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Former First Lady Michelle Obama is tired of young women not being able to be as sure of themselves as young men are.
During Wednesday’s episode of her “IMO” podcast, which she co-hosts with her brother Craig Robinson, Obama spoke to “Seinfeld” and “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus about how she wishes younger women had the unbridled confidence that young men in their 30s have — arguing that when women finally start feeling good about themselves, they’re older and less visible to society.
“We’re always hedging, you know, because in the back of our minds, we weren’t raised with the certainty of maleness that, you know – kind of the confidence that young men in their 30s have, which they haven’t earned. They just have it,” she told the actress.
“You know, we don’t start feeling that and owning that until our 50s and 60s, at a time when we start to be treated as invisible in society,” Obama added.
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The topic came up with Louis-Dreyfus mentioning how she has become friends with 87-year-old actress Jane Fonda in recent years and has marveled at her “extraordinary” life that isn’t in the spotlight as much anymore.
“And I was so struck by the breadth of her life, the profundity – she’s done so many different things. And it got me thinking about, wow, there’s so many women out there that are older – I mean, at the time she was 85, I believe – that are older that have had these extraordinary lives, and we’re not hearing from them.”
Obama suggested this was a societal issue, replying, “We’ve talked about this a lot, how women, as we age, we get pushed out of the picture.”
“Yeah, it’s incredible,” the “Seinfeld” actress replied.
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Obama went on to say, now that she’s older, she finally feels sure of herself and confident in her wisdom — a mindset she said she couldn’t experience when she was younger.
“Now that I’m 60… this is really the first time in my life where I feel completely me, and I can absolutely embrace my wisdom,” she said. “I mean, because I think we, as women, we spend most of our lives saying, ‘Well, maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about.’ We qualify everything,”
“We apologize,” Louis-Dreyfus interjected.
“We apologize. We don’t want to put our opinions on the table because maybe we’re wrong,” Obama continued.
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Since the start of her podcast with Robinson, Obama has remained largely apolitical, choosing to focus more on lifestyle topics and questions about family and personal relationships.
In a May episode with pop star Beyoncé Knowles’ mom, Tina Knowles, Obama urged parents to resist the urge to be friends with their kids as they’re growing up.
“And so many people are trying to be their kids’ friends, and they think that that makes you closer,” Obama said. “But let me tell you, I was not my children’s friend. I love them deeply. There was respect. And, you know, for those of you trying to be friends with your kids, our kids love us just as much as adults. In fact, the relationship, I think, is even closer because now they’ve earned my friendship. Now we can be friends. Now, maybe you know something.”
In a late June episode with social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, Obama stressed the need for parents to limit their kids’ time on smartphones and social media.
“The bottom line is that we’ve got to get tougher. We’ve got to get more resilient for our kids. Because I know time and time again that a lot of parents do what’s easy for them, you know, and not necessarily what’s best for the kid,” she continued.
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