*Former First Lady Michelle Obama made her first public appearance since she and Barack Obama left the White House in January, stepping out at the American Institute of Artist’s annual conference last week in Orlando, Florida.
During her appearance, Mrs. Obama reiterated that she will NOT be running for office, “I wouldn’t ask my children to do this again because, when you run for higher office, it’s not just you, it’s your whole family,” she said, noting that she will continue her work on two important causes: ending childhood obesity and promoting education.
She also offered a simple reason about why she didn’t cry on Inauguration Day.
Check out some additional highlights below via The American Institute of Architects and The Orlando Sentinel.
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On the challenges of being a working mother:
“It’s not easy,” she said, “and it’s never going to be. The one thing I can say to working mothers out there: Don’t beat up on yourselves. What you are doing is hard, and we still don’t live in a society that supports it.”
She shared the story of returning to her position at the University of Chicago and not only asking for higher pay but also requesting a schedule that would allow her to spend more times with her children.
“If you have leverage, you have to push for the women who don’t,” she said. “We have to start asking for what we need, and then we need employers to be more open to what work-life balance can actually look like.”
On diversity in the workforce:
“That’s not just the field of architecture,” Obama replied. “Look at law, look at science, look at so many professions. The struggle is still real. You can’t start recruiting from a pool that doesn’t exist. You have to build that pool, and you have to start at a young age. So many kids don’t even know what an architect is.”
She added, “They don’t think about how buildings are built; they don’t know anything about developing or planning. I know I didn’t, and I was an educated kid. You have kids growing up in communities where people don’t even work, period, let alone as doctors or lawyers or architects. But that’s where all of you come in. You need to go to schools, neighborhoods, communities, any place where underrepresented minorities exist, and start talking. Start small. Make a friend.”
On why she didn’t cry on Inauguration day:
“I didn’t want to have tears in my eyes because people would swear I was crying because of the new president.”
On President Obama’s artistic side and the new Library:
“I don’t get to work with them often but our architects are so much fun. The creative process—space, time—they think about things that we wouldn’t ever think of. We’re also closely considering the exterior, how it will relate to the community. The architects we’re working with are phenomenal; they’re listening, they’re doing their homework, they’re researching and starting to understand the South Side of Chicago.”
When the event host reminded everyone that Barack once wanted to be an architect, Michelle shared:
“Barack is an artist, though he tries to downplay it. He’s the kind of guy who says, ‘I don’t care what the living room looks like,’ and then has a thousand questions and opinions about everything. He’s someone with ideas, he’s someone who thinks big. That’s what architects do too, right?”
On her not running for president:
“It’s all well and good until you start running, and then the knives come out,” she said at the conference. There’s just so much more we can do outside of the office, because we won’t have the burden of political baggage.”
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