In 2012, the United States First Lady, Michelle Obama, spoke with five of our contributors, including CNN analyst and Mamiverse contributing political editor, Maria Cardona, who moderated the chat. We are honored to have streamed exclusive video footage of the roundtable discussion where the ladies talked about several key issues that impact families nationwide.
As we aim to help women prepare to be professionally competitive in this digital age, Ms. Obama is on a road tour speaking at several prominent tech conferences across the country.
Michelle Obama’s Tech Road Tour
This June, Ms. Obama stopped at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Jose, California, to foster the importance of diversity and equality in the technological workplace, once again bringing forth her 2015 education initiative, Let Girls Learn. Ms. Obama argued that companies should do everything in their power to ensure women can pursue careers in technology.
“It starts with education,” Ms. Obama said. “And there’s still millions of girls around the world who aren’t getting an education, not just because of the lack of resources or not having access to schools… there are cultural barriers that are keeping young girls down.”
In her speech, she mentioned that the US is “not out of the clear,” as it and other nations tackle the issues on pay equality, birth control, and other hot button topics.
Michelle Obama will also keynote the biggest software conference on the planet, Dreamforce 2017. The conference runs from November 6 to the 9th, in San Francisco, California. Ms. Obama will speak on Tuesday, November 7, 2017; Day 2, which will cover topics involving innovation and artificial intelligence.
The Michelle Obama Tech School
In September of 2014, the Michelle Obama School of Technology and the Arts opened in Park Forest, IL. Initially opened as a fourth through eighth-grade education facility, a successful addition to the school was completed in October of 2015, bringing forth a new reading lab, performance stage, and more to the installation.
Michelle Obama’s Possibility of Running For President in 2020
With the Democratic party looking to take back the White House in 2020, their largest obstacle is diversity within their party. With candidates running for the ballot, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Kamala Harris, and even former Vice President Joe Biden, fundraisers and awareness are already underway. The nation will spend some time deciding which potential candidates they will vote for, especially with the next election day being over three years away.
In comparison to White House exit ratings of former U.S. First Ladies, Laura Bush (76 percent) and Hilary Clinton (56 percent), Michelle Obama finds herself smack dab in the middle with a 68 percent favorability rating. Ms. Obama’s rating is higher than both her husband, former U.S. President Barack Obama (58 percent) and former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (61 percent). This observation gives political experts ample reason to believe that if she were to run for the office of President of the United States in 2020, she could stand a fair chance.
Douglas E. Schoen, a former pollster for President Bill Clinton, believes that Michelle Obama would be a viable candidate for the presidency.
“As an analyst, I believe that she is the candidate the divided Democratic Party needs,” Mr. Schoen wrote in his column. “Otherwise, the party could well rip itself apart.”
