Michelle Obama, ‘mom-in-chief’

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>>> to our conversation about brkt control we should note the senate republicans blount and scott brown co-sponsored an amendment that would essentially override the hhs's decision and also allow people that are employers to deny contraception coverage for any reason both spiritual or moral or anything else so, that was actually a substantive piece of policy advanced by the politicians.

>> moderate.

>> scott brown in a very highly contested race against elizabeth warren .

>>> first lady michelle obama moved an incredible moving speech which combined her love for her country and her love for her husband an her kids. she talked about working hard, doing what you're supposed to do with honesty and inted gri and she did it with tears in here ey eyes. these are the kinds of things they're trying to pass on to their children. this is what most stood out to me.

>> at the end of the day my most important title is still mom in chief. my daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world.

>> joining me now is kristin rowe-finkbeiner. you were down in charlotte. you spoke at a meeting of the women 's caucus, i think the same morning that michelle obama was speaking. what's your reaction to that line? what does that line mean to you?

>> i love that line. that line was like a modern feminist statement. one of the reasons for that is that 80% of women do have children by the time we're 44 years old, but too often women have to hide the fact that we have children, we hide the pictures in our offices, we don't talk about our children in the professional world because there is significant wage and hiring discrimination against moms. so to have the first lady stand up there and say my job and one of the important parts of my jobs is mom in chief is a significant boost to the women out there who are struggling.

>> did you interpret it the same way?

>> yes, i did.

>> did you really?

>> yes. well in the sense of saying, yeah, i thought it was honest and i thought it was fundamentally for women . they wake up every day and you can go to work and you can work two jobs, you try to make ens meet but fundamentally what you want is best for your children. that's what she roy was saying. she was speaking to the american women juggling two jobs, who are trying to find a way to get the kids to soccer and get the car tuned up and so she was talking to middle america out there. and she is a mom, and she adores those children. she wants to protect them on some level and so to me sh is the mom in chief and she spoke to the american public around that issue economically and emotionally.

>> john.

>> there's something i'm unclear of on this. it disturb me. it disturbed me when she spoke in 2008 . no matter how hard i try -- i understand what you're say -- what i saw was someone with legal training, a high-powered career where she's in a situation for whatever situation she has to be the prisoner for the coo california the career of her husband for four years, maybe eight. most people are parents and that's important but the idea is she has to downplay all of the other things that she is. and she has to and i get it but i just look at her as a high-powered career person who is not a man where the primary image of her for us and the one where we're all supposed to well up is she's married to a person and we give her an ovation to being married to a person who we like and she has to talk about the fact that she's a parent and is primary. that is to all of us parents to an extent. but if we were getting to the past i would like it to be equally prominent and she's doing something on her own --

>> i should note that people noted the introductory video of her did not talk about the fact that she's an attorney and her job is administrator of the hospital in chicago.

>> i think downplaying women 's intellectual success is an incredible problem in society and that gets to the root of why saying mom in chief was a feminist statement because it's putting out there front and center that mom in chief is something that a lot of women do, it's unpaid labor and it's not recognized and we're penalized so significantly for it that we have to hide it. one thing i want to do is what is going on in the background? what's the context of this statement? we have a new time in history. three quarters of moms are in the labor force . first them are the primary time in history half of the entire labor force are women but we do not have the economic policies in place to make sure we have economic security . we have a quarter of children living in poverty. so in that sense we had missouri in her speed speaking to economic security policies and speaking to the pass alk of the lilly ledbetter page rate act. we didn't have her bringing forward her kre dren den chals in the way i like but i stand by the fact that the mom in chief is an important statement because we need to acknowledge it's important work.

>> it was taken that way.

>> yeah.

>> i want to just in a second bring in jessica valenti who just wrote a book about having kids and the roles that mother's play symbiotically and actually ly because there's this discussion they're having and also an amazing bitter sound of mitt romney 's mother talking about her views on these two different roles right after we take this break.