how men and women
should behave.
As the great Shirley
Chisholm once said, "The
emotional, sexual, and
psychological stereotyping
of females begin when the
doctor says, 'It's a girl.'"
(applause)
And that has consequences
for all of us, whether we're
men or women, black, white,
gay, straight, transgender
or otherwise.
We need to keep changing the
attitude that raises our
girls to be demure, and our
boys to be assertive; that
criticizes our daughters for
speaking out, and our sons
for shedding a tear.
We need to change the
attitude that punishes women
for their sexuality but
gives men a pat on the back
for theirs.
(applause)
We need to change an
Internet where women are
routinely harassed and
threatened when they
go online.
We need to keep changing the
attitude that congratulates
men for changing a diaper,
stigmatizes full-time dads,
penalizes working moms.
(applause)
We need to keep changing the
attitude that prioritizes
being confident,
competitive, and ambitious
in the workplace --
unless you're a woman.
(applause)
We need to keep changing
a culture that shines a
particularly unforgiving
light on women and girls
of color.
(applause)
About how they look, about
how they feel, about what
they should or
should not do.
(applause)
Michelle will talk about
this in a little bit.
She's talked about this.
Despite her extraordinary
achievements and success,
the fact that she is -- she
is an American original, she
is unique, but she still
had times where she's had
doubts, where she's had to
worry whether she was acting
the right way or looking the
right way, or whether she
was being too
assertive or too angry.
You remember that?
So we've been working to
change these stereotypes.
That's why we're encouraging
more girls to pursue their
love for science, and
technology, and engineering,
and math.
(applause)
That's why we've highlighted
women trailblazers, and
encouraged media to depict
more examples of women in
STEM -- because it's hard
to be what you can't see.
It's why we've launched a
movement of women and men to
fight campus
sexual assault --
(applause)
-- because it's on
all of us to stop it.
It's why we're changing the
culture in our military,
from the top down, to take
this issue seriously.
It's why we're working with
communities, and businesses,
and foundations to rethink
workplace policies, and fund
women entrepreneurs, and
expand female leadership,
and create more
opportunities for girls and
women of color -- everybody
has a role to play in America.
(applause)
And even as we make progress
at home, we look abroad and
we know that any country
that oppresses half the
population -- that doesn't
let them go to school or
work, and does not give
them control over their own
bodies -- that's a society
that will not work over the
long term.
It will not reach
its potential.
(applause)
And this is a national
security issue.
As Commander-in-Chief, I've
seen how the ideology that
leads Boko Haram to kidnap
schoolgirls, and leads ISIL
to enslave and rape women is
the same ideology that leads
to instability, and
violence, and terrorism.
There's a connection there.
So we need to be clear about
what we're about, what we
stand for.
Because organizations
and ideologies that are
repressive and cultivate
violence and anger -- those
are -- there's a running
thread, and it's dangerous,
and poses a threat to
pluralism and tolerance,
and openness
So I've made advancing
gender equality a foreign
policy priority.
(applause)
And we've implemented a
comprehensive strategy to
end gender-based violence
around the world, from
prevention, to treating
survivors, to bringing
perpetrators to justice.
And we're helping to remove
barriers that prevent women
from participating fully
in their societies.
We're empowering the next
generation of women by
investing in adolescent
girls and advancing the Let
Girls Learn initiative to
get 62 million girls
into schools.
(applause)
This is the future that
we're building, one where
all of us here at home and
around the world are free to
live out our dreams.
Where our children's
aspirations aren't
segregated into
pink and blue.
Where working families don't
have to choose between
taking care of a loved one
and earning a paycheck.
Where women and girls, no
matter where they live, are
free from fear of violence
-- including gun violence.
(applause)
Where hatred against women,
or hatred against the LGBT
community, that doesn't
neatly fit into some
predetermined notion of how
people should be or how they
love -- where that is no
longer the operative rule in
any society.
A future where women lead
half our businesses, make up
half of Congress.
Where our girls know they
can hold any job, and run
any company, and compete on
any field, and perform on
any stage, and science the
heck out of any challenge.
That's the future
we're trying to build.
(applause)
And the good news is this
is the future my daughters'
generation already
believes in.
(applause)
They believe every
door is open to them.
They're not engaging in any
sort of self-censorship.
They're not going to
hold themselves back.
It couldn't occur to them
that they couldn't rise to
the top of whatever
field they choose.
(applause)
It wouldn't occur to them
not to accept all people, no
matter how they identify
or who they love.
(applause)
They think discrimination
is for losers.
They think it's weird that
we haven't already had a
woman President.
They expect the world
to catch up to them.
(applause)
They expect the world to
catch up to them, and I have
no doubt that we will.
It will take leadership.
It will take the
right policies.
It's going to take creating
more opportunities.
It requires us telling each
other and our children the
right stories -- because
the stories we tell matter.
We admire the men who shaped
our country, and rightfully
so, the men we see as heroes
-- from Alexander Hamilton
to Muhammad Ali -- for their
confidence and their courage
in believing they could
change our nation, this idea
of self-creation, that
there's nothing holding us back.
In them, we see America
itself, constantly
reinventing itself,
fearless, looking out over
the horizon at
the next frontier.
But our country is not just
all about the Benjamins --
it's about the Tubmans, too.
(applause)
We need all our young people
to know that Clara Barton
and Lucretia Mott and
Sojourner Truth and Eleanor
Roosevelt and Dorothy
Height, those aren't just
for Women's History Month.
They're the authors of our
history, women who shaped
their destiny.
They need to know that.
(applause)
A woman did not magically
appear on a space shuttle.
It took Sally Ride's
relentless commitment, Mae
Jemison's boundless courage
to shatter that glass ceiling.
A group of California
farmworkers -- they weren't
just handed their rights.
It took Dolores Huerta
organizing and mobilizing,
fighting for the dignity
and justice they deserved.
(applause)
Rosa Parks wasn't simply a
tired seamstress who sat
down by accident.
She was a civil rights
leader with the eye of a
strategist and the
heart of a warrior.
(applause)
She had the confidence to
board on that bus, the
courage to risk her own life
and liberty for the sake
of ours.
History did not fall into
her lap -- she seized that
moral arc and she bent it
with her bare hands in the
direction of justice.
That's the story that's
still being written, today,
by our modern-day heroes
like Nancy Pelosi or Sonia
Sotomayor or Billie Jean
King or Laverne Cox or
Sheryl Sandberg or Oprah
Winfrey or Mikaila Ulmer or
Michelle Obama --
(applause)
-- the countless ordinary
people every day who are
bringing us closer to
our highest ideals.
That's the story we're going
to keep on telling, so our
girls see that they, too,
are America -- confident and
courageous and, in the words
of Audre Lord, "deliberate
and afraid of nothing."
(applause)
That's the country we
love, and I've never been
optimistic -- as optimistic
as I am now that we're going
to create a country where
everybody, no matter who
they are or what they look
like or where they come from
or who they love, can make
of their lives what they will.
And together, we can build a
world that's more just and
more prosperous
and more free.
That's a job for all of us.
God bless you.
God bless the United
States of America.
Thank you.
(applause)
