What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power (39 page)

KG
: We’ve had these women’s economic empowerment roundtables all across the state—we had one in Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, New York City. But some of the feedback we got through those conferences is that there are some impediments for women entering the work force; for example, affordable daycare, good quality early childhood education. Mothers in particular often want to enter the work force, but don’t have the childcare or the support they need to do so. So making sure employers know that when they provide childcare services, or when they make it easier for parents to work, they are increasing access to very good workers and to who’s available for the work force. That it’s a very pro-economy issue if you can provide affordable daycare. A lot of studies show that if you do that, if you provide it on site or make it accessible, that actually a lot of parents are more productive workers as a result. So there is a lot of upside to it. I have a number of pieces of legislation to address that problem, both on the affordability side and tax credit legislation, to double the tax credit for early childhood education. But then I also have a number of incentives for businesses and employers to create opportunities for on-site daycare or easily accessible daycare.

MS
: When you said we needed a call to action, it does feel like we are at an important cusp of history and that the need for change is urgent.

KG
: It is urgent—I mean, this is one of the toughest economic crises we have been in, certainly in my lifetime, and I believe if we are going to grow our economy and really create a competitive environment against other nations, we need women as part of that effort. We need women leading
the way. I really think that until women are able to achieve their potential, America will not achieve hers.

MS
: I recently interviewed Nancy Pelosi who, as the first female speaker of the House, also had a very interesting perspective on the hurdles that women face entering politics. When she was talking about it, she didn’t call it a glass ceiling. She called it a “marble ceiling.”

KG
: Yeah, there are a lot of marbles in Washington [
laughs]
.

MS
: Entering the political arena can seem very intimidating—not just the extreme effort of running for office, but also oftentimes being one of very few women in the room. What advice or perspective can you offer on that?

KG
: Well, I think the most important message for women is that they can do it. That this is something they can do. That you can find a way to balance a career and family— that there is a way that you can be part of the decision-making fabric of this country and still be a good mother. For a lot of women, that’s the challenge: “Can I do both? Is it the right time in my family’s life to take on these challenges?” And my call to action is very comprehensive. Do whatever you can do; it’s a question of: Are you voting? Are you being heard? Are there issues that you care about that you could advocate for and let your representatives know how important they are to you? Would you ever consider running for office? Really making that request of women’s participation across the board.

Many organizations have done studies, and one thing they’ve found is that women really need to be asked to participate, that they respond very well when they’re asked to run for office. The studies also show that when women do run, they win—they do have the ability, they do have
the tenacity, they do have the drive, they can raise the funds. So I think we need a call to action. We need to actually invite women to come to the table, both in corporate America and in political life, because we need their thoughts, views, and guidance on these very important decisions that our country is making.

MS
: How does Off the Sidelines work in terms of helping arm women with the resources, tools, or inspiration that they need? How can they use this project in their lives?

KG
: Well, right now it raises awareness. It actually [provides] the information about these structural problems in society that are impediments for women. A lot of young women, for example, don’t know that on average a woman earns 77 cents on the dollar for the same work. They may not know that women start their small businesses with eight times less capital than men do. They may not realize that women only sit on 16 percent of Fortune 500 boards and make up only 4 percent of CEOs. And I think once you create that awareness of the challenge ahead of us and amplify that with the call to action to get involved, what my website does is allow them to get where they need to go. So, for example, we have links to how to vote if you are not registered, links to how to run for office, to some great campaign training programs around the country. It has links to if you want to pick candidates and support them, how to get involved in advocacy. We are trying to create a one-stop shop for empowerment, so that once you understand the issues and what the challenges are, you can go to make a difference.

MS
: I saw on your site that you said, “getting off the sidelines is a state of mind.” How would you describe that state of mind?

KG
: It’s basically an understanding that women’s voices matter. That through our own advocacy, through our own participation, the country will be better off. And that the decisions that we will make in government and in companies will be better decisions because of women’s participation.

MS
: Where do your own passion and commitment come from? You need to have drive to do all that you do. What is your motivating force?

KG
: Well, it’s very born and bred in me. My grandmother really inspired me as a young girl—these were all things she taught me. She was a woman who came from very modest means, never went to college and was a secretary in the Albany State Legislature. She wanted to have a say in local political life on the issues that were being debated, and what priorities the people who represented her had. So what she did was she organized other women and she got them engaged and involved and working on campaigns with candidates that they valued. And she made a huge impact on the political landscape throughout her lifetime. Her passion for making sure women were heard and fighting for issues she cared about, and using the grassroots tools to amplify her voice, was very important to me. So I have great respect for public service; I also understand how important women’s voices are and that they can make the difference. So throughout my whole life I have been involved in a lot of women’s organizations that empower women; that do campaign training for women; that raise money for women. I think it’s important that women are part of our decision-making in this country.

Now, the other thing that the [Off the Sidelines] website does that I think is important—you know, I had a significant role model in my life, my grandmother. And I also had many role models that inspired me like Hillary Clinton and other women who achieved great things in their lives.
What the website does is offer stories. And they are just stories from regular women about what got them off the sidelines, why they care about an issue, and what they’re going to do about it. I am hoping that those stories will inspire other women, because oftentimes women need to see other women doing things as a guide or as a role model.

MS
: So much of this is rooted in women knowing their power and valuing their true voice, something we often lose touch with early on. If you could go back and give one piece of advice to your younger woman and girl self, what would it be?

KG
: To do public service. I think that when young people are asked to help others—through community activity, through cleaning up the neighborhood, through helping at a senior center, through being a candy striper at a local hospital—that opportunity to serve when you are young really creates a heart of service in people. And they understand how important advocacy is, and how important service is. So if I were to give my young self advice, I would encourage myself to do even more public service and community service.

MS
: These days when people look at the world, it can feel very overwhelming, and it’s very easy to feel disempowered as if there’s nothing you can personally do that can make a difference. What encouragement, advice or inspiration would you offer to them?

KG
: Well, one thing my grandmother always told me is that I could do anything I wanted as long as I didn’t give up and just worked hard at it every day. There is nothing that you cannot do if you put your mind to it and really fight hard.

WHEN YOU EMPOWER A GIRL

It’s not just rhetoric, it is a fact, that when you change a girl’s life you affect her vision of herself and her immediate world and the world that she will have an impact on. . . . Statistics have shown that when you empower a girl, you don’t just change that one girl’s life, you change the whole family
.

        
—O
PRAH
W
INFREY

Everyone is essentially brought up not to be a girl, right? I think from the time all of us
—
women, men, boys, and girls
—
are born, we’re taught that the worst thing you can be is a girl. That to be a leader you should never be a “girl.” To be a man, you should not be a “girl.” To be a woman, you can’t be a “girl.” So it must be pretty powerful to be a girl if everyone’s taught not to be one. What is it about being a girl that everyone’s so scared of? I think everybody has a girl inside them
—
men and women have the qualities of intensity, emotion, wit, compassion, revolutionary zeal, originality, and heart. Some people have more girl, some people have less girl, but all of us have been taught to shut our girl down. If you look at girls themselves around the world, they are such a potent force for change and good
—
for questioning, for disrupting, and for resisting
—
and yet they are under siege in so many places. Everywhere. Whether they’re being told that they should starve themselves to please the fashion setters, or whether they’re being told to cover up or shut themselves down
.

The more girls feel confident in themselves, the more they are able to express who they really are. I think we have to find situations where girls find their own voices. We have to help girls find activities that fulfill their deepest selves. If you live in a society that tells you your whole point is to be pretty and skinny, then you’ll spend your days working to achieve that. But if you’re brought up in a world that tells you that your point is to make the world better and to contribute and to transform consciousness, then you will go and work on achieving that
.

        
—E
VE
E
NSLER

I’m raising two girls, and I say to them, “I need you to be strong and soft. You can be smart and beautiful. You can dress well and be a woman. You can be feminine! You can be all of these things, and even though you may think they sound contradictory, they’re not.” I think that’s a really good thing we can teach young girls
—
that if you’re twenty pounds overweight, you’re not dumb, you’re not not beautiful, you’re not not strong. And the more we give each other examples of that, the more honest we are with each other, the little bit easier it is to use your voice and step out
.

        
—M
ARIA
S
HRIVER

Girls and women face many challenges in achieving equality with men and boys. In education, access to justice, property rights, health services, politics, business
—
in almost every aspect of life, women are treated differently and often worse than men, and girls are often given fewer opportunities than boys
.