Speaker 1: Don't go in there and fight for yourself and let
Speaker 1: your own pride and ego hold you back. If you don't,
Speaker 1: if you get rebuffed, fight for your ideas, because I'll
Speaker 1: make a better decision with the benefit of those ideas.
Speaker 1: Those words of wisdom are from Valerie Jarrett, and when
Speaker 1: Valerie talks, it pays to listen. During the Obama administration,
Speaker 1: she was considered one of the most powerful people in Washington,
Speaker 1: and she continues to have an outsized impact on public life.
Speaker 1: I'm a land Revere and this is Seneca's one hundred
Speaker 1: Women to Hear. We are bringing you one hundred of
Speaker 1: the world's most inspiring and history making women you need
Speaker 1: to hear. From two thousand and nine to two thousand
Speaker 1: and seventeen, Valerie Jarrett distinguished herself as the longest serving
Speaker 1: advice search to President Obama. She also chaired the White
Speaker 1: House Council on Women and Girls. After leaving Washington, she
Speaker 1: was named a Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago
Speaker 1: Law School, and she helped launch When We All Vote,
Speaker 1: a non partisan organization that she and Michelle Obama created
Speaker 1: to increase voter participation among young people and people of color.
Speaker 1: Valerie is also the author of the best selling memoir
Speaker 1: Finding My Voice. She and I talked at a Seneca
Speaker 1: Women Forum, which took place during the run up to
Speaker 1: this year's one hundredth anniversary of American women getting the
Speaker 1: right to vote. Listen and learn why Valerie Jarrett is
Speaker 1: one of Seneca's one hundred Women to hear. Welcome my friend,
Speaker 1: Valerie Jarrett. Valerie was the longest serving senior adviser to
Speaker 1: President Obama. Among her multiple roles, one that I worked
Speaker 1: with her closely on was the Council on Women and Girls,
Speaker 1: and a lot did get accomplished. Today, she is the
Speaker 1: senior adviser to the Obama Foundation and the chair of
Speaker 1: When We All Vote. She is also the author of
Speaker 1: the New York Times best selling book Finding My Voice,
Speaker 1: A Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward. So, Valerie,
Speaker 1: we're coming up, as you heard, and as you well know,
Speaker 1: to the hundredth anniversary of women's suffrage in the United
Speaker 1: States and the anniversary on the Beijing Conference. What is
Speaker 1: your sense that this anniversary moment, are we doing better
Speaker 1: and especially in terms of women's leadership. While we are
Speaker 1: doing better, but we still have a very very long
Speaker 1: way to go. By almost every possible metric, women and
Speaker 1: girls are still lagging. One important, the one though, where
Speaker 1: we are making progress, and it's a it's a key
Speaker 1: one is education. We're graduating from college at a higher
Speaker 1: rate than then now and we're half the population. But
Speaker 1: we all know as soon as we enter the workforce
Speaker 1: there are barriers, both structural and cultural barriers that come
Speaker 1: to work, and so the question becomes, what are we
Speaker 1: going to do to remove those barriers? And one of
Speaker 1: the many lessons I learned my eight years in Washington
Speaker 1: is it people who are in power actually like power,
Speaker 1: and they're not inclined to want to give it up.
Speaker 1: And the only way you can try to do that
Speaker 1: is to have a coalition of the willing and not
Speaker 1: talk about these issues any longer as a nice to
Speaker 1: do or the right thing to do, but frankly as
Speaker 1: a business imperative for businesses in the United States that
Speaker 1: want to be globally competitive, and of course the same
Speaker 1: thing applies to everyone else. You can live anywhere, work anywhere,
Speaker 1: and be productive, and the only way we're going to
Speaker 1: compete is to both attract and retain the most talented
Speaker 1: people and right now there are obstacles to us doing that.
Speaker 1: But I guess one message in this kind of comes
Speaker 1: full circle to coming up on the hundredth anniversary, is
Speaker 1: that change takes time, and it takes a relentless amount
Speaker 1: of hard work. It takes broadening the universe of people
Speaker 1: that we include in this struggle far beyond those who
Speaker 1: are directly impacted, but to get those who are indirectly
Speaker 1: impacted to appreciate that affects their lives too. And I
Speaker 1: would close this question perhaps by saying to one year
Speaker 1: for my birthday, President Obama gave me a copy of
Speaker 1: the petition for Universal Suffrage, which was assigned in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty six, and alongside of it was the resolution introduced
Speaker 1: to Congress to give women the right to vote, which
Speaker 1: was introduced in May of nineteen, nineteen fifty three years.
Speaker 1: And so, if you think about the women who were
Speaker 1: out there demonstrating and being imprisoned and hunger strikes and
Speaker 1: having their husband's pretty ticked off at them at the
Speaker 1: beginning of that journey, many of them didn't see the
Speaker 1: finish line. And I think part of what we have
Speaker 1: to help people understand is is it this takes time
Speaker 1: and relentless effort, and we need those thunderbolts. And I think,
Speaker 1: for example, the Me Too movement was a thunderbolt dealing
Speaker 1: with culture. And the question is how do we keep
Speaker 1: putting our foot on the pedal to keep that progress change?
Speaker 1: And you're exactly right, we need to accelerate that progress,
Speaker 1: which is what we're all about here as we gather.
Speaker 1: So how did you see this progress in your own life,
Speaker 1: because clearly you've been on a trajectory. Yeah, in a
Speaker 1: sense of a trailblazer in a lot of ways. I
Speaker 1: will say one thing I figured out after six years
Speaker 1: is to work in a culture where I could thrive.
Speaker 1: And I was fortunate because I had choices. And they're
Speaker 1: far too many women and girls who do not have choices,
Speaker 1: and therefore it's up to the rest of us to
Speaker 1: advocate for them. But once I figured out, and sorry
Speaker 1: if I'm offending anybody, a big law firm, but once
Speaker 1: I figured out the big law firm was actually not
Speaker 1: from me, I and began to work in an environment
Speaker 1: where I could be my whole self and I didn't
Speaker 1: have to pretend. When I was in a law firm
Speaker 1: and I was nine months pregnant, I was trying to
Speaker 1: pretend I wasn't pregnant while I ga ninety pounds. I
Speaker 1: was pregnant, So you obviously didn't succeed in pretending I
Speaker 1: did not succeed. Everybody knew it, But I thought if
Speaker 1: I talked about it, and after my daughter was born,
Speaker 1: if I talked about her, that people would not take
Speaker 1: me so seriously. And I think that is that's wrong,
Speaker 1: but yet that is still the case in far too
Speaker 1: many places of employment. And I actually believe that when
Speaker 1: you make yourself vulnerable and you say what you need,
Speaker 1: if you are in a position to do so, then
Speaker 1: it's a teaching moment. And I think too often we
Speaker 1: expect people to read our minds and recognize that when
Speaker 1: you're nine months pregnant, can go to the bathroom a lot, right,
Speaker 1: But nobody wants to talk about it. Or in my book,
Speaker 1: I talk about menopause. You know what, guys, it's the
Speaker 1: reality of our lives and we shouldn't be shying away
Speaker 1: from expressing what's different about us and what our needs are.
Speaker 1: And it's not just women, it's working families, right, working families.
Speaker 1: My son in law is much more engaged with my
Speaker 1: grandson my brand new grandson's life. Then my husband was
Speaker 1: in my I know, my dad, who was a great dad,
Speaker 1: was in mine. So I think part of it is
Speaker 1: understanding that in this new environment, fortunately men and women
Speaker 1: should be treating he treated on par and equal if
Speaker 1: we're going to compete. So one of my big policy
Speaker 1: positions that I've been talking about lately is paid leave.
Speaker 1: First of all, we're the only developed country in the world.
Speaker 1: We are the only developed country in the world that
Speaker 1: doesn't have one. But why do we have when we
Speaker 1: do have it? Why is there a difference between what
Speaker 1: women and men have. Don't we want our men to
Speaker 1: be equal partners? And why are women taking off let's
Speaker 1: say three and four months or six months, which they should,
Speaker 1: But why are we not thinking about men in the
Speaker 1: same vein? And if we really want to level playing field,
Speaker 1: those are the kinds of conversations I think we should
Speaker 1: be having, and that is good progress. Talking about what
Speaker 1: your son in law is doing that you didn't see,
Speaker 1: you know, in earlier generations. And I find that men
Speaker 1: are realizing more and more when they are in those
Speaker 1: settings with their newborn. Uh. They they are realizing benefits
Speaker 1: they never they never felt before or understand good, but
Speaker 1: they would be in a war environment where the policy
Speaker 1: as possible people have to live it, or the policy
Speaker 1: means that the benefits are all there. If we would
Speaker 1: just realize that senecas one hundred women to hear will
Speaker 1: be back after the short break. You know, at the
Speaker 1: first Equal Rights Convention Women's Rights Convention back in I
Speaker 1: think it was, um the women were pretty scandalous in
Speaker 1: some ways. One was the fact that they were speaking
Speaker 1: out when women were not supposed to speak publicly. So
Speaker 1: again some change, um, But I you know, one of
Speaker 1: the things you have written about and spoken about is
Speaker 1: the need for women to use their voice and to
Speaker 1: speak out when they are in positions where it can
Speaker 1: have impact. Why is that so important because we don't
Speaker 1: often realize that that could make such a difference. Well,
Speaker 1: I think part of it is we're afraid to speak out,
Speaker 1: I know, and this is one way I hope it
Speaker 1: has changed that. When I was younger, young working mom,
Speaker 1: I was afraid that if I talked about my daughter,
Speaker 1: people wouldn't take me as seriously. And what I grew
Speaker 1: to understand as I became a manager is that when
Speaker 1: my team told me what was going on in their lives.
Speaker 1: It was it would enable me to bring out the
Speaker 1: best in them, and it developed a level of vulnerability
Speaker 1: and relationship that actually made them more productive in me
Speaker 1: a better manager. And so I think when you go
Speaker 1: into it realizing that if you open up and talk
Speaker 1: about what's going on, rather than expecting people to read
Speaker 1: your minds, there's a moment that they can actually learn something,
Speaker 1: and it is on us to teach. We can't just
Speaker 1: expect them to. Claire clair Voyalant, we know what we need.
Speaker 1: And I think it's also helpful when we get academics
Speaker 1: to do research and begin to show that. For example,
Speaker 1: his mounting research shows that employers who focus on issues
Speaker 1: like equal pay and raising the minimum wage and workplace flexibility,
Speaker 1: paid leave, paid sick days, affordable childcare, a culture free
Speaker 1: from sexual harassment, that they have a more productive workforce,
Speaker 1: a more efficient workforce, a loyal or workforce in the
Speaker 1: private sector, more profitable and the better we can make
Speaker 1: the business case for it, I think then it is
Speaker 1: enlightened self interest and people are willing to not as
Speaker 1: much like give you their power, but certainly share and
Speaker 1: appreciate the fundamental proposition that diversity is a strength. And
Speaker 1: if you go into it assuming diversity is a strength
Speaker 1: and that you will make better decisions as a CEO
Speaker 1: or a manager. If you're not simply being in an
Speaker 1: echo chamber with people with your own life experiences, then
Speaker 1: you realize it's in your enlightened self interest to work
Speaker 1: at achieving the diversity that you need in your workplace. Well,
Speaker 1: I think you've said that so well. Um. In fact,
Speaker 1: it's an evidence space case today and there's plenty of
Speaker 1: data to uphold what you just said. Uh, and that
Speaker 1: is it's a win win. It's a win for business,
Speaker 1: and it's a win for a better world. So thank
Speaker 1: you for saying that. Now, when you were in the
Speaker 1: White House, you did many wonderful things. Uh. They were
Speaker 1: tough times as always. Uh. It is having also been
Speaker 1: in the White House for eight years and a different administration,
Speaker 1: but it's not an easy job. And I thought one
Speaker 1: of the great things you did for the women and
Speaker 1: to teach a lesson to the guys was amplification. What
Speaker 1: precipitated that and what did it result in. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you asked me that because I think there was a
Speaker 1: Washington Post story about this. It probably gave us credit
Speaker 1: from being more deliberate than we were, but I think
Speaker 1: the way we did it was the best way. So
Speaker 1: I began to notice a few months in, and I'd
Speaker 1: take a step back to remind you, when President Obama
Speaker 1: was elected, all economy was in a free fall. The
Speaker 1: banks were big banks around the verge of collapse. Millions
Speaker 1: of people were losing their homes and their jobs, and
Speaker 1: we had two wars going on. There was a lot
Speaker 1: going on, let's just say that, and so tension was high.
Speaker 1: We were all new, none of us had worked together
Speaker 1: in that setting before, and we were, as we used
Speaker 1: to say, driving of seven forty seven at the same
Speaker 1: time as we were trying to put gas in the
Speaker 1: UH if you could imagine that. So I began to
Speaker 1: notice early on, not so much in meetings with President Obama,
Speaker 1: but in our senior staff meetings that the women's voices
Speaker 1: were shrinking. And it troubled me. And I knew how
Speaker 1: important it was to the President that he had this
Speaker 1: robust group of advisors with different expertises and life experiences
Speaker 1: um weighing in on critical matters. And so I mentioned
Speaker 1: it to him and he said, well, that's not acceptable,
Speaker 1: and he's like, what's going on. I said, all the
Speaker 1: same things that always go on at a workplace where
Speaker 1: you have men and women. And uh, he said, but
Speaker 1: that's not the culture I want in this White House.
Speaker 1: And I realized that people come to each job with
Speaker 1: the experiences that they had before to bear, and they
Speaker 1: couldn't eat his mind and say it's going to be
Speaker 1: different here. And there were a lot of loud voices,
Speaker 1: let's face it, um, and so he said, well, it's
Speaker 1: everybody over dinner. So he invited the senior women, about
Speaker 1: twelve of us over for dinner, and he asked each
Speaker 1: one of them to go around and explain what the
Speaker 1: issue was. And I had gone to each of them
Speaker 1: ahead of time, and I said, you better speak up,
Speaker 1: because if you go in there as you are wanting
Speaker 1: to do people are wanting to do. Yes, Mr President,
Speaker 1: everything's just fine, then I will look stupid, and I
Speaker 1: don't really care to look stupid. So fortunately they were
Speaker 1: quite forthcoming, and he listened so closely. And it was
Speaker 1: the same day as if Ford could um massacre, and
Speaker 1: so terrible to have this kind of a crisis on
Speaker 1: our own military basin. President had been in the situation
Speaker 1: room all day, and some of the women thought, well,
Speaker 1: he probably won't come. I said, no, he'll come because
Speaker 1: this is important to him. But what I remember most
Speaker 1: is it at the end he said, look, this is
Speaker 1: a white house. I know it's tense. I know we
Speaker 1: have a lot going on, but you're here for a reason.
Speaker 1: You're here because I need your voices. So don't go
Speaker 1: in there and fight for yourself and let your own
Speaker 1: pry an ego hold you back. If you don't, if
Speaker 1: you get rebuffed, fight for your ideas because I'll make
Speaker 1: a better decision with the benefit of those ideas. Right.
Speaker 1: How empowering was that you tell a group of women
Speaker 1: that they need to go in there and fight because
Speaker 1: that's what the leader of the free world has asked
Speaker 1: you to do. It was amazing. So at the end
Speaker 1: of the dinner, he goes, look, culture takes a minute.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work on this, but I want you to
Speaker 1: come back to me if you don't think we're making progress,
Speaker 1: because we're going to get this right. And so then
Speaker 1: I started inviting the women to dinner and we had
Speaker 1: our own dinners without him, and at the end of
Speaker 1: the each dinner, I would say um, do we need
Speaker 1: to have another dinner with the president? They go, no, no,
Speaker 1: we're We're good. And the reason we were good is
Speaker 1: that we got to know each other. We told our stories,
Speaker 1: our children, our parents, our life dreams, where we've been before,
Speaker 1: and we developed a relationship with one another. When you
Speaker 1: go into a meeting and you see somebody around the
Speaker 1: table who you just had dinner with the like the
Speaker 1: night before, and they know you, you are much more
Speaker 1: confident about speaking up right. And people thought we orchestrated
Speaker 1: this to like amplify each other's voices, but it actually
Speaker 1: happened quite organically because we cared about each other. And
Speaker 1: if somebody's hanging out there on a sentence and nobody's listening,
Speaker 1: and you care about that person, you'll say to the
Speaker 1: room and wait a minute, what about what Melancha said?
Speaker 1: And I think. So there is safety in numbers, but
Speaker 1: there's also safety and relationships. And it can't just be
Speaker 1: the woman though that was really important. It has to
Speaker 1: be the mento. At the end of the first term,
Speaker 1: somebody said to President Obama, how do you compare how
Speaker 1: you started out to the end of your first term,
Speaker 1: And he said, at the beginning I had the absolute
Speaker 1: best players on the field because that's what we needed.
Speaker 1: He said at the end of the first term, I
Speaker 1: had the best team. Wow. It's a great statement, right,
Speaker 1: And that takes a while to build. And I think
Speaker 1: what we have to do is be intentional about building
Speaker 1: it and not expect it just happen because you think
Speaker 1: it excellent. And I think this um, last statement that
Speaker 1: you made about using one's voice and um really saying
Speaker 1: what you need and you see needs to be done
Speaker 1: is really very very good advice. Thank you for your leadership.
Speaker 1: Long Thank you everyone who's here. You're a coalition of
Speaker 1: the winning and we appreciate it. You see why Valerie
Speaker 1: is so impactful. Here are three things I took away
Speaker 1: from that conversation. First, Valerie reminds us that equality for
Speaker 1: women should mean equality for everyone. One example she shares
Speaker 1: is the value of parental leave for both parents when
Speaker 1: men are equal partners in parenting children, and the entire
Speaker 1: family benefit. Second, Valerie shows the importance of being authentically
Speaker 1: who you are wherever you are. As a manager, she
Speaker 1: learned that empowering people to talk about their lives creates
Speaker 1: a level of vulnerability and relationship that actually makes them
Speaker 1: better at their jobs. Finally, Valery reveals that we grow
Speaker 1: stronger when we find our voice and use it. The
Speaker 1: world needs women's ideas and points of view, and you
Speaker 1: can help ensure women get heard by amplifying the voices
Speaker 1: of the women around you. Tune in next Tuesday to
Speaker 1: hear about our next featured woman and discover why she's
Speaker 1: one of Seneca's one Women to Hear. If you'd like
Speaker 1: to join the Seneca Women Network, go to Seneca Women
Speaker 1: dot com. There you'll get access to exclusive events and workshops,
Speaker 1: plus updates on new podcasts and other opportunities to get involved.
Speaker 1: Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between
Speaker 1: the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with
Speaker 1: support from founding partner PNG. Have a Great Day.