Michelle Obama didn’t hold back this weekend. During an appearance at an event for her new book “Becoming,” the former first lady spoke about work life balance, and how “having it all” isn’t always possible.
"Marriage still ain't equal, y'all," she said according to Vanity Fair, and a number of other publications, who reported on her comments. “It ain't equal. I tell women that whole 'so you can have it all.' Nope, not at the same time," Obama said. "That's a lie. And it's not always enough to lean in, because that s__t doesn't work all the time."
She then apologized for using the word “s___t.”
"I forgot where I was for a moment!" she told the crowd of about 19,000.
“I thought we were at home, y’all,” Obama said, according to Glamour. “I was getting real comfortable up in here. All right, I’m back now. Sometimes that stuff doesn’t work.”
Obama was referring to “Leaning in” — a method Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg makes the central focus of her 2013 book "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead."
But even Sandberg acknowledged in 2017:
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“We are stuck at less than 6 percent of the Fortune 500 CEO jobs and their equivalent in almost every country in the world. There were 19 countries run by women when Lean In was published. Today there are 11.”
Sandberg has recently been in the news after a New York Times report said that she asked Facebook’s communication staff to research George Soros’s financial interests after he criticized Facebook.
Cute moment at Michelle Obama’s book event tonight at the Barclays—she was getting into it & she said, “That lean in shit doesn’t always work!” Everyone freaked out that the First Lady had said "shit.” Michelle, too. She apologized. “I forgot where I was for a moment!” But... — Touré (@Toure) December 2, 2018
“It ain’t always enough to LEAN in.... OOOP did I say that?” #iambecoming @MichelleObama #newmarkjreports @barclayscenter pic.twitter.com/Vxk87ZFtje — Deirdre Bardolf (@deirdrebardolf) December 2, 2018
