FLOTUS Addresses Needs & Priorities of Working Women

First Lady Michelle Obama used her Thursday speech at the annual meeting of Corporate Voices for Working Families at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington to share details of her life before and after arriving at the White House.

Calling her current life "a very blessed situation, because I have what most families don't have -- tons of support all around, not just my mothr, but staff and administration," FLOTUS advocated for sick leave for parents, flexible work hours for employees and on-site child care, which Mrs. Obama says "is something that keeps many of us up at night."

“Twenty-two million working women don’t have a single paid sick day; that means they lose money any time they have to stay home to take care of their kids,’’ the First Lady added.

Michelle cited a problem that plagues many modern women, the story of the 120-percenter. "If people here are like me -- I call myself a 120-percenter. If I'm not doing any job at 120 percent, I think I'm failing. So if you're trying to do that at home and at work, you find it very difficult and stressful and frustrating."

The real problem for the 120-percenter -- in my opinion -- is that with so little left for herself, everything suffers. Is this a reason why so many American women say they are unhappy?

Remembering her audience of corporate executives, Michelle Obama took a pragmatic, bottom-line focus in her comments: "I found that as I've managed staff, the more flexibility and opportunities that I gave them to be good parents, the more commitment that they made to working with me, the less likely they were to leave because they wouldn't find the same sort of situation somewhere else," Obama said. "So this isn't just about family balance. This is about making work places stronger and more effective, and keeping and attracting the most qualified people. This research is critical to empowering employers and is politically -- particularly important during our current economic climate."

In a lighter moment in her 10-minute speech, FLOTUS reflected that every woman should have a chief of staff and a set of personal assistants. Hope springs eternal. It was smiles all around. Anne