What Keeps Women Up at Night?

And welcome back. Women are weighing in on a wide range of topics, but what matters most to us, we are talking about what keeps women up at night and the power that we have to shape our future. Rachel Pearson, founder of Engage, promoting women's economic security, joins us with more. Rachel, thanks so much for joining us. You know, when this topic comes up, I think, what keeps us up at night? There is a whole long list that we can go through, but you did this study. What was first off, let's get to the basis of what were you trying to find out in asking women in doing this research? I was trying to find out, we were trying to find out and engage what women think about when their heads hit the pillow, what their state of mind was or is, if they were president, what they would address first. So we wanted to get at those kinds of questions as opposed to asking them specifically who they were voting for come election day. I want to go straight to if they were president, what were the surprising answers and results from that? The number one answer was addressing affordability and the cost of living, which business surprise. Number two, which was interesting, was democracy and leadership. But they're very consistent across the board that it is concern about affordability and cost of living. I think that's something that a lot of people really have a concern with, no matter which side, which political view you tend to go towards, is we want to be able to, you know, enjoy our families and be able to have the best life for them. And affordability comes a big part of that. When you get to it, though, be it Republican or Democrat, what did you find with women was the big commonality or should I say was there one? There is a tremendous one and that is that women want Congress to work together to solve problems. 96% of women, Republicans, Democrats and Independents want Congress to work together to address problems. 76% of women feel very strongly. So that's reassuring in many ways that there's a real commonality about what we wish was happening that was not. There was commonality that 70% of women feel like they're mentally healthy and resilient, which was a happy surprise for me in some ways. So there's lots of good news about what we agree on in the poll. A lot of attention is about the mental health of women. So when so many are saying, wait a second, maybe, you know, the majority of us are actually doing pretty well. I think that's very encouraging, but there are so many issues that they want to speak up and they have the power to change and influence with. When it comes to a lot of that, where did you find that women wanted to maybe have the most impact? Well, women outnumber, outvote, and outlive men in this country. So one of the things we work at and engage is talking to women about embracing their political power. They are the deciders of elections. And I think whatever happens on election day, we're going to see predominantly that women are making a statement that they want their affordability addressed, their cost of living, the things that they're worried about. They want leadership. They want democracy respected. They're willing to be resilient and do the work, but don't make my life any harder than it has, than it is already. And the fact that we live in a world where we do see so many extremes one way or the other, and you said that women, they really just kind of want to be able to find a common ground and say, let's not kind of stop fighting with each other and get to a resolution. Are there certain ways that you think women from what you learned would want to try to go about that? Yeah, I think women are, they compromise every day of their life in a myriad of ways that men do obviously as well but we polled 800 women nationally and I think that they they're willing to put in the work that's what we hear they're willing to compromise themselves they're just asking the rest of they're asking leadership to do the same thing and that's what the poll really showed that that's what they're looking for. Taking this poll what is the biggest thing that you hope it has the impact maybe like opening some up eyes up on on people and just kind of the thoughts of what it is that is running through our heads? Well, the biggest thing I hope people take away is that the majority of women in this country hold a common sense of values, they hold a common sense of purpose, and that they want to work together and they want a better America. You know, there's going to be lots of talk about decisions against voting, against how they disagree, but they share a great number of values and a commonality in what they hope government and America can be when it's at its best. I don't think I would disagree with anything that came from this research that you had there. So thank you very much also for shedding some light into it as well. And if you want more information, just go to engagewomen.org. Rachel, thank you so much for one thing, doing the work, asking the questions, and then sharing that information. Because I think the better we understand what women are going through, the better we can probably move forward when a lot of these issues come up that we might divide us and maybe bring us together. As you said, women want a little more commonality. Exactly. That's the hope. All right. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you. All right, Makia. Thank you.