1
00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:03,216
What does a working mother look like?

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:06,496
If you ask the Internet,
this is what you'll be told.

3
00:00:06,520 --> 00:00:10,950
Never mind that this is
what you'll actually produce

4
00:00:10,970 --> 00:00:13,856
if you attempt to work at a computer
with a baby on your lap.

5
00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:15,416
(Laughter)

6
00:00:15,440 --> 00:00:18,336
But no, this isn't a working mother.

7
00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,536
You'll notice a theme in these photos.
We'll look at a lot of them.

8
00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:23,976
That theme is amazing natural lighting,

9
00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,136
which, as we all know,

10
00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:31,336
is the hallmark
of every American workplace.

11
00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:34,816
There are thousands of images like these.

12
00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:38,256
Just put the term "working mother"
into any Google image search engine,

13
00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:39,536
stock photo site.

14
00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:41,016
They're all over the Internet,

15
00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:43,416
they're topping
blog posts and news pieces,

16
00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,776
and I've become kind of obsessed with them
and the lie that they tell us

17
00:00:47,800 --> 00:00:49,776
and the comfort that they give us,

18
00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:53,216
that when it comes
to new working motherhood in America,

19
00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:55,016
everything's fine.

20
00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:56,616
But it's not fine.

21
00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:00,056
As a country, we are sending
millions of women back to work

22
00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:04,016
every year, incredibly
and kind of horrifically soon

23
00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:05,696
after they give birth.

24
00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:07,416
That's a moral problem

25
00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:11,336
but today I'm also going to tell you
why it's an economic problem.

26
00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:14,976
I got so annoyed and obsessed
with the unreality of these images,

27
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,016
which look nothing like my life,

28
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:22,216
that I recently decided to shoot and star
in a parody series of stock photos

29
00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:24,376
that I hoped the world would start to use

30
00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:28,656
just showing the really awkward reality
of going back to work

31
00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,240
when your baby's food source
is attached to your body.

32
00:01:33,320 --> 00:01:35,696
I'm just going to show you two of them.

33
00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:37,776
(Laughter)

34
00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:40,896
Nothing says "Give that girl a promotion"
like leaking breast milk

35
00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:43,056
through your dress during a presentation.

36
00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:45,496
You'll notice that there's
no baby in this photo,

37
00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,136
because that's not how this works,

38
00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:50,496
not for most working mothers.

39
00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:52,576
Did you know, and this will ruin your day,

40
00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:55,776
that every time a toilet is flushed,
its contents are aerosolized

41
00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,216
and they'll stay airborne for hours?

42
00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,976
And yet, for many new working mothers,

43
00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:04,256
this is the only place during the day
that they can find to make food

44
00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:05,600
for their newborn babies.

45
00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:10,336
I put these things,
a whole dozen of them, into the world.

46
00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:11,976
I wanted to make a point.

47
00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:15,416
I didn't know what I was also doing
was opening a door,

48
00:02:15,440 --> 00:02:18,976
because now, total strangers
from all walks of life

49
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:20,936
write to me all the time

50
00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,816
just to tell me what it's like
for them to go back to work

51
00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:27,856
within days or weeks of having a baby.

52
00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:30,456
I'm going to share
10 of their stories with you today.

53
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,856
They are totally real,
some of them are very raw,

54
00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,920
and not one of them
looks anything like this.

55
00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:40,136
Here's the first.

56
00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:43,856
"I was an active duty
service member at a federal prison.

57
00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:48,256
I returned to work after the maximum
allowed eight weeks for my C-section.

58
00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:52,336
A male coworker was annoyed
that I had been out on 'vacation,'

59
00:02:52,360 --> 00:02:55,789
so he intentionally opened the door on me
while I was pumping breast milk

60
00:02:55,813 --> 00:02:59,856
and stood in the doorway
with inmates in the hallway."

61
00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:03,176
Most of the stories that these women,
total strangers, send to me now,

62
00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:05,456
are not actually even about breastfeeding.

63
00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:07,376
A woman wrote to me to say,

64
00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:12,176
"I gave birth to twins and went back
to work after seven unpaid weeks.

65
00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:13,856
Emotionally, I was a wreck.

66
00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:18,216
Physically, I had a severe hemorrhage
during labor, and major tearing,

67
00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:20,976
so I could barely get up, sit or walk.

68
00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,856
My employer told me I wasn't allowed
to use my available vacation days

69
00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:26,640
because it was budget season."

70
00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:32,416
I've come to believe that we can't look
situations like these in the eye

71
00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:34,256
because then we'd be horrified,

72
00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:37,336
and if we get horrified
then we have to do something about it.

73
00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:41,216
So we choose to look at,
and believe, this image.

74
00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,696
I don't really know
what's going on in this picture,

75
00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:46,376
because I find it weird
and slightly creepy.

76
00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:47,816
(Laughter)

77
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:49,056
Like, what is she doing?

78
00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:53,096
But I know what it tells us.

79
00:03:53,120 --> 00:03:55,656
It tells us that everything's fine.

80
00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:59,416
This working mother, all working mothers
and all of their babies, are fine.

81
00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:01,416
There's nothing to see here.

82
00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:04,856
And anyway, women have made a choice,

83
00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,176
so none of it's even our problem.

84
00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:10,136
I want to break this choice thing
down into two parts.

85
00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,776
The first choice says
that women have chosen to work.

86
00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:16,016
So, that's not true.

87
00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:21,255
Today in America, women make up
47 percent of the workforce,

88
00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:23,256
and in 40 percent of American households

89
00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:26,816
a woman is the sole
or primary breadwinner.

90
00:04:26,840 --> 00:04:31,376
Our paid work is a part, a huge part,
of the engine of this economy,

91
00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:34,176
and it is essential
for the engines of our families.

92
00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:38,376
On a national level,
our paid work is not optional.

93
00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:41,336
Choice number two says that women
are choosing to have babies,

94
00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,480
so women alone should bear
the consequences of those choices.

95
00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:47,976
You know, that's one of those things

96
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:50,456
that when you hear it in passing,
can sound correct.

97
00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:51,909
I didn't make you have a baby.

98
00:04:51,933 --> 00:04:54,016
I certainly wasn't there
when that happened.

99
00:04:54,040 --> 00:05:00,056
But that stance
ignores a fundamental truth,

100
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:04,976
which is that our procreation
on a national scale is not optional.

101
00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:09,496
The babies that women, many of them
working women, are having today,

102
00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:12,736
will one day fill our workforce,
protect our shores,

103
00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:14,576
make up our tax base.

104
00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:18,776
Our procreation
on a national scale is not optional.

105
00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:20,176
These aren't choices.

106
00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:24,016
We need women to work.
We need working women to have babies.

107
00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:26,517
So we should make
doing those things at the same time

108
00:05:26,541 --> 00:05:27,941
at least palatable, right?

109
00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:31,656
OK, this is pop quiz time:

110
00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,616
what percentage of working
women in America do you think

111
00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:38,160
have no access to paid maternity leave?

112
00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:40,640
88 percent.

113
00:05:41,873 --> 00:05:45,016
88 percent of working mothers
will not get one minute of paid leave

114
00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:46,656
after they have a baby.

115
00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:50,296
So now you're thinking about unpaid leave.

116
00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:53,896
It exists in America.
It's called FMLA. It does not work.

117
00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:56,896
Because of the way it's structured,
all kinds of exceptions,

118
00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:00,936
half of new mothers are ineligible for it.

119
00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:02,294
Here's what that looks like.

120
00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:06,136
"We adopted our son.

121
00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:10,376
When I got the call, the day he was born,
I had to take off work.

122
00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:13,536
I had not been there long enough
to qualify for FMLA,

123
00:06:13,560 --> 00:06:16,296
so I wasn't eligible for unpaid leave.

124
00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:18,736
When I took time off
to meet my newborn son,

125
00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:19,960
I lost my job."

126
00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:26,736
These corporate stock photos
hide another reality, another layer.

127
00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:30,376
Of those who do have access
to just that unpaid leave,

128
00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:33,576
most women can't afford
to take much of it at all.

129
00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:37,096
A nurse told me, "I didn't qualify
for short-term disability

130
00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:41,176
because my pregnancy
was considered a preexisting condition.

131
00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:43,867
We used up all of our tax returns
and half of our savings

132
00:06:43,891 --> 00:06:45,736
during my six unpaid weeks.

133
00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:47,496
We just couldn't manage any longer.

134
00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:50,056
Physically it was hard,
but emotionally it was worse.

135
00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:53,056
I struggled for months
being away from my son."

136
00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:55,976
So this decision
to go back to work so early,

137
00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:00,176
it's a rational economic decision
driven by family finances,

138
00:07:00,200 --> 00:07:02,456
but it's often physically horrific

139
00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:06,016
because putting a human
into the world is messy.

140
00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:07,456
A waitress told me,

141
00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:11,016
"With my first baby, I was back
at work five weeks postpartum.

142
00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:14,096
With my second, I had to have
major surgery after giving birth,

143
00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:17,136
so I waited until six weeks to go back.

144
00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:19,240
I had third degree tears."

145
00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:23,936
23 percent of new
working mothers in America

146
00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:28,560
will be back on the job
within two weeks of giving birth.

147
00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:34,976
"I worked as a bartender and cook,
average of 75 hours a week while pregnant.

148
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,616
I had to return to work
before my baby was a month old,

149
00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:39,656
working 60 hours a week.

150
00:07:39,680 --> 00:07:44,736
One of my coworkers was only able
to afford 10 days off with her baby."

151
00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:48,936
Of course, this isn't just a scenario
with economic and physical implications.

152
00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:54,136
Childbirth is, and always will be,
an enormous psychological event.

153
00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:56,256
A teacher told me,

154
00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:59,256
"I returned to work
eight weeks after my son was born.

155
00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:01,176
I already suffer from anxiety,

156
00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:06,296
but the panic attacks I had prior
to returning to work were unbearable."

157
00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:08,416
Statistically speaking,

158
00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:11,136
the shorter a woman's leave
after having a baby,

159
00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:14,376
the more likely she will be to suffer
from postpartum mood disorders

160
00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:16,496
like depression and anxiety,

161
00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:20,536
and among many potential
consequences of those disorders,

162
00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:23,696
suicide is the second
most common cause of death

163
00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:25,600
in a woman's first year postpartum.

164
00:08:27,240 --> 00:08:28,816
Heads up that this next story --

165
00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:33,416
I've never met this woman,
but I find it hard to get through.

166
00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,616
"I feel tremendous grief and rage
that I lost an essential,

167
00:08:37,640 --> 00:08:41,496
irreplaceable and formative
time with my son.

168
00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:44,936
Labor and delivery
left me feeling absolutely broken.

169
00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:49,616
For months, all I remember
is the screaming: colic, they said.

170
00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:51,776
On the inside, I was drowning.

171
00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:55,496
Every morning, I asked myself
how much longer I could do it.

172
00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:58,696
I was allowed to bring my baby to work.

173
00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:01,856
I closed my office door
while I rocked and shushed

174
00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:05,376
and begged him to stop screaming
so I wouldn't get in trouble.

175
00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:07,456
I hid behind that office door
every damn day

176
00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:09,416
and cried while he screamed.

177
00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:13,096
I cried in the bathroom
while I washed out the pump equipment.

178
00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,256
Every day, I cried all the way to work
and all the way home again.

179
00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:19,416
I promised my boss that the work
I didn't get done during the day,

180
00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:21,096
I'd make up at night from home.

181
00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:24,920
I thought, there's just something
wrong with me that I can't swing this."

182
00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:29,136
So those are the mothers.

183
00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:30,936
What of the babies?

184
00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:33,456
As a country, do we care
about the millions of babies

185
00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:35,336
born every year to working mothers?

186
00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:36,696
I say we don't,

187
00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:40,176
not until they're of working
and tax-paying and military-serving age.

188
00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:42,105
We tell them we'll see them in 18 years,

189
00:09:42,129 --> 00:09:43,891
and getting there is kind of on them.

190
00:09:45,854 --> 00:09:48,616
One of the reasons I know this
is that babies whose mothers

191
00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:50,936
have 12 or more weeks at home with them

192
00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:54,936
are more likely to get their vaccinations
and their well checks in their first year,

193
00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:59,656
so those babies are more protected
from deadly and disabling diseases.

194
00:09:59,680 --> 00:10:02,920
But those things are hidden
behind images like this.

195
00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:11,776
America has a message for new mothers
who work and for their babies.

196
00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:15,576
Whatever time you get together,
you should be grateful for it,

197
00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:18,336
and you're an inconvenience

198
00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,376
to the economy and to your employers.

199
00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:25,936
That narrative of gratitude
runs through a lot of the stories I hear.

200
00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:27,616
A woman told me,

201
00:10:27,640 --> 00:10:29,816
"I went back at eight weeks
after my C-section

202
00:10:29,840 --> 00:10:31,656
because my husband was out of work.

203
00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:34,416
Without me, my daughter
had failure to thrive.

204
00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:35,736
She wouldn't take a bottle.

205
00:10:35,760 --> 00:10:37,376
She started losing weight.

206
00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:40,216
Thankfully, my manager
was very understanding.

207
00:10:40,240 --> 00:10:41,776
He let my mom bring my baby,

208
00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:44,096
who was on oxygen and a monitor,

209
00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:46,240
four times a shift so I could nurse her."

210
00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:51,336
There's a little club
of countries in the world

211
00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:55,216
that offer no national
paid leave to new mothers.

212
00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:57,696
Care to guess who they are?

213
00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:01,656
The first eight make up eight million
in total population.

214
00:11:01,680 --> 00:11:05,176
They are Papua New Guinea,
Suriname and the tiny island nations

215
00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:11,416
of Micronesia, Marshall Islands,
Nauru, Niue, Palau and Tonga.

216
00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:13,816
Number nine is
the United States of America,

217
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:15,920
with 320 million people.

218
00:11:17,320 --> 00:11:19,656
Oh, that's it.

219
00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:22,256
That's the end of the list.

220
00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:23,896
Every other economy on the planet

221
00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:27,816
has found a way to make some level
of national paid leave work

222
00:11:27,840 --> 00:11:30,816
for the people doing the work
of the future of those countries,

223
00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:34,896
but we say,
"We couldn't possibly do that."

224
00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:37,416
We say that the market
will solve this problem,

225
00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:41,776
and then we cheer when corporations
offer even more paid leave to the women

226
00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:45,056
who are already the highest-educated
and highest-paid among us.

227
00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:46,896
Remember that 88 percent?

228
00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:50,760
Those middle- and low-income women
are not going to participate in that.

229
00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:57,336
We know that there are staggering
economic, financial, physical

230
00:11:57,360 --> 00:11:59,896
and emotional costs to this approach.

231
00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:03,936
We have decided --
decided, not an accident,

232
00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:07,896
to pass these costs directly
on to working mothers and their babies.

233
00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:10,576
We know the price tag is higher
for low-income women,

234
00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,376
therefore disproportionately
for women of color.

235
00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:15,856
We pass them on anyway.

236
00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:18,496
All of this is to America's shame.

237
00:12:18,520 --> 00:12:22,416
But it's also to America's risk.

238
00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:24,336
Because what would happen

239
00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:28,416
if all of these individual
so-called choices to have babies

240
00:12:28,440 --> 00:12:32,440
started to turn into individual choices
not to have babies.

241
00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:35,016
One woman told me,

242
00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:38,296
"New motherhood is hard.
It shouldn't be traumatic.

243
00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:40,576
When we talk about expanding
our family now,

244
00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:44,896
we focus on how much time I would have
to care for myself and a new baby.

245
00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:48,216
If we were to have to do it again
the same way as with our first,

246
00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:49,880
we might stick with one kid."

247
00:12:51,800 --> 00:12:54,696
The birthrate needed in America
to keep the population stable

248
00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:56,856
is 2.1 live births per woman.

249
00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:00,856
In America today, we are at 1.86.

250
00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:03,176
We need women to have babies,

251
00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:07,736
and we are actively disincentivizing
working women from doing that.

252
00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:10,976
What would happen to work force,
to innovation, to GDP,

253
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:15,136
if one by one, the working mothers
of this country were to decide

254
00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,520
that they can't bear
to do this thing more than once?

255
00:13:19,680 --> 00:13:23,176
I'm here today with only
one idea worth spreading,

256
00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:25,336
and you've guessed what it is.

257
00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,056
It is long since time
for the most powerful country on Earth

258
00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:31,136
to offer national paid leave

259
00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:33,875
to the people doing the work
of the future of this country

260
00:13:33,899 --> 00:13:36,776
and to the babies
who represent that future.

261
00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:38,936
Childbirth is a public good.

262
00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:41,496
This leave should be state-subsidized.

263
00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:44,016
It should have no exceptions
for small businesses,

264
00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:46,496
length of employment or entrepreneurs.

265
00:13:46,520 --> 00:13:48,896
It should be able
to be shared between partners.

266
00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:50,896
I've talked today a lot about mothers,

267
00:13:50,920 --> 00:13:53,600
but co-parents matter on so many levels.

268
00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,616
Not one more woman
should have to go back to work

269
00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:01,816
while she is hobbling and bleeding.

270
00:14:01,840 --> 00:14:05,496
Not one more family should have
to drain their savings account

271
00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:09,176
to buy a few days
of rest and recovery and bonding.

272
00:14:09,200 --> 00:14:11,496
Not one more fragile infant

273
00:14:11,520 --> 00:14:14,456
should have to go directly
from the incubator to day care

274
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,176
because his parents have used up
all of their meager time

275
00:14:17,200 --> 00:14:18,816
sitting in the NICU.

276
00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:21,698
Not one more working family
should be told that the collision

277
00:14:21,722 --> 00:14:26,056
of their work, their needed work
and their needed parenthood,

278
00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:27,560
is their problem alone.

279
00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:33,416
The catch is that when this is happening
to a new family, it is consuming,

280
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:36,216
and a family with a new baby
is more financially vulnerable

281
00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:37,696
than they've ever been before,

282
00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:41,656
so that new mother cannot afford
to speak up on her own behalf.

283
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:43,896
But all of us have voices.

284
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:47,496
I am done, done having babies,

285
00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:49,376
and you might be pre-baby,

286
00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:50,776
you might be post-baby,

287
00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:52,416
you might be no baby.

288
00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:54,296
It should not matter.

289
00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:56,736
We have to stop framing this
as a mother's issue,

290
00:14:56,760 --> 00:14:58,456
or even a women's issue.

291
00:14:58,480 --> 00:15:00,040
This is an American issue.

292
00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:05,696
We need to stop buying the lie
that these images tell us.

293
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:07,976
We need to stop being comforted by them.

294
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,656
We need to question
why we're told that this can't work

295
00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:13,976
when we see it work
everywhere all over the world.

296
00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:17,776
We need to recognize
that this American reality

297
00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:21,416
is to our dishonor and to our peril.

298
00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:23,616
Because this is not,

299
00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:25,256
this is not,

300
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,760
and this is not
what a working mother looks like.

301
00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:31,920
(Applause)