Forever First Lady Michelle Obama tells women to do more than “lean in” in a new interview.
As Obama continues on tour for her now best-selling book “Becoming,” she dropped some gems for women who are juggling several tasks and explained that it is impossible to have it all. In short, Obama said its because “that s— doesn’t work all the time.”
“Marriage still ain’t equal, y’all,” Obama said to an audience in Brooklyn on Saturday. “It ain’t equal. I tell women that whole ‘you can have it all’ — mmm, nope, not at the same time, that’s a lie. It’s not always enough to lean in because that s— doesn’t work all the time.”
Obama may have been referring to the feminist ideas Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg wrote in her book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” which encourages women to be more ambitious. “I thought we were at home, y’all. I was getting real comfortable up in here. All right, I’m back now. Sometimes that stuff doesn’t work,” Obama said apologizing for using curse words.
Sandberg’s book “Lean In” spoke to women readers about how to take control of their professional lives, fight for equal pay and highlighted resources and outlets women can use to better their careers. Duke University launched a study that involved 2,000 participants to test the lean-in approach and how it worked with structural and systemic disadvantages women face in the workplace, according to Business Insider. By the end of the trial, researchers found that women did feel they could end inequality in the workplace but “were also more likely to believe that women are responsible for the problem — both for causing it and for fixing it.”
Sandberg also received criticism that her book neglected underprivileged women back in 2016.
