A Conversation with California's First Partner

Hello everyone. Jennifer, it's such a pleasure to have you with us. We are loving being in California, so thank you for inadvertently hosting us. We've never been to Santa Barbara before with MPW, so this is really, really beautiful. There's a lot to talk to you about. I want to start with California. You've spent years, as Kristen said, working on women's representation in power. You talk about the health, wealth, and safety of women and also of children. How is the state of California a bellwether for the sort of issues that you are trying to elevate and solve across the country? Sure. So we have 9 million children under 18 in California. We are the fourth largest economy in the world. Women anchor families, communities, and now as you all know the economy and so one of the reasons we've really invested in California for all women closing not just the pay gap but the California women's wealth gap but also addressing women's safety and women's health is because we know that if women are not able to thrive how can their families their communities and the economy thrive and so I'm really proud of the work we've done there and then clearly children are the future so so much of our work has been on children's physical and mental well-being I'm particularly proud of our farm to school initiative and the ecosystem change that we've done in food in California but I'm also particularly proud of all of the work we've done to address the social health crisis but also to create at the earliest of ages and given all of the damages and downsides of unregulated technologies on our children's health and well-being so parks access outdoor education literacy training for teachers libraries book clubs all of our investments in you know we've just added three new state parks to California um so again our move your body conference is going to be held in our move your body calm your mind campaign with best practices evidence-based in mindfulness and movement for children across the state and their families um so it's been like a wild ride and so much of this comes back to the fact that you know many of us are well everyone in this room is a working woman but many of us are mothers as well or caregivers of nieces and and nephews or aging parents and i wanted to anchor the fact that care and the feminine needed to have a stronger holding government and normalize the fact that we all have lives outside of work that need to be cared for and again if women aren't held for and cared how can we expect their families to thrive and your husband's governorship is winding down i wonder in terms of your legacy what metrics would you like to be judged on as first partner so i mean it's a it's a great question i mean again i'm particularly proud of the work that we've done in terms of women's wealth and closing the women's wealth gap one of our early initiatives on equal pay we do have the strongest equal pay laws in the nation but was to close that gap and so hundreds of companies have signed on to our equal pay pledge but that wasn't enough which is why we turn to women's wealth and so we have financial literacy mandated in all high schools we have CalKids and CalSaver programs that the governor has launched which were launched before the Trump accounts to basically give people uh you know incentives and long-term understanding of the of investing in their children's futures we've created more demo days and tried to expand access to capital for women for female entrepreneurs we're still working on a fund of funds and what have you but i'm really really excited about the women's wealth work that we've done um we've created a road map on for sex trafficking to reduce that because sadly california still is just like many other big border states a a sex trafficking hub i'm very proud of some of the legislation and the governor's eo on that women's wealth or women's health will have a road map at the end of the administration depending on who the next governor is so much of my work i want to transfer or hand off to them, and potentially the next governor might be married to an OBGYN, in which case I think she can really carry the women's health work forward that we will have unveiled in the next month or two. And then when it comes to children's health and well-being, given that we're trying to give them, we're trying to really, we've invested in the whole child. We've invested extraordinary dollars youth behavioral health and we've anchored social health just like the world health organization as critical to physical and mental health and so so much of our work is around really meeting kids where they're at and making sure again that they're getting the the eight i think if they get children are getting two free meals a day over so 54 of california public school children are receiving farm fresh regenerative organic local seasonal meals a day through our farm to school initiative and really excited about that because we've reduced the stigma around free meals all children again are intended to get this we have the governor has institutionalized farm to school in the legislature so that when we're gone California's public schools will continue to benefit from this farm to school roadmap that we've created it's a win-win because we're starting to see better cognitive outcomes better health and outcomes so these are some examples of all the the the myriad of ways we've invested in children and women and community but I'm again I'm And I come at this from the perspective of a working mother who knows that children are our future and that women anchor our society. And you talked about the minefield that is the technological landscape. That's the subject of your film. I want to come on to that in a second. But it's not just young people who are impacted by this. Political spouses have always been scrutinized. Now they're seemingly online targets as well. You found yourself particularly in the center of this maelstrom. I wonder how that feels on a personal level to be the recipient of those various high-profile Republican figures speaking out about you personally how do you deal with that personally so it was really interesting in early spring of last of this year all of a sudden it's like there was this very intentional design target an attack on me and they've clearly gone back to my documentaries and taken things out of context and tried to create a narrative around me and then followed up with what my husband's acknowledged as the DOJ investigation of phishing and just trying to find something because they've been trying to find something on my husband. They couldn't find us. They kept looking, looking, looking. They're like, we'll go after the wife, which is we go after women. I mean, notice that so many of the people that have fallen from the current administration are women. So it's not a surprise there but I think I mean again it's why I've so invested in our children's health and well-being and why I make documentaries to support and empower women and children is because there is a larger agenda here an authoritarian agenda that is afraid of women afraid of our voices afraid of our power we disrupt through our success and through our leadership we disrupt their power and norms and so it's one of the reasons I made this representation rise up my new documentary that will premiere in New York City October 22nd it's been premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and it's been on the festival circuit but it will do its rounds across the country it'll be in California after and then and it'll just kind of be in different cities all over the world. I created this film because technology is the new backlash, unregulated, of course, to... Unregulated technology is the new backlash to girls' and women's mental health, our safety, and our political power. And again, this backlash is happening at an unprecedented rate and at scale. And so it's one of the reasons we've so invested in guardrails in California, to not just protect children, but even just as far as protecting technologies from harming girls and women. You mentioned it, so I just want to give context to the Department of Justice investigation, which I know you've spoken about before. Federal authorities have not publicly detailed any allegation or brought charges. Reporting has focused on whether non-profit payments connected to a production company were properly structured or disclosed. You said the investigation is politically motivated. I want to give you a chance to speak on it. Is there anything you want to say to allay any Californians' questions about your integrity? Well, no, I just, I don't know if you all have experienced this, but there's, look, I'm, I'm, yes, first lady, first partner, first partner, because I wanted to be a partner to California's women, children, and families. Number two, you know, we live in a society that devalues the feminine. I'm not sure you're privy to this, but first ladies are not paid. We volunteer. So I have multiple other jobs, and I work very hard. I have two degrees from Stanford, one Stanford Business School, and I'm very proud of the work that we've done both at the Representation Project and separately I launched a nonprofit that obviously I don't have any financial ties to. But this is the work I was doing before and I've continued to do. And, you know, I find it interesting that women are or, you know, that one just because we've seen this before, this weaponization of the DOJ, you don't hear about all the stories because legally we're not allowed to talk about it. So you just hear when there's some big thing. And I feel sad that we're at this place in the country where the most corrupt administration in our nation's history can say something or target or, again, fish or weaponize the DOJ when, like, it's insane. But, you know, it's the world, sadly, that we're living in. And it's even more complex because you have foreign adversaries that are investing in silencing women's voices. And we also have, you know, an allegiance between the administration and some of the wealthiest individuals in our country who, again, are afraid of the feminine, afraid of feminine power. and and when I say feminine power I'm also speaking to progressive power because my husband has been so outspoken and trying to hold Donald Trump and his cronies accountable I was reading the Vanity Fair report I was reading the Vanity Fair profile of your husband and one thing he mentions Andrew Tate and he says he was asked about the manosphere and he said that he first heard about Andrew Tate the influencer the self-proclaimed misogynist um from your eldest son and i think the women in this room would be really interested to hear how you were talking to your sons and daughters you have two of each about characters like Andrew Tate the manosphere yeah so you know when we were uh living in Sacramento and my kids were all playing competitive sports and as you know like all you had to do was literally consume sports online and your boys in particular were fed in a very short time period misogynistic content and it happens very very quickly just as our girls are fed um misogynistic content that teaches them to devalue themselves um and my son you know my son had been through that you know exposed to Andrew Tate and exposed to Charlie Kirk and so it was just there was this curiosity because again we have a horrific role model in the White House in terms of harassment and criminal behavior towards women but also in terms of business and corruption at the highest level amongst with his own family um intentional corruption um so i just feel like our boys are searching for healthy role models and we have such a culture in our country i made a documentary called The Masculine Living on this whereby we we've sort of normalized bystander behavior, right? Whether we're talking about the Weinstein trial or Epstein situation, there's so many men that have just, and some women who have held positions of power, but who have just kind of sat by and watched all of this behavior go down. And it's very dangerous. And so I don't know where I was going with that. But other than just that, I feel such sadness for our young boys. It's one of the reasons I'm turning the lens on boys and young men next as a follow-up to The Mask You Live In, because it's natural and normal to be searching for masculinities, but it's really hard when financial titans, tech titans, the highest people in the highest offices in this country in terms of government, media empire, entertainment, sports, have historically normalized some of this misogyny or, again, just been bystanders in this culture that we've all created. Are there any good examples of masculinity in that higher echelon that you've just mentioned right now, whether it be tech founders or... Yeah, no, there's wonderful... I mean, there's the wonderful individuals I really like Bill at Pinterest. I really like, you know, I'm a fan of Scott Galloway's. I'm a fan of a lot of, I mean, my husband. Surprise, surprise. Yeah. You know, but again, I just think men are, we're just, our country, our culture is a little bit out of sorts and out of balance and harmony. And so, again, it's why I make the documentaries I make. As I said, I've produced ten documentaries written and directed by, or ten films written and directed five documentaries that I'm really proud of. some have won awards been nominated for Oscars and and won you know critical acclaim and I just I think look media is the largest cultural communicator of our time technology has now surpassed that as the largest cultural communicator of our time sharing communicating our cultural values and they're just a little right they're a little lost and and I think our boys are getting the message and I see this with my son's generation again being reinforced that their value lies in power dominance but also in making money and and we I you know I my goal is to as a parent and I talk to my kids about this but it's also just to kind of shift us back to the middle and it's challenging I mean I think parenting my mom says and my mom had five girls so parenting in today's day and age is harder than it was in her generation and I and I appreciate when she says that because I do think it's really challenging and all of us who are working moms understand how challenging it is so my big thing as first partner was to make it easier for California families so part of our all of our investments in universal pre-k and universal after-school and universal summer school and farm to school and universal meals and all the things we've done have been to mitigate costs and stress to families in California and we've saved them anywhere from 13 to 17 thousand a year just with that and then you add the financial literacy investments in Cal Kids, California families, again, the commitment is to making life easier for Californians. Inescapable in the headlines right now is the Cornell rape case, and it links to what we've just been discussing. I saw you posted about it on your Instagram. What's been the most striking element from your perspective to the huge reaction that this case has garnered? So much. This isn't unique to Cornell. It's not the Cornell 7, it's the Cornell 53. It's every adult that enabled or was a bystander. It's government officials like the top, the president, you know, protecting. It's not even about those boys. It's about all of us. It happens on every campus. It happens with college coaches. It happened with my soccer coach at Stanford. It's like, and it keeps being normalized, and we've done this, and the rage that girls and women are feeling. I'm so proud of them. I'm so proud that they're standing up and speaking out and using their voice online. We have to have their back. This young woman, we have to have her back. I'm disgusted by some of the rhetoric aimed at shaming her and silencing her. It's not okay. And we have work to do as a culture. We just do, and we're all part of that. It's why you all matter. Why you having seats at the tables of power matter. why you having successful companies and wealth to determine the future of not just your community not just your industry but our economy the global economy it's why it matters and on that point what's one social responsibility that you think corporate leaders still underestimate because you're speaking to a pretty influential group of them right now i mean you have to have a triple bottom line you have to yes you have a fiscal bottom line i went to fiscal i get that that's so important but you also have to better the community and that you you reside in and that you work with and you have to address and mitigate climate change we have no choice and i was just a Terra Madre for the Slow Food movement in Italy hosting the California delegation and then we were at the Vatican hosting a summit on belonging and social health like we're uh in i don't think people understand the crisis before us um all you have to do is see the movie Bardo which i know no one's seen because it didn't but like and i'm not a huge whatever i'm not i don't i don't i don't like see Alejandro Iñárritu is like an incredible filmmaker and it's very haunting or at least read about it so you and so you and your children and our communities understand what's at stake with climate change it's why you know is the largest agricultural producer in the country and fifth largest in the world that's why we're so committed to farm to school as a backdoor into regenerative agriculture like we have to consume less use less exploit less we need more of the feminine right and leadership because we're seeing over and over again what the masculine has done not just to our economy but to to climate to mother nature and again to our children's health and well-being addicting them to these technologies that in the long run are stripping them of their humanity and their health and well-being. The million-dollar question is obviously whether your husband is running for president. I'm actually not going to ask you that question as much as we like to break news I don't think you're going to announce that on our stage. I've heard you both say that conversations happen in the family around a decision like this. To the extent that you feel comfortable, take us into what it feels like to be part of the Siebel Newsom family at this moment and how you make such high-stakes decisions. Imagine, just like all of you, I'm exhausted, right? We're exhausted. Working women, the mental load. I made a documentary on this, Fair Play. We're all exhausted. We're holding too much. We need each other. We need villages. I couldn't do anything. I wouldn't be anywhere without my girlfriends, without the sisterhood, without the feminine, without, I actually had a quick walk this morning with one of my best guy friends and his wife from Stanford. and we that community that being seen and known and valued and cherished and held like so important, it's so important and so you know I think self-care is important, it's one of the reasons we launched California Love California strong social connection is critical, it's essential and services I mean I'm hoping that as a society we, let me share this one thing I was just at our social health council uh at the Vatican a week or so ago Robert Putnam of Bowling Alone shared this sort of reminder of our society and where we've been more individualistic and when we've been more communal oriented and we've been healthiest and more vibrant and creative and thriving in those more communal periods which are sort of at the top of the bell curve and to get back there we need to folk to go local, to go young and to go moral and we've lost that and so I think I say that because I think if we're always thinking about it's not that you put every decision on children this is my interpretation, it's not that you tell your children to make every decision is that you include them at the table, it's why we've included our children in our because we need them to co-design the future that they're going to inherit but it's about valuing the fact that they are our future so what Robert Putnam was really reminding us of is that we're out off whack, we're too in the me space, we need to be in the we or we space also acknowledging there's some individual in there, but that's where we're gonna, that's where we're gonna save our individual in there but that's where we're gonna, that's where we're gonna save our economy, that's where we're gonna save our democracy and that's where we're all gonna thrive and I am the biggest proponent of women in leadership because I think when you have that flywheel effect when there's enough of us in leadership we lean into the we or the we, right? we lean into the collective, we're We're more interested in ensuring the future is sustainable and thriving and that we have mother nature intact because we're thinking about not just our children, but our community's children. Very final question and I want to go back to the film, which is the film is very much about young girls, young women and how their sense of self and their place in the world is being shaped by the forces of technology and social media. one thing that the women in this room should leave and do or say to the young women in in their lives whether it's an employee a daughter a niece a friend, one takeaway from everything you've learned from making this representation rise up, um, if you go to our hub at the rep project.org we have all of these partner organizations like Elise Nelson at Vital Voices and all of her work where you can join the movement, it is a movement, um, it's a movement around taking back tech and creating more balance and harmony in your life. I think it's important to ask every young person to like how they feel after using technology as it is today. I also think it's important that you inspire them to be to aspire towards STEM careers and leadership in tech and not shy away from it because we need that female feminine perspective. We need that mother maternal perspective and leadership in tech, um, and i think once we have that we will all be in a better place, someone that might balk slightly at the sense of the feminine in leadership, what would you say, what would you say oh it's transformative it's everything i mean think about covid and and a recognition that the countries run by women fared better you know i i my husband i he is has more of the feminine in him than some men i would argue and so i'm really proud of his leadership but he also listens to me and um and so you know we've really been able to anchor i would say more of the feminine but i think california also is more feminine leading and i think this current era of inequality and um tech oligarchs lacking in empathy at the top is not necessarily who we are i think we are who we are right but we got to find each other support each other uplift each other and um i mean the the sisterhood is essential right now truly very very last question what will it take for america to have a female president so many countries have achieved this milestone america has not yet is it something that you're going to see in your lifetime lifetime two-part question what will it take when uh i i think it will occur in our lifetime if we're able to create more of an infrastructure that values the feminine it's what we've tried to do in California I feel like we've set California up to have a female governor sooner than later because we've anchored the feminine and I believe in government in a way it wasn't anchored before one of the reasons I created the Women's Wealth Council is I was tired of going into rooms where the majority of the men with access the majority of the people with access to my husband were men and a few women I wanted to expand exposure to government and it's to ensure that they continue to bring more women in and expose more women to government. But I, I, I, it's, it's going to take time. But again, it's what, it's, it's the cultural piece and the policy piece, right? And I think I'm confident in the systems change work, the ecosystem work we've done on partnership and leadership. But I also, in government, and, and, you know, I think we're going to have to, you know, So in government and like supporting you all, whether you're entrepreneurs or female funders, again, part of our Women's Wealth Initiative, the California Women's Wealth Advisory Council. I believe that it's our time, but we just have to continue coming together and supporting those who are left out or elbowed out and just making sure that they have access to the tables of power where decisions are made. Jennifer Thibault-Newson, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Not that way.