This past Monday, Administration officials, businesses, economists, legislators, advocates, and working citizens came together for the first-ever White House Summit on Working Families. The Summit focused on igniting a national conversation and setting a concrete agenda to bring American workplaces into the 21st century.
These issues are real for everyone. Over the course of the past few months, senior Administration officials -- from the Secretary of Transportation to the First Lady's Chief of Staff -- have been sharing how they're real for them.
"Many businesses already see the competitive advantage of organizing work to ensure that women and workers with families succeed."
Tina Tchen, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady
Before coming to work at the White House, I was a practicing lawyer and experienced first-hand what it was like to grapple with raising young children as a single mom. While I had a demanding job that included late nights and lots of travel, I had the good fortune to have the resources to have wonderful childcare in my home that I trusted and who were always available for me and my kids. And I was also able to take full advantage of technological advances, as I could put my kids to bed at night and then go back to writing legal briefs that I could fax back in the middle of the night, and later, I could send in through my computer when that became possible. (Yes, I am old enough to remember when there was no such thing as the internet or a laptop computer).
But I also know that I was one of the lucky ones: Millions of working parents in America do not have these advantages and instead are struggling to hold jobs that make ends meet, while worrying about who is taking care of their kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment