Monday, August 22, 2016

One Of Donald Trump's Quietest Critics Just Called Him Out On Diversity

Marc Benioff doesn’t want to talk about Donald Trump. Rather than give more airtime to the bombastic Republican presidential nominee, the Salesforce chief prefers to plug Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate for whom he raised $500,000 earlier this year.

But on Wednesday, Benioff called Trump out for holding a televised campaign meeting about security with about two dozen people, almost all of whom appear to be white men. The move came a day after he delivered a speech aggressively appealing to black voters. 

Two women do appear to be sitting at the end of the table, according to Reuters footage of the meeting. Still, Trump’s tone-deafness a day after he attempted to woo African-Americans by speaking in a 94.8 percent white Milwaukee suburb underscores the extent to which Trump’s campaign as a whole ― and not just the candidate’s crass rhetoric ― has gone out of its way to alienate minority and female voters. 

Benioff, for his part, isn’t a perfect beacon of inclusivity. The workforce at his cloud computing giant remains 67 percent white. Hispanics make up 4 percent, and African-Americans just 2 percent, of Salesforce employees.

But that’s not a problem that’s unique to Salesforce ― it reflects hiring trends in the tech industry, which began grappling with its lack of diversity a few years ago. In the past year, Benioff spent $3 million to eliminate the gender pay gap at Salesforce and publicly protested against laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. 

Benioff did not respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post. Neither did Hope Hicks, Trump’s campaign spokeswoman. 

Kevork Djansezian/Reuters
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been a vocal advocate for women and LGBTQ people. 

Until recently, Benioff has stayed fairly quiet about the Republican nominee to amplify his reasons to vote for someone ― in this case, Clinton ― rather than his reasons to vote against someone else.

Benioff’s relative silence seemed to signal a departure from his usual style. He comments on progressive political issues almost daily, mostly to his roughly 244,000 Twitter followers. He has spearheaded almost every corporate charge against state laws that either legalize discrimination against queer people based on “religious freedom” or prevent trans individuals from using bathrooms associated with their gender identities. 

In response to a HuffPost article probing his low-profile opposition to Trump, Benioff said he preferred to advocate against the Republican behind the scenes. When other CEOs and entrepreneurs email him to ask how to deal with Trump, he said he answers, “If you want to defeat Donald Trump and you’re that upset about him, then you should support Hillary Clinton, which is what I’m doing.” 

On Wednesday, in an apparent attempt to get his faltering campaign back on track, Trump named Breitbart News Executive Chairman Steve Bannon as his new chief executive. This has been widely interpreted as a sign that Trump will intensify his uncivil, scorched-earth campaign tactics. And if that happens, even Trump’s quietest critics may be tempted to weigh in before November’s votes are cast.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.


Friday, August 19, 2016

3 Olympic Business Lessons For Every Business Owner

I don't know about you, but I've been obsessing over the Olympics in Rio. I've had them playing in the background while I do client work all day. I've re-arranged my schedule to watch some events. I've stayed up every single night just to watch swimming!

While watching the events this year, I realized there are some major Olympic business lessons we can learn as freelancers and small business owners. In this post, I'm going to detail the ones I've noticed so far.

You can overcome an upper limit problem.


I've discussed upper limit problems before, but watching Michael Phelps make a comeback after a few rough years in his personal life has made me interested in it again.

An upper limit problem is what Gay Hendricks, author of The Big Leap, describes as the moment we sabotage ourselves when things are going well. We think there's a limit to our success and, as a result, we unconsciously do something to screw it up.

Just look at Michael Phelps a few short years ago. The greatest Olympian of all time was suddenly having one challenge after another in his personal life which was resulting in problems for his professional life. It's textbook upper limit problem.

Michael Phelps overcame it all. Not only did he overcome it to make an appearance in Rio, he's killed it in every single one of his races!

This is one of the most important Olympic business lessons of all: Be mindful of when you're sabotaging your success and immediately start to course correct.

Don't worry about the competition.


One of the greatest Olympic business lessons you can always learn by watching these events is how to handle competition. The Rio Olympics are no exception.

There's an image that has surfaced on the internet of Michael Phelps' rival Chad Le Clos looking right at him in the water as they were racing. While Le Clos was busy wondering where Phelps was, Phelps was keeping his eyes straight in front.

Phelps refused to get distracted by what was going on around him. He simply focused on the race. Phelps took home the gold and Le Clos, who narrowly took the gold from Phelps four years ago in the same event, didn't even medal.

In this world, we're told to worry about our competitors. This creates a lot of distraction and a lot of noise for freelancers who are just trying to make a living doing something creative. The reality is, we need to stay focused on our own lane, not anyone else's.

Give it your best shot.


The U.S. Women's Beach Volleyball team was given a run for their money by the Swiss. It was a thrilling three sets to watch, and you could tell every player was giving it their all. As one of the announcers said, "They have no quit." The U.S. Women's Beach Volleyball team didn't give up, and they beat the Swiss at the end.

This stuck out to me as a freelancer and as a coach who teaches other freelancers. I've seen many freelancers quit when things get uncomfortable. I've seen many bloggers quit when they don't see the rewards coming in right away. I've seen a lot of people just shrug their shoulders and give up.

That's why another one of the Olympic business lessons for business owners is to always give it your best shot.

3 Olympic Business Lessons for Every Business Owner was originally published on Duecom blog by Amanda Abella.


Thursday, August 18, 2016

Starbucks: Changing the World One Barista at a Time

"Our role as leaders is to celebrate the human connection that we have been able to create as a company, and to make sure people realize the deep level of respect we have for the work they do and how they act. That is the legacy of the company. It's not to get bigger or to make more money."

--Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks

I met Ashley Peterson, a barista at my local Starbucks, over six years ago during my morning ritual--stopping in for a grande extra hot soy latte on my way to taking my three kids to school, and myself to work. Ashley's big, totally genuine smile was truly comforting in the midst of my morning wrangle. And she looked like she meant it when she looked us in the eyes and said, "Good morning. How is everyone today?"

It wasn't long before Ashley learned all of our names, our favorite drinks and breakfast items. One Fall, my daughter Caroline developed a taste (read: obsession) for Starbucks' pumpkin scones, and then was crushed when Ashley explained that they disappear after Halloween. On our next visit, Ashley handed Caroline a bag with a gingerbread cookie in it, thinking that since she loves pumpkin, she might like this, too. In other words, Ashley just gets it; customer service is second nature to her. Not surprisingly, she was recently promoted and moved to a different Starbucks further uptown. Manhattanites all up and down Broadway have changed their morning migration patterns to get their morning fix from her.

Which is to say, when I began researching companies that are dedicated to creating a human workplace, I immediately thought of Starbucks, i.e. Ashley.

I recently sat down with her to learn more about how she works her magic. And she shared with me three sage bits of advice: Focus on Interactions, not Transactions; Love it, or Let me Know; and Provide Feedback. It Makes People Feel Human. The ideas are a combination of her own smarts, and Starbucks', but the words are hers.

Focus on Interactions, Not Transactions

One of Starbucks' values is treating our customers like family. They want us to get to know them, interact with them, and to connect with them. While we get training on different customer service scenarios, no one can really teach you how to connect...that has to be something that you want to do. I do it because of the atmosphere, because of the neighborhood. I see the kids grow up. One minute the mom is pregnant, and the next year the kid is walking into the store. As a customer, I wouldn't come into a place where I didn't feel welcome or where the people were not trying to get to know me. I love what I do and everyone that works for Starbucks loves what they do. It's a business that's so -- it's different than any other business. We want to actually connect with our customers, we want to better the experience.

Love It or Let me Know

At Starbucks, we are empowered to make the customer experience the best we can. We can say, "Listen, love it or let me know. What can I do to fix it?" I want to teach the baristas around me that customer service is the most important part of our business. Without the customers, we wouldn't be in business. So I really want them to take that seriously. And if that means going above and beyond for the customers, then that's what I want [them] to do. I want everybody that comes into Starbucks to leave happy. I don't want anyone to leave unsatisfied; I don't want anyone to leave upset. I don't want anyone to leave with the thought in their head that they're not coming back.

Provide Feedback: It Makes People Feel Human

I always want to make sure that the baristas feel appreciated, so I always recognize them. To do that, we have green apron cards, where we just write a little note, and let them know what it is that they're doing well. Starbucks wants everyone -- baristas, shifts, assistants or store managers to feel appreciated. You don't have to be a store manager to write these things; baristas write them to each other. So you don't have to be in a certain position to write these things.

In case I haven't been clear, I think the world of this young woman. And so when I heard that Howard Schultz and his wife Sherry were going to be awarded a Public Leadership Award from the Aspen Institute, where I just happened to be for the summer, I made it my business to attend. After Howard and Sherry's inspiring talk on values-based leadership, I was able to hand-deliver this note from Ashley.

Hi Howard,

My name is Ashley Peterson and I've been a partner for 6 years. I recently got a promotion to become a store manager, which I'm really excited about. When I first started at Starbucks, it was just a job for me. Before my Starbucks career, I was on my way to college, but life happened. I was expecting a child, my daughter Mckenzie, who is now five years old. Within a year of being at 81st & Broadway, I knew that Starbucks was for me. With so much I can write, I just want to thank you. Thank you for sharing such a great company with me. Thank you for allowing me to provide for my child. Thank you for the opportunity to work for Starbucks. I will continue to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup, one neighborhood at a time.

Ashley Peterson

Here I am, giving Howard Schultz Ashley's letter.

Some of us might feel funny expressing such gratitude to the CEO of a multinational corporation as mighty as Starbucks. But not Ashley, whose first job in the food industry was as a manager at White Castle when she was I5. This girl knows how to work. And Howard Schultz does, too. And he knows how to make the workplace a place for humans like Ashley to thrive. In his words, "We are living in a society where there is a need for human connection and a sense of community. And what we do every day is bring people together."

Me at my local Starbucks in Aspen.

I would be lying if I said I don't miss Ashley since her move uptown. Or that I don't feel a little sad each time I walk by her old store and don't see her beaming smile in the window. But I know this an amazing opportunity for Ashley and for the company. She is excited to use her skills and experience to build a strong culture within her new store. And we will all reap the benefits of the work she'll do, spreading the Starbucks gospel, helping other baristas bring their human to work.


Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Staying True To Our Roots By Making A Change

My father has always been an innovator and an entrepreneur, my mother a powerhouse who knows how to get things done. Together, they have been the driving force behind Badger, a small mission-driven business founded in 1995 that strives to create healing products, run a healthy business, and make a positive difference in the world. Today, Badger has over 100 employees and our products are sold in 20 countries. We are a manufacturer of natural and organic skin care products, but the products we make tell only part of our story. At our core, we are a mission-driven business and our mission in its simplest form is "healing products, healthy business, make a difference". As our company continues to grow, and the world around us changes, our values are the one aspect of our business that we want to remain unchanged.

About 6 years ago, Badger reached a critical point in our business trajectory. We had about 50 employees. We were still operating out of an old, retrofitted garage and farmhouse. And we were on the verge of explosive growth. In fact, we were starting to see consistent double-digit growth. Clearly, it was time to break ground on a new manufacturing facility. And yet, despite all the success, and the obvious need to upgrade our cramped quarters, we felt some trepidation and had a lot of questions. What would happen to our intimate community of co-workers when we hired new employees? What would happen to our mission as we rapidly expanded operations? Until this point, our mission had lived in individuals and in our close-knit family. What we needed was a blueprint to help us transition our values into the DNA of our business. It was at this critical point that we discovered the small but growing movement of certified B Corps and quickly realized that the B Corp certification was a tool that we could use to build our mission into the operations of our business, helping us to stay true to our roots even as we entered a period of rapid transformation.

B Corps are businesses that strive to balance profits with a social or environmental mission. While mission-driven businesses are certainly not new, the certification helps to provide a common language and a set of best practices that businesses can use to benchmark and improve upon their social or environmental initiatives. As a community of businesses, our goal is to create a new sector of the economy in which business strive to be best for the world rather than being simply best in the world.

To qualify as a B Corp, businesses must measure their social and environmental impact using an impact assessment tool created by B Lab, the non-profit organization that certifies B Corporations. This rigorous process ensures that a company's policies and procedures are documented and can be audited. All certified B Corps are also required to post their scores online (called a B Impact Report) with the goal of full transparency in their business practices.

B Corp values, such as being a force for good and an agent of positive change in the world, have always been part of Badger's vision and mission. But becoming a certified B Corp in 2011 meant that we now had a verifiable way of demonstrating our commitment to always doing what's right for people and the planet.

Today, we are proud to be part of a global community of 1700+ certified B Corps using business as a force for good. We are also proud of taking our commitment to do good in the world a step further by helping to pass Benefit Corporation Legislation in NH, and then becoming one of the first NH businesses to register as a Benefit Corporation.

The future is bright for B Corps and the B Corp movement, and we look forward to continuing on this path toward improving our business practices and deepening our mission through all that we do.

The B Corp Life is a new blog series geared towards exploring what it’s like to work at a benefit corporation. Why do b corps matter, and what does the future hold for them? Let us know at PurposePlusProfit@huffingtonpost.com or by tweeting with #TheBCorpLife.


Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Turbulence On JetBlue Flight From Boston To Sacramento Injures 24

A bumpy flight from Boston to Sacramento sent two dozen people to the hospital on Thursday evening.

According to the Boston Globe, JetBlue Flight 429 encountered some bad weather over the Plains and was forced to make an unexpected landing in Rapid City, South Dakota around 7:30 p.m. central time.

The turbulence injured 22 passengers and two crew members, who were taken to Rapid City Regional Hospital for evaluation. All were treated for minor injures and released, NBC News reported.

“It was almost like a bang, like we hit a wall and just dropped straight down,” Casey Corcoran, who was traveling with two young children, told Boston ABC affiliate WCVB. “There was stuff in the aisles, you had people crying.”

In a statement, JetBlue said the plane’s travelers would be boarded onto another aircraft.

“JetBlue care team members are being sent to assist injured customers, and a replacement aircraft is en route to Rapid City for customers continuing on to Sacramento.”


Sunday, August 14, 2016

This Bible-Era Solution For Saving Food Is Making A Comeback

Audrey Berman is no stranger to the farming life.

Over the last three years, Berman has worked on various farms in New York’s Hudson Valley with the intention of one day starting her own farm. But it wasn’t too long before she started to notice disheartening trends.

“We always had to plant more than we could actually harvest ourselves,” Berman told The Huffington Post. “And the demographic we were selling [our food] to was a little more wealthy and well-to-do while, at the same time, good food wasn’t accessible to everyone and a lot of that had to do with affordability. It started to bother me.”

She began to research what she could do about it. And that led to the launch earlier this year of Long Table Harvest, a food recovery group.

Led by Berman and co-founder Laura Engelman, the group works with 16 farms in the Hudson Valley to collect their surplus fruits and vegetables — which would otherwise go to waste — and distribute them to food pantries, community organizations and other charities throughout the region. 

A certain amount of surplus is practically inevitable on farms. Farmers plant more crops than they’ll need for their buyers to protect against losses from pests, weather and other issues. Oftentimes, it’s cheaper for farms to let the surplus rot in the fields rather than pay for the labor to harvest it.

Each Monday, Berman and her small team travel to their donor farms to pick up market leftovers and other extras farms have to offer. They fill up their van and drop off the proceeds at their recipient sites.

In June, the organization was picking up about 940 pounds of produce a week. Two months later, that number has grown to about 1,100 weekly pounds of summer staples like watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and corn. 

“It’s all really high quality, all really beautiful and the people receiving it are all excited to get it,” Berman said.

Groups like this often operate under the radar and struggle to make ends meet. Their work ― known as gleaning ― is an ancient practice, one that dates back at least to the days of the Old Testament.

It is written in the Bible that Ruth would glean the fields of the well-to-do farmer Boaz, collecting any produce left after harvest was completed and redistributing it to the poor. The practice is said to have continued in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, too.

Today, gleaning is experiencing a resurgence of interest as Americans become aware of the estimated 70 billion pounds of food the country wastes each year. Some of this loss is due to surpluses on farms. As a result, recovery groups like Long Table Harvest have popped up across the country ― the National Gleaning Project lists more than 400 food recovery organizations ― and are likely saving many tons of food from being left to rot in farmers’ fields or sent to landfills.

While there is no national estimate for how much food these groups are diverting to people who need it, some organizations reclaim hundreds of thousands of pounds each year. Oregon’s Salem Harvest, for example, gleans 300,000 pounds of fresh produce annually.

It’s safe to assume these organizations, collectively, are preventing millions of pounds of produce from being tossed each year.

Long Table Harvest
Long Table Harvest's van gets filled many times over during the busy summer months when bumper crops and other factors can leave farmers with surpluses.

Funding this work is a challenge, however. Berman and her Long Table Harvest team worked diligently applying for grants and fundraising ahead of their launch; an Indiegogo campaign raised over $11,000. But their operation has been limited in size, with just one van and one paid staff member, because they haven’t been able to secure major funding.

While financial struggles are not unusual for nonprofits of all kids, food recovery organizations appear to be facing unique challenges. Among them is that there is little federal or state-level grant funding available for this work, though the farmers who donate their surplus to food recovery groups can receive tax incentives in many states.

One initiative offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture is the Community Food Projects competitive grant program, which was funded most recently at the level of $8.6 million. Though gleaners are eligible for this grant, which focuses on meeting the food needs of low-income communities through food distribution and community outreach, it is not specifically catered to food recovery. 

Some states, like New Jersey, do offer grants specifically geared toward gleaners, but these programs are not particularly common. 

Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images
Lovin' Spoonfuls' Meg Kiley loads donated produce onto a truck during a 2013 pickup from Whole Foods. Their group picks up surplus fruits and vegetables from stores and farms.

Most organizations rely overwhelmingly on individual donors, fundraising and corporate support to sustain their operations.

The Ithaca, New York-based Friendship Donations Network, a gleaning group, noted that while it does receive support from local foundations, it has never received state or federal funding and derives about 70 percent of its operating budget from individual donations. 

Another prominent food recovery group, the Boston-based Lovin’ Spoonfuls, said it currently receives no government support and also depends primarily on individual donors, events and grants from local groups.

That funding just isn’t enough. Food recovery is “chronically underfunded at every step,” Dana Gunders, a staff scientist specializing in food waste at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told HuffPost earlier this summer.

The lack of financial support is also reflected in gleaning groups’ heavy reliance on volunteers to gather surplus produce from participating farmers. Though well-meaning, these volunteers typically aren’t particularly accustomed to the task at hand and don’t tend to work all that efficiently. 

“Gleaning is good, but it’s not the most efficient way to get produce off the farm, even for donation, in terms of getting large volumes,” Gunders added. “Volunteers picking stuff are not trained and not nearly as fast” as farmworkers, she said.

In addition, gleaning groups often struggle to gain the attention of media and potential funders when compared to flashier food waste solutions.

“There’s a lot of excitement around people who are making apps or making a big splash in terms of media and promotional campaigns,” Berman said. “I’m really trying to do the work and connect the farmers with our recipients at our distribution sites and I’m not out there proselytizing the work. I’m trying to figure out the balance to that, but it’s a little disheartening.”

Though the practice of gleaning is far from groundbreaking, Jordan Figueiredo, the anti-food waste activist behind the Ugly Fruit and Veg campaign and a petition drive asking Walmart to more widely sell cosmetically imperfect produce, agreed that it’s deserving of more support.

“Overall, I think technology is not the answer [to food waste],” Figueiredo said. “I see those articles all the time — ‘The App That’s Going to End Food Waste.’ No one app is going to do that or make a big dent, even. Overall, it’s about valuing [food] enough so that we’re paying attention to the easy, old solutions like gleaning and putting money into them.”

Despite all the obstacles faced by groups like hers, Berman is optimistic that change is happening as Americans begin to value food more — and are adopting that mindset in their neighborhood grocery stores and kitchens.

“The biggest impact we can have is with ourselves and the decisions we make as individuals. How we live our life, what we buy and [do] not buy, what we cook and don’t cook,” Berman added. “If people say, ‘Hey, I’m a part of what seems like this big problem, but I can start with myself,’ I think that would be really exciting.”

_____

Joseph Erbentraut covers promising innovations and challenges in the areas of food and water. In addition, Erbentraut explores the evolving ways Americans are identifying and defining themselves. Follow Erbentraut on Twitter at @robojojo. Tips? Email joseph.erbentraut@huffingtonpost.com.

More stories like this:

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  • This Guy Spends $2.75 A Year On Food And Eats Like A King
  • The Food Your Grocery Store Doesn’t Want You To See
  • Meat Eaters Should Have Been Listening To Vegetarians All Along
  • Farmer Forced To Dump Insane Amount Of Gorgeous Cherries
  • Al Capone’s Brother May Have Invented Date Labels For Milk

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Why It Should Matter That Hillary Clinton Was A Breadwinner

Of course, Hillary Clinton is not like you and me, but for a short time beginning in 1980, she felt the primal anxiety most working mothers in the United States experience. 

Bill Clinton had essentially just been fired, having lost his reelection bid for governor of Arkansas. Chelsea Clinton was only 9 months old. They had to leave the governor’s mansion and find a home. Hillary was the one who had to pay for it. She needed work. Bill had other things on this mind, according to a fascinating report earlier this week from Amy Chozick at The New York Times.

“She worried about saving for Chelsea’s college, caring for her aging parents, and even possibly supporting herself should the marriage or their political dreams dissolve,” Chozick writes.

The financial stress of that time period, Chozick says, is a driving factor behind some of Hillary Clinton’s more questionable financial decisions in the ensuing years ― the controversial investments and board seats. Even the Goldman Sachs speeches.

Perhaps even more profoundly though, the experience may have informed how Clinton thinks about policy. Any woman who’s had to work and raise a family knows that the U.S. leaves us hanging. Soon enough we may have a president who understands that better than any man who’s come before her.

As first lady, in the ‘90s, when the culture was still largely hostile to working women and mothers, Clinton didn’t get a real opportunity to put that empathy into action. Indeed, in offering support for her husband’s welfare reform law she may have done real damage to poor working women.

Now she’s pushing for a raft of policies that, in theory, would help poor and middle-class working women a great deal ― including equal pay, a higher minimum wage, paid family leave and subsidized child care. 

DONALD R. BROYLES/AP
Bill and Hillary Clinton with baby Chelsea in 1980.

She’d be following President Obama, who has done a great deal for working parents, as The Huffington Post’s Mollie Reilly points out. That’s partially because we’ve finally arrived at a time when dual-earner parenting is increasingly common ― and not controversial. Obama also has the insights of his wife, who raised two young girls while working as a lawyer.

Back in the ‘80s, Hillary Clinton was in pretty rarefied company. Only a small percentage of women were head of household 36 years ago. The Trumpian way ruled the day for most middle-class white women ― the Republican presidential nominee has said many times that he makes the money, and his wife, whoever that’s been, is the one who does everything else.

Today the Clintons’ situation is pretty common: Women were the primary or sole breadwinner in 40 percent of all households with children under 18 in the U.S., according to Pew data from 2013. A record high number.  

Pew

How do you work full time and raise a child or children in a country that offers almost no support to families outside of 10 months of public school each year?

We’re the only country in the developed world that does not mandate some kind of paid maternity leave. If your workplace doesn’t offer it, you just suck up the lost income during one of the most financially precarious times of your life. Or you go back to work too soon and leave your infant with...

Well, your options for child care are not great. It’s expensive, of varying quality and sometimes difficult to even secure.

Once you get the kid or kids into public school, you still scramble. The school day ends hours before the work day concludes, after all. And in a country that doesn’t require employers to offer paid sick leave, you’re also at the mercy of not only your health but that of your children. For many women, each sick day costs money.

And even if you nail all those pieces, you’re still just hustling to run a household and a career.

Clinton, like millions of mothers today, had to figure some shit out.

“Hillary had a couple years of the taste of what it means to be a working mother, without any help, to have to take care of a small baby and care for your job,” James B. Blair, a close Clinton friend and lawyer, told the Times.

Of course, what happened next for the Democratic presidential nominee is utterly alien to most of us. The Clintons had Ivy League degrees, deep powerful connections and unimaginable privilege. Hillary landed a six-figure job, convinced a former friend/colleague to help with child care and managed to buy a home. With help from Blair she turned a small investment in cattle futures into a sum large enough for a down payment. (That trade would come up for much criticism later.) 

Bill did land work at a law firm, but he was making half as much as his wife and was traveling a lot of the time, according to the NY Times. Soon enough, he was back at it as governor and blah blah blah, you know the rest. 

As president, Bill Clinton didn’t seem to get the issues facing working mothers at all. His infamous Welfare reform forced millions back to work ― many of these people were mothers ― without providing any kind of support. The measure is considered a disaster in most progressive corners. Hillary Clinton supported the legislation at the time and touted it for years. That’s troubling.

Let’s hope she figures something better out this time around.

This story has been updated with additional details.