Photo credit: bizjournals.com
President Obama met in Charlotte yesterday with working women to chat women’s salaries, women’s advancement and more, courtesy of media company She Knows and Blog Her. The town hall meeting with the President was moderated by Blog Her co-founder Lisa Stone (Blog Her became a part of She Knows back in November 2014). This intimate town hall was a great effort on the part of the White House to reach to women’s audiences through social media. The President took questions from the online community and from Blog Her contributors.
As I listened to parts of the town hall on You Tube, I was inspired to see the progress made in reaching various audiences through diversified platforms about women’s issues. Questions around the wage gap being caused by discrimination or just lifestyle choice, the failure of the Paycheck Fairness Act, women in tech, and early childhood care dominated this seemingly casual, but oh so important conversation. Here are 4 things we gathered from the discussion:
1. Equal Pay: Blog Her co-founder raised the question of pay equality, alluding to the fact the Paycheck Fairness Act has already failed four times. Arguing the Act has been blocked by the Republicans, President Obama insisted: “The whole point of equal pay is people doing the same job and getting paid less”.
2. Early childhood care: President Obama’s remarks on the need for early childhood care to be of “high quality” brought relief to all, as we’re seeing much needed (and much celebrated) improvements at the state level.
3. Women in Tech: In the words of the President, ““Because of the way we structure STEM education, girls get discouraged early from going into those fields. We know from experiments and data, some of it is just making little changes in the way this is taught.” All agreed companies should do more to hire women and girls, and encourage them to pursue these traditionally male-dominated fields in college.
4. College education and student loans: More funds are being distributed to students through Pell grants directly through the government, thus eliminating middlemen banks’ fees. The current administration has also worked to cap student loans’ interest rates, while also helping grads through a program called income-based repayment. Last but not least, Obama’s budget proposal also counts a measure to offer two years of free tuition at community colleges.
All in all, a great conversation between women, President Obama, and the public at large! Now that we’ve talked the talk, let’s walk it…
What did you think about the Obama/SheKnows Media town hall meeting?
The Corporate Sis.
