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Q & A
Cokie Roberts:
On women, the workplace, and the “Angry Mommy” voice
By Jana Eisenberg
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Photo courtesy of Cokie Roberts.
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The WNY Women’s Fund is getting ready to host its second annual Signature Event, this year featuring keynote speaker Cokie Roberts. The date is July 21; it’ll be held in the Mary Seaton Room at Kleinhans Music Hall. According to WWF executive director Brigid Doherty, with this event and its high-profile speaker, the Fund is aiming for a combination of outcomes. “The idea is to do more than honor the many folks in town who are doing great work,” says Doherty. “We want this event to be about the work that every woman and girl does. We want to bring people to our community who have deep connections to women’s issues, and be attractive to multigenerational audiences.”
Cokie Roberts clearly fits the bill. The sixty-seven-year-old nationally renowned political analyst, correspondent, and author, is also known for her relationships: wife of a well-known journalist, Steve Roberts; daughter of two famous Louisiana politicians, Hale and Lindy Boggs; and mother and grandmother in her own right.
She’s outspoken and committed to raising awareness of women’s issues and their context in history. Her bestselling non-fiction books include We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters, Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, and Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation. From This Day Forward, co-written with her husband, uses their marriage as a springboard from which to discuss, among other relevant topics, work, family, parents, and children.
Roberts spoke with Spree in advance of her trip here.
What is the appeal for you of speaking at the WNY Women’s Fund event?
The Women’s Fund is doing wonderful work, in terms of their excellent understanding of the needs [of their community] and the effective programs to address those needs. They are interested in working on women and girls’ ability to support themselves.
These “women’s funds” go back a long way; in modern incarnations they’re a wonderful and fascinating change on the philanthropic scene. They exist all over, providing a place where women pool their resources in non-ego-based ways. In 2004–05, there was a real turnaround: women began giving more money than men do. They also give it differently: it’s not about their name on a building, it’s about what works.
They want to fund programs that benefit women and girls. If you want to improve the economic standing of any community anywhere, you do it by improving the situation for women and girls. And women who give say, “I want my money to go to what works.”
What do you think has instigated this change in modern giving?
Women have more money [now] and have the sense that it’s their money. In the past, it was difficult to get women to give; they felt it was the family’s money, and they didn’t have the power to give it away. Blessedly, that has changed. Women realized they could do it themselves and started organizing these groups. Both my daughter and my daughter-in-law separately, and in different cities, decided they wanted to give their resources independently—and give where it would make a difference.
There have been many changes in society as a whole with regard to women and their roles. Do you notice that women still experience discrimination in national politics?
Of course they do. And in order for there to be even more changes, women have to be aware of and ready to report any difficulties; they cannot be frightened. Frankly, what was going on with [New York Governor David] Paterson [regarding his supposed intervention in his aide’s legal troubles] is very serious. He [allegedly] intimidated someone who was trying to report domestic violence. It is not okay to have men [try to intimidate] women, to stop them from prosecuting, speaking out, going to court.
Have you noticed changes within journalism over the course of your career?
There were no women at all; now two out of three major networks have female anchors.
Where else have you seen improvement?
There have been huge strides. It takes public policy to create change, and the laws have changed. Everything in the workplace is different now; it has changed dramatically. In 1964, help-wanted ads used to specify whether they were seeking a male or female, white or colored!
That doesn’t mean that there is pay equity. This is the next big hurdle to deal with. And it doesn’t mean that we have family-friendly workplaces.
The facts are that a larger and larger proportion of college graduates are female. After college, they want to get into the workplace. But studies show that women of every economic stratum are dropping out of the workplace—they are not able to get there or stay there because of caretaking concerns. Children are the most obvious of those concerns, but statistics also show that, in one out of four families, there is the need to care for an elderly parent. We’ve just got to create more family-friendly workplaces.
What do you plan to speak about to the Women’s Fund audience?
The theme of the event, “What She’s Made Of,” is fine, but there are a lot of other things to talk about; this type of contribution is so important. I will talk about what is going on around the country, and hope to build excitement at being part of a movement. People don’t really think of that aspect.
What do you think about politics these days?
Washington is going through a rough moment. Nobody is getting things done—they’re not speaking to or hearing each other. We have gone through many such moments in our history. They’ve even been more partisan—remember the Civil War? In the early days, people used to go out and duel. It’s certainly better than that.
Of all the frustrations that characterize our government, which do you find most infuriating?
The refusal to have any sense of responsibility about making things better for the country. If I could do something to fix it, I’d have to use my “Angry Mommy” voice and say: “I don’t care who started it, now behave and get it done!” Unfortunately, politicians won’t stop because voters reward that behavior. People say that they hate partisanship, but the minute politicians put it aside, they lose their voters.
What do you see for your grandchildren’s futures?
Things will continue to change. My eldest grandchild is nine now. [My grandchildren] live in a very different world than I did when I was nine—in many ways a much better world. It’s more diverse, more equal, much better informed.
I think the girls will still grow up to take on—and to want to take on—caretaking roles. And the boys, to some extent, will make it so that can happen. But the girls’ participation in the world of caretaking should not be at the cost of being excluded from the world of work. As a country we have to do that now. If we don’t, we will be noncompetitive and nonproductive in the global marketplace.
Jana Eisenberg is a frequent Spree contributor. For more information on Roberts’s visit here, and the work of the WNY Women’s Fund, go to www.wnywomensfund.org or call 887-2621.
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