Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi gave some sage leadership advice at a White House summit Monday, saying, “A woman would not succeed in terms of passing legislation if she went in there like a man with a hammer. … We women have our loom and we weave our solutions, listening to everyone’s concerns, building consensus.”
Part of a panel on “Career Ladders and Leadership” at the Working Families Summit, Pelosi was quick to praise the passing of Obamacare — done with such feminine charm and finesse that it passed by a whole five-vote margin — saying that it has “enabled people to have their independence” by freeing them from needing to take health care coverage into account when making career decisions.
It’s a note she’s sung before: In February she said that “the [Congressional Budget Office] projected that by 2021, the Affordable Care Act will enable more than 2 million workers to escape ‘job-lock’ — the situation where workers remain tied to employers for access to health insurance benefits,” — never mind that the finding actually showed that Obamacare created an incentive for workers to leave their jobs in order to get more taxpayer subsidies.
Pelosi sat alongside feminist activist Gloria Steinem, who also had some thoughts on womanly persuasion: “Women are better negotiators than men because they leave the other side with some dignity.”
Other panelists agreed: “We listen better. We’re able to hear the other side and what their real concerns are. … Male executives talk more than they listen.”
Only 40 percent of Americans were in favor of Obamacare when Pelosi wove it into law. According to recent polls, a majority of voters wish Obamacare had never passed.
