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do you see the political will there? do you see the will amongst the people you work with and the people who employ the people you work with? i think more and more people are recognizing that the experiences of working women are increasingly defining of the entire economy and society. if we think about the fact that more than half of college graduates are women, more than half of the electorate are women, right, and women live longer than men, we re a huge consumer force, i mean, really we re not a special interest group. we re really defining of the whole. i think people hear nancy s story and say, that could happen to me. i m middle class, upper middle class, doing really well. all of a sudden i m living off my 401(k). what do you say to an economy to doesn t have a place for you? someone who can work and has skills? i don t know what i can say to the economy. i can tell you i m not unique. of the 13 people i know that are ....
So i think we can draw more members of congress, democrats and republicans, around this shared common value that we want our families to be happy and healthy and well looked after. but we also want to make sure themy is growing. it s better for businesses, too, to have paid family medical leave. you invested in the employee. if a woman needs time off and can t be accommodated because it s not paid, she may have to quit her job and that means you have to hire and train someone new. it s a wasted opportunity for that company not to retain that original employee. senator, before there s even a space politically for a proactive agenda like the one you ve outlined, seems to me a lot of people in washington are forced to fight the actions against a lot of whittling stuff we have and know that works. there s $40 billion in food stamp cuts slated on the house side. there s unemployment extension that we have not seen. we ve seen medicaid expansion being blocked in the states. i mean, how do ....
Because they re your human capital needs for the future, and they re actually helping you. instead of always seeing these things as some kind of tradeoffs on the bottom line. i think as we do that, you ll see greater action by the private sector, but hopefully we ll see greater action by the sector to support paid leave as a legislative item, childcare as a legislative item to level the playing field for all workers. let me say one of the things that hangs over this entire conversation in this context, of course, is what nancy was talking about which is the fact we have a very slack labor market. absolutely. very long unemployment for a very long period of time and the relative power between people seeking jobs and people doing the hiring is out of skew in that environment. there s a surplus of labor. the best labor force participants we have are women. they re more highly educated, better trained. those are the people business should be going after. sure, and also women cons ....
In the private sector, where companies are adopting paid leave or providing assistance with health care and other things. seeing your workers as a long-term asset to the company and not a cost. yep. i think that s the big distinction we have to make over the long term which is these are people you need to invest in because they re your human capital needs for the future, and they re actually helping you. instead of always seeing these things as some kind of tradeoffs on the bottom line. i think as we do that, you ll see greater action by the private sector, but hopefully we ll see greater action by the sector to support paid leave as a legislative item, childcare as a legislative item to level the playing field for all workers. let me say one of the things that hangs over this entire conversation in this context, of course, is what nancy was talking about which is the fact we have a very slack labor market. absolutely. very long unemployment for a very long period of time and ....
i was in college and i had two kids to take care of. i didn t have any money left. nancy firmly believes she made the right decision to go on welfare and stay in school. she graduated with top honors from the university of wisconsin. she hopes her new diploma will be her ticket back to a middle class life. if that doesn t work, i m in trouble. i m in trouble. today, 15 years later, nancy penn, along with 42 million women in america are living on the brink. and joining us now is nancy penn, the woman you just saw in the piece who i interviewed 15 years ago as she was trying to fight her way out of poverty. she went back to school and she is here today. you did kind of everything right and now you ve been out of work two years. what happened? what did you learn? well, i my education paid off. i was i was middle class. i was paying my bills, paying my taxes. ....