to you in this election year. our phone lines are open. you can share with us on twitter. @c-spanwj. or send us a comment on facebook. for women under the age of 25, 202-748-8000. -748-8001.hers, 202 good sunday morning two. thank you for being with us on this mother's day. -- a good sunday morning to you. back to 1914, woodrow wilson signing the proclamation making it a national holiday, the second sunday of may. happy mother's day. front page of the washington post "the right facing a crisis." donald trump's looming nomination has spurred leaders in the conservative movement for generations to back -- to break from the republican party, now being reshaped by the new york billionaire, donald trump. this story from nytimes.com, and all front page of "the new york times," focused on women and their involvement. "women's rising influence in politics has been tainted in green -- tinted in green." women are bankrolling political campaigns more than ever. in an election year when women could be as decisive force, the transformation is occurring at every level of political giving and both parties from grassroots sending in a few hundred dollars to the ranks of wealthy donors who fund super pacs. is national political reporter for "the washington post." we talk about women's issues on this mother's day. thank you very much for being with us. as you look at the polling numbers, you have been looking at right now the hole donald trump is facing among female voters. how does he overcome that? >> he is facing a deep hole. he is not doing very well among republican women. the one thing that is going to happen is that he and hillary clinton have both made this an issue. there has been a huge gender issue. what he is attempting to do is to make an issue out of bill clinton and what he has done, his infidelities. that is how trump attempting to make up the gap. whether it works and not remains to be seen. host: there has been speculation on who he would select as his running mate. electedose a female official, governor, senator, what impact could that have as he tries to build his own coalition within the gop and the broader electorate? >> that could definitely help him. he could say, listen, i have a woman who is my number two. i want women in my cabinet. he has said that before. but it waits definitely send a signal that he does want women to be a large part of his administration. will women play in the selection, not only those that "the new york times" pointing out the amount of money they are contribute in but those seeking elective office this year? >> women are going to play a huge role. it will be interested to see what women will do, if they will talk about donald trump his comments he made about women. about women ins the past. as part of the electric, they will make a huge difference. hillary clinton is really going after suburban women who could potentially decide the course of the election at this point. suburban republican women who do not like what donald trump is saying. a hugeis going to be election for women and the gender issue is going to be one of the big ones going into november. host: i want to share an ad that priorities usa is erring and is focused on some of the comments made by donald trump in the past. aimed at the female vote. [video clip] ♪ >> pretty picture you -- you would not have your job if you are not beautiful. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion? >> there has to be some form of punishment. >> for the woman? >mr. trump: yes. ♪ you look at that spot and it is just the first salvo in what is likely to be a nasty campaign on both sides. >> yeah, absolutely. i think we are going to see a lot more ads like that. we have started seeing them -- there is a democratic senate candidate in arkansas who read a similar ad -- ran a similar ad. splicing together donald trump talking about his sex life on howard stern and using it against his opponents. , andis the first salvo is definitely going to be used by house and senate and other candidates as well. host: what you looking for ahead, -- your colleagues writing about this is the headline "the right facing a crisis in the gop." a lot of consternation among the conservative than the party and so many different layers, the female vote among them. what is next for the gop, especially in light of the fact there is going to be a key meeting on thursday between donald trump and speaker paul ryan? >> you know, as we know, speaker ryan does not yet support trump. i think it is going to figure out if people are going to call us behind him. if they are not, there is going to be a big movement to draft a 3third party. looking forward, it can be who is going to line up behind trump and who is not. host: we are talking with the national political writer for "the washington post." you responded to what donald trump said on recent issues. our phone lines are open and we want to hear from women only on this mother's day what issue is important to you in campaign 2016. the number to call is 202- 748-8000. here's more with donald trump. the women's vote. women, nobody respects women more than i do, i will try it out. -- tell you that. and women are looking for security in our country. they know i'm going to do the best jump a look at hillary. remember the ad? who's going to be awake at 3:00 in the morning. when they called her on benghazi, she was sleeping, folks. she was sleeping. host: donald trump on the campaign trail. now that he is the presumptive republican nominee expecting the nomination -- accepting the nomination in cleveland, ohio. the tone, the rhetoric of donald trump, your thoughts? >> well, people have said that if he wants to appeal to women sure, he has a good way t o do it, keeping the country safe. on the other hand, there are women who are just -- do not like his rhetoric about what he said about women, what he has done in the past. ore security one is, m people say it is supposed to be a good one. it is funny i was in san diego couple weeks ago at a ted cruz, and there were donald trump protesters outside. a woman can much me and said the people say women do not like donald trump. we do. a laundry list. and security was one of them. the economy was one of them. those messages are appealing to some women. host: let me share with your couple of comments from our facebook page. this is from jane who says "my wish list is getting the far right legislators out of women's issues. etter paying jobs that affect families. i feel that trump will be pivotal in ensuring my husband will not have to help us survive." women itsaying "most is about the economy and the type of future we will have. a government in debt." a couple of sentiments from our viewers. your thoughts? >> trump, the economy has been trump's central issue at this point. it is not a gender issue. they believe that trump will help the economy, man or woman. ezima is a national correspondent for "the washington post." thank you very much for being with us. we appreciate it. you.t to hear forrom women only for the first 45 minutes. focused on this campaign and what is important to you. 202-748-8000. judy is joining us from georgia, democrats lines. good morning. go ahead. you are on the air. woman: as you know the rocks the cradle. she is the one that rules the nation p so i believe women should be much more, they're becoming much more important in this campaigns. and then national security is my biggest thing right now. for theandidat oes republican, it is a very scary thing. and i think the women understand that our nation needs to be protected for our children. and i'm very nervous. host: you did a great job. don't be nervous. thank you for voting in -- phoning in. on our line from georgia. owley has this essay it "washington times." "why women just aren't into the presidential race. the dominance of colorful personalities and the raging desire to smash the establishment status quo, the 2016 campaign has been a and yet not everyone is saying -- pay ing as close attention to the race. women have better things to do, according to a new gallup survey. many women just are not into the presidential race or not as much as they used to." next is betty joining us from florida. i think theyes, most important issue that affects everybody is jobs. when president obama put out that infrastructure job bill about three or four years ago, the republicans voted against it. the reason they voted against it was because in order to find that bill anybody making over $1 million had to pay a tax. now the republicans hate that. it is amazing. hillary clinton never mentions that. but she does not like to hurt millionaires. another issue that i think is very important is honesty. regarding this e-mail of private server issue with hillary, she said a few weeks ago and i will quote her. or receivedt e-mails containing top-secret information." she has been in government 30 years. you mean to tell me what she is looking something that is hot as a pistol, top-secret, she does not know what it is? i do not trust that woman and i believe bernie is telling the truth. [hangs up] host: "trump is rude, but what theven more urdrude is american economy. to the working people in america, especially the husband." onlinellup survey is with a headline "women paying less attention compared to men. men have been paying more attention to the 2016 race. men say they of are following election news very closely compared to 31% of women." from marietta, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. my comment -- the most important thing is the economy. people need jobs. hostsly, -- when i hear try to put all women together when you say women's issues. women are not the same. we do not have the same issues. as far as donald trump is concerned, women -- have ane elitist point of view and that if they seem to think of a woman is not voting for hillary somehow she is stupid. we can see through hillary's wanted awomen really woman presents they could ahead at a long time ago because women are the majority in these united states. host: this is from huffington post. "nearly half of republican women say they cannot vote for donald trump. hillary clinton has a problem with male voters, and americans have it hit its peak polarization." where trump has a serious problem with women and hillary clinton has a steep hill to climb among male voters. catherine is joining us from tampa, florida. caller: good morning. host: you are on the air, catherine. caller: my major concern is extremism, whether it be too far to the left or too far to the right. certainly trump falls off the end on the right with respect to issues, military issues. he's talking about dropping bombs, nuclear bombs everywhere. that doesn't eliminate the concern i have about hillary being a hawk. i'm an old lady. i think we need to learn what the issues are, to be able to compromise on those issues without allegations that we -- principle. host: if you have a choice between hillary clinton and donald trump, who do you vote for? caller: hillary is at least sane. host: nbc has this story based onn comments made friday. unrestrained donald trump called hillary clinton and unbelievable nasty, mean and mabel or who destroyed the lives of her husband's mistresses." the comments made during that event marking the sharpest tone he has taken against the democratic front runner since becoming the parties republican nominee. a total -- she's been enabler. she would go after these women and destroy their lives. she was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler. what she did to a lot of these women is disgraceful." that is from nbc news.com. irvine, kentucky. you have a primary coming up. caller: good morning. i'm calling on behalf of i think everybody out there, should get the book "meet the next president" and read it where hillary says about everybody. she does not apologize for nothing. i think people need to wake up. look how they did sarah palin. she was a woman and she was running. what is it, a double standard? this is not about women. it is about the economy and growth and where we have been the last eight years. this is the worst election on both sides and the only reason hillary clinton has got elizabeth warren out there talking is because it's to get everybody off her back so she looks like an innocent person. everybody remember back what all happened in the 1990's under bill clinton and hillary. thank you and have a good day. the: we'll go back -- front page of "the new york times." "the role of women in politics." they are building their political clout. " democrats have benefited from groups like emily's list, which was founded in the mid-1980's to elect democratic women who are abortion rights advocates -- " let's go to linda next from columbia, maryland, independent line. caller: the reason i think donald would be great for women, he has had, he's employed so many in his organization and very few, o ther than one i might know of, that ever complained. women get paid more than the men on average, also. he has more women working for him than men. an opportunityad to do something from the middle east, the women of the middle east. instead she put on a burka. she never mentioned their plight that i recall the whole time she was secretary of state. so, i think when you compare records, donald has a lot more thanomen than men, hillary. " national review." "the kids are not all right." the zika virus, a mysterious illness with devastating effects. is the next public health crisis in your backyard? this " washington post sunday crisis,," same different answer. "a look how canada is dealing with the situation in syria. many coming to the u.s. and canada." "the new york times" is reporting this morning that the devastating fires in alberta resulting into the displacement of many syrians who have moved to that part of the world. cumberland, maryland. issue that is important to you in this campaign, what is it, caroline? voted democrat ever since i could vote. and imc 73 and i'm going to vote for donald trump this year because -- i am 73. i cannot stand hillary clinton. i do not like what happened with those four men getting slaughtered and benghazi and i would not vote for hillary clinton if you gave me $1 million. as far as vika is concerned, i think maybe we could get a pill that would make the smelly smell come out on our skin that would make the vika mosquitoes disappear. or use some kind of strong soap when you go out cutting grass or doing yard work, and i think that would be a help. thank you for letting me express my opinion. thank you. host: a"the weekly standard." the cover story. a look at the presidential election facing donald trump and hillary clinton. bill kristol has been advocating the possibility of a third party candidate. thee always voted for republican candidate from nixon to ronald reagan and george herbert walker bush and bob dole and george w. bush twice to john mccain and mitt romney. i've checked the box on all 11 occasions. about half the time i voted for someone else in the primary -- " host: bill kristol announcing he will join couple of other republicans, including george herbert walker bush and george walker bush and john mccain and mitt romney not supporting donald trump. myers, florida. good morning. what issue is important to you in this campaign? caller: actually, i was calling to say that i've been observing women my whole life and i seem to be the only one that -- has logic, due to what i was educated. in fact, i don't have children. gher always held men in hi esteem than women. everything that trump says about women and the way women are is pretty much true. so, i have no problem with how he feels. i just wish he did not have to be so hirsute in the way he speaks. and tone it down, the rhetoric. i hope he picks a male. i would hate to see him pick a female because i would respect him more if you take the competent man. men could rule better than gold in my year -- golda meyer and maggie thatcher did not do too great of a job. some of those of an absolutely terrible. host: the call from fort myers. bill has this point. should women vote first for women. is more important to vote for her because she is a woman. this story focus on the first congress taking place in north korea since 1980. its leader kim jong-un saying and nuclear arsenal is a deterrent. available online on nytimes.co m, with a rare picture inside the congress taking place inside the capital city of north korea. we'll go to forums, connecticut. linda, what issue is important to you in this campaign? caller: my issue is in the campaign is the economy. i really believe that we need to, get a double bang for our b uck and rebuild our infrastructure and do and it weighs were reviews the most affordable ways, technology, those are my issues. -- and do it in ways that are the most affordable ways. on the sidebar what with what is being spoken about with mr. srump bringing up mr. clinton' past dalliances and saying she enabled it. this is kind of like saying if i got hit by a car and the person drove off, i should be blamed for dneting th -- denting their car. not to mention the fact mr. trump has offered very little in actual policies, things that our nation run on. how is going to run it. what he is going to do. it has all been just bluster. and i think it is time we tone it down, and get down to the -- running our nation. host: happy mother's day to all the moms. "the factaying is both sides, morality -- family issues exist. sad this is all we got." one of the latest ads from hillary clinton focused on the women's card. here is what the campaign is putting out. [video clip] mr. trump: if hillary clinton were a man, i do not think she would get 5% of the vote. trumplinton: mr. accuse me of playing the women card. if fighting for women's health care and paid family leave and equal pay as playing the woman's card, then deal me in! host: the campaign just beginning. that ad from the hillary clinton campaign as we move into the general election and "time" magazine and interview with the chair of the republican national committee. a wary embrace of donald trump. next from florida. good morning, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. is for ather thing very long time, for ever in my life, i voted democrat. for president obama but i am very disappointed because he is not really doing things by himself because he is in the hands of this old boy's gang in government and they want to do the same thing with donald trump got a lot of has guts and a lot of good ideas and they should give him a chance. people in america, they have they are coming, thousands and millions of people are coming for him. betterl ryan, he had be a gentleman and come forward and support him, because he said it. i will support the nominee. now he is flip-flopping because he is in hand of those gang boys in the government and they are ruining this country or trust me. i am sure he would be the best president. thanks again. host: thank you for the call. let's go back to our facebook page. you can share your comments at facebook.com/cspan. "power to the people, the issue fair elections." single-payer or something beyond obamacare is necessary. expanding on it is not enough." more weaponso sales to the middle east and no more regime change, no more war. no more hillary." " keeping trump out!!" diana has this tweet saying "hillary blamed the right wing conspiracy for monica lewinsky. still would be there if not for the blue dress." des moines, iowa. good morning. welcome to the conversation. good morning, felicia. how are you today? can you turn the volume down? we are getting a little bit of a delay. caller: happy mother's day to all the mothers out there. i also, i was just listening to all the women talk about, first, i want to talk to the woman who said before if we wanted a woman president that women voters are the top voters in america and if we wanted a woman president we would have had a woman president. that is such a silly statement. i could not even believe she said that. first of all, i would just like to say that for trump to be talking that hillary, if hillary clinton was a man she would get only 5% of the vote. if hillary clinton was a man, donald trump would have never gotten the republican nomination. so, that's just a ridiculous statement. women should get out and vote for hillary clinton, because that shows their daughters one day that they can have the ability to fight for the right to be president. it is just as important for women to get out and vote for hillary clinton as it was for and i think that if you don't go out and vote for hillary clinton and you give your vote to donald trump, it is like voting against her own best interests. host: thank you so much for the call. in an interview for its podcast, master of politics, a senior advisor is warning that the campaign is going to be unlike anything we have ever seen before. compared to donald trump to no less than a political genius and former president bill clinton saying both donald trump and bill clinton have a very much -- have very much the same personality and are very engaging people. that is from barry bennett comparing donald trump to bill clinton in terms of personality. by the time the two meet next week, they will be old friends. this editorial this morning to an earlier caller about donald trump, is it enough making reference to the comments made by house speaker paul ryan? chair of the rnc wants them to patch things up, but if the speaker meant what he said saying the will see, whether he will support donald trump, the only way he could support mr. trump is if the billionaire withdrew from the race. that is from the editorial of the "washington post." another comment, he has all these people thinking that he can bring jobs back. palm coast, florida. good morning. you're on the air, janet. caller: good morning. absolutelymment was ridiculous, voting for hillary clinton because she is a woman and you are a woman. hillary clinton would be the last person on earth i would ever vote for. host: why is that? caller: why is that? she didn't dohing a secretary of state kerr. benghazi? she is as crooked as it comes. and i will not vote for bernie sanders because i am not a communist. therefore, i am stuck with trump, who is not my top choice. host: jenna from palm coast, florida. npr with this headline, how single women are transforming american politics. times", the "new york david samuels looking at the storyteller and the president, how and aspiring fiction writer became one of the central figures in reshaping american foreign policy in the obama age. the photograph inside of the office is available online. jennifer is joining us from pennsylvania. good morning and welcome to the program. caller: good morning, steve, how are you today? host: i am good. my point would be national security as well as the economy and jobs. i voted for bill clinton twice. after his presidency, i switched my party affiliation and did not think his behavior was appropriate. i will be voting for trump. when i look at both of them, with hillary, i don't think you get the sense that she is for you,or us, for me, for the american public, she is running because she wants to be the first woman president for america. trump has an ego, absolutely. anyone running for president has an ego. i don't think on june 16 he thought he would be where he is today, but he is. people like his message because wereoke for where people and where the press will not speak. i think about hillary and her campaign. you can't tell me there are other qualified democrats. and i am not pointing at sanders, he is qualified of course. but there are other qualified candidates -- democratic candidate who could have land. years ago, she should have had the nomination for the democratic party and i may have voted for her at that time. as after her record secretary of state, i will not vote for her. thank you. host: thank you. magazine,of the should prostitution be a crime? color sayet, did that say thatat caller someone should vote for someone candidate's race or gender? oh my, how we have fallen. bernie sanders has cut into hillary clinton's lead by more than two dozen delegates based on new data from washington state, but his chances of winning the nomination have not gotten much better. hillary clinton winning the guam conferences. she won 60% of the vote to earn four of the seven delegates at stake. sen. sanders: three delegates. next is tony joining us from its bird. -- tony from pittsburgh. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. the reason i am not for hillary is because i think she is too .rrogant her and bill were in the white house, they showed poor judgment and bad decision-making. for judgment -- poor judgment for monica linsky. making laws to incarcerate a group of people and then poor judgment was enforcing the law. whitewater, someone died in that. benghazi, more than a few died in that. the server in her home, very poor judgment. we do not need to see her papers anymore because she showed how she operates. -- shel tell one people will tell a group of people one thing and another group of people another thing. anyone but hillary. i was a democrat and i just turned republican because of trump, not because of the platform, because of the meant it trump isthing, looking for a bp, i would say to the world, i am looking for someone who shares my views and wants to help make america great again. thank you so much and have a great day. host: thank you for the call from pittsburgh. to the was referenced piece inside the new york times sunday magazine on ben rhodes. take time to read the story come he crucified the msm both directly and by inference. one of the photographs by photographer doug mills on the "new york times." looking at how he has tried to reshape the president's foreign policy. speaking of the president, he spoke yesterday at the commencement address at howard university, a predominately african-american college and d.c., taking stock of america's racial progress, saying the dwindling months of his presidency and the race to replace him, the president urging howard university graduates and all young voters to exercise their power to vote. that people were wondering why obama has not gotten things done? what would have happened if you turned out in 60% across the country, saying when you vote, change happens. both speeches are available on our website at www.c-span.org. avidin, maryland. caller: good morning, steve. i seriously think our country is facing a tremendous, tremendous challenge. obstruction in congress. they do not want to fund the cdc. ofrto rico is already full zeeka and malaria. these have things that have been tracked. you have to have vaccines. so, we are facing a tremendous crisis. i vote for climate change activism. host: how does bernie sanders get the nomination? hillary clinton has 91% of the delegates locked in. until they get to the conventions and bernie sanders has my support. all the way. funding him a small contributions is a way to go and is the new democracy in america and we have to cut the intermediary parties that do closed primaries, that is wrong. it is just wrong. we have to have a true, true democracy. we are the first one in the whole world and we have turned into the laughing stock of the world. bernie knows that and he supported and put on these platforms from the beginning. hillary clinton goes back and forth. she's got the power of the establishment behind her. she is a super pac. bernie does not. forwed for change -- i vote change. and i am older, 58. host: thank you for the caller from maryland. next up is dorothy from cleveland, ohio where the republicans will gather in the convention in july. good morning, dorothy. caller: happy mother's day to all the mothers out there. city is left in one piece in the trump campaign comes here. let me talk about hillary clinton. i will be voting for her in november. i am so sick and tired of people talking about benghazi. i am just benghazi- out. she was in washington d.c. in the war roman numeral the fire broke out, or riot or where ever it was broke out in the ghazi, -- broke out in benghazi, they act like she was right there on the ground. we havef all, is that to come out of somebody else's airport and think about how long it takes for a house to burn down. that is in a matter of seconds. bush, people drowned on rooftops, swimming in water. if they could not get help to those people in the united states. thinks something to about, but they are always tried to put her down by talking about benghazi. that is not something that could be happening in america. i just don't -- i just keep getting so sick and tired of her -- sick and tired of them putting her down but that. she is the best candidate. thank you and have a good day. host: front page of the "new york times" is a photo of the graduating class of harvard university where the president spoke yesterday. carol has this tweet saying, steve, why didn't you mention that obama told howard graduate to celebrate their blackness, calling it a dividing issue? comments, call center leads. we will go to elizabeth and wisconsin. good morning. caller: good morning. great.-- i am just the last two callers i agree with. there is a lot to it. but the reason i called was to give you three reasons why i will not vote for trout. -- for trump. i watch the politics -- i watched the politics. trump said one thing that really upset me. he said i tell people what they want to hear. now that is a loaded statement. he tells people what they want to hear. ie other thing he said was have never apologized to god. what category is he putting himself in? he was bragging about it, he said i never apologized to god. the third thing was when he said mccain was not a hero. who is he to say anything like that? that was sickening. mccain was a hero, a pow. and the last thing he said the ofer day was the change policy on taxes. he is not going to tax the rich, but the middle class. he is always negative. everything is negative with him. he doesn't talk about policy. when he talks about putting nuclear arms on the table, if that doesn't scare anybody, what would? host: in fairness to donald trump, he said he would not tax the middle class. he said the middle class is overtaxed and he wants to help the middle class. i want to be clear on that statement. oh.er: host: he was pretty clear he would not tax the middle class as well. he is going back on his tax plan. caller: he goes back and forth. he is telling people what they want to hear. benghazi,an ghazi -- what was classified then and now has all changed. it changes year-by-year. there is no classifications. host: saint you are from wisconsin, what is your take by speaker paul ryan from wisconsin? caller: let me tell you, i have to applaud him. he is sticking by his convictions. he is not a rollover. i hope he does stick with his convictions. i really commend him. as paul ryan, i hope he sticks to his convictions and i am for him 100%. host: elizabeth, thank you very much for the call. another tweet saying, who is the enabler with reference to hillary clinton her a pass on everything she has done over the years? the center for american women in politics keeping track of where women are in government. here are some of the numbers -- those in cap meant positions in the federal government, seven. 100 for women in congress. and 20 in thee senate. 76 state what executives are female across the country in all 50 states. let's go to catherine and mobile, alabama. you get the last word. good morning. caller: yes, sir. i am voting for hillary because i know throughout the years. i remember the 1950's and 1960's. those of you that don't, donald trump will roll us back. you do not want to go there. hillary has been a very good public servant on these years, and she has been brutally attacked because males want to independentat an woman does not have the equal and fair opportunities they do. i am a small business owner. i have had to disguise my name over the years to get credit. i have had to use my initials because if they found out i was a female, it was too hard for me to buy a house. financial -- iad had my finances in a row. i don't understand all of this anger and hate and rage that has come out. i want you all to think about it . i do not believe that donald trump can pass an american history test, or a civics test. barack obama has done the best he can with the congress and the senate that has been put into power. the main problem is we do not have enough voters in this country. everyone needs to vote. not just 30%. and i am talking local, state and local -- and federal level people. we need everybody. we needto get out and to change politics because ladies, we are 51% of the population. why do we not have 50% representation? i ask you, think about your daughters. those of you who are as old as i am, please get a grip and realize how it was. don't play like you don't know. remember what we went through. it was hard. it was painful. it still is. we are second-class citizens. host: catherine, thank you from -- thank you for the call. this is from james saying people hate hillary for the obvious reasons, that she stayed with bill. another twitter says the argument can't abide, hillary and trump are equally bad. jessica saying, i am a bernie sanders fan. i vote for hillary over donald trump any day. we continue the conversation. send in your tweets or join us facebook. we are going to take a short break and when we come back, we are going to turn our ticket to senator ted cruz. what happened to his campaign and where will his supporters go? us.cca hagelin will join clintonillary encourages other women into politics. jennifer lawless will be here with us later in the program. 3's, wetv and c-span travel to san bernardino, california a part of our c-span cities tour. we look at the history and exploit aftermath of what happened on december 2, the shootings at the inland regional center were 14 people were killed, 22 injured. at 2:00 this afternoon at c-span3 american history tv, all of our san bernardino history, 66, which custer the area. here is a portion. >> right now, we are at the summit inn. on route 66. heres the first restaurant in the mohammed deficit -- in the mojave desert. impact onremendous route 66 in a negative way and for many towns that were small to begin with. it really destroyed the town. -- in 1990, aing man named michael wallace wrote a book. it is a wonderful book. that book helped trigger the renaissance of route 66. both iraq and afghanistan, i helped build countries with their constitutions being sort of the facilitator of agreement on issues among the iraqis and afghans. influence is considerable, as heads of state were very anxious to meet with you. >> tonight on q&a, former ambassador of iraq and the united nations, discusses his memoir. >> we saw the extremists exploited. although we corrected it towards the end of the period i was there by the surge, by reaching out to the sunnis, by building up iraqi forces and establishing unity government, to bring about the security. violence was weighed down. when we left, the vacuum was filled by rival regional powers pulling in iraq apart, the violence escalated in we have isis now. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." "washington journal" continues. to welcome rebecca hagelin who is a columnist for townhall.com and the author of "30 ways in 30 days to think in your family." as a mother of three, what is your advice? guest: the focus of the book is to help mothers and fathers alike understand that when you are given this precious little bundle of a child, it is your job to focus on getting them principles and fill your home with love and strong guidance every single day. what i really like to encourage parents to do is understand there is great joy in parenting. with all of the cultural stresses we have at all the conflicting points ofiew and all the struggles we fight as parents to maintain our focus should be on the children. it is very easy to get discouraged. my calling for parents is to sit why you think about decided to have a child of a first-place? and reflect on your own childhood. what is it about your childhood your member that gives you this warm, happy feeling? what are the things that cause you to really be sad? on mother's day, we celebrate mothers, but there are a lot of people today who are hurting. there are mothers who are hurting because they live in regret and guilt. then there are a lot of people who are hurting today because perhaps he did not know their mother, or perhaps they had a mother who was abusive or neglectful. but i try to do in the book is to help women and men, from all walks of life, who are parents, and what i say is, if you didn't have the money wanted -- you didn't have the mother you wanted, then become the mother of your dreams. i get practical tips and how to do that in the book. my hope is that it will provide encouragement to both mothers so thathe mother less they might understand it is still possible to have a fulfilling relationship with your children no matter how old they are, too. the publicdo policies in washington, legislation, play and to what families need in this country, and what they are not getting? guest: i recently did a column called the "intersection of family, faith, and freedom." as a christian, my rich in faith informs everything i believe it -- believe about the world. what thes me on government should do. we live in a nation right now where our families are accurate. four everyone hundred babies born, 12 were born to a family that would either suffer divorce, or born out of wedlock. today, for every 100 babies that are born, over 60 are born to a family of brokenness. that is a trajectory that we as a nation, cannot keep going on if we are going to survive culturally, as a country at all. government is to stay out of parents' lives and to come beside them and provide the structure so that parents can pass on their faith to their children. we have this wonderful document called the constitution, and the constitution really limits the powers of government. --they are not specifically the powers of government are not specifically laid out in the constitution, then i'll rest of the hounds are left to the people in the state. we have an encroaching government on family life, everything from education getting in the way of parenting medical profession getting in the way of parenting, to all the institutions. it is really a destructive situation, and it should be that the family structure would be set up such that moms and dad can pass on their faith to their children. that we could practice our religious freedom within our families without fear of government encroachment. free speech. the purpose of the constitution is to protect the family and individuals from encroaching government. and to really allow us to enjoy to enjoyis viewable -- the self truths that the creator gave us life, liberty. host: our guest is rebecca hagelin. it she is an advisor to ted cruz and her work available online is that townhall.com. our phone lines are open at 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 four republicans. send us a tweet or join us on facebook. you wrote open letter to donald trump supporters and gives to some of the issues. after eight years of barack obama, america is on the brink of destruction and in great danger of no longer being that shining city on the hill, a be can of hope for the world. basic freedoms like the ability to say what we please and openly live in our faith and raise our children as we see fit disappearing before our eyes. if we deny get this election right, our children and grandchildren will live under the strongest of government an opportunity -- under the strong fists and opportunity. guest: i did not want to overstate that i was not advising ted cruz every single day. it goes back to what we were talking about. god gave the children to moms and dads for a reason. he didn't have children board born intonment -- government, right? he gave them to moms and dads so that we as a unit could raise our children together to become children of strong character. there was a survey done if use ago and it was a survey of moms. ass' greatest challenge stated over and over was trying to raise children with character. difficult whene you have, for instance, a public school system, that many parents feel undermines their values and character. it becomes very difficult to do that when you have government intrusion into every aspect of your life. and so, we in this country right aw, i fear, are in constitutional crisis. we really are. we are going to hearken back to the principles, the foundational principles of liberty that our forefathers so beautifully scripted out in the bill of rights. or we are going to go further into government intrusion. and my fear is that neither of our presidential nominees, so to speak, neither one is a nominee yet, but it does appear that they will be, are not understanding that the constitution limits their power and was designed to give power to the people and to individuals. the: where do you go, where 10th crews supporters turned? -- where do you go? where do the ted cruz supporters turned? he did pull out of the race. but it is not over yet. it is far from over. the big thing to remember is whether it is a four-year or eight year cycle or whatever it is, at the foundational principles -- the foundational principles of the constitution are good for human beings throughout the ages. an intrinsicd on values. where we go from here is really depending on who you are asking in the ted cruz camp. there are those talking about a third-party. there are those saying, maybe we can get a strong vice president candidate. for me, it is a wait and see, quite frankly. i want donald trump to understand that he has to go to conservatives. he is the one who beats to our and their support. they are not obligated to go to him. he is the one that needs to go to them. and the difficulty is, with personality and the way he really acts like a ,unior high schoolyard bully it is very difficult to see him as the president of united states. there is going to be a lot that has to be said and done between now and november her donald trump to even get the republican base behind him. the weekly on standard, if a third party candidate were to rise up, who would that be? who should be? guest: there are a lot of people it could be. i will not give names now because i am not even sure that it is a viable option. although i would say that is something we should look at very closely because the bottom line is, not only at the republican party in crisis right now, you see the democratic party is also having big issues. both sides are really in a place right now where it is not going to be business as usual. it could be that nobody gets the right number of votes from the electoral college to actually be elected president. in that case, of course, the election goes to the house of representatives to choose. the chances are very slim. but this is the time right now where were either going to put our feet strongly on the foundational principles of the constitution and stand for those principles come help or high or high come hell water, or we will not. i do not want more of the same. theoes not matter if it is republican establishment in control of the democrats in control, government has grown bigger and more intrusive into every aspect of our lives. my goodness, really just freedom right now hangs by a thread. is-- the supreme court intrusive. we are going to have four or five appointments, then the next presidency, and there are cases like second amendment cases hanging by a thread, religious and free speech cases hanging by a thread. one other thing that will be looking at is who would donald trump nominate to be circuit court justices? so far, i don't have any comfort that he would actually nominate somebody that understands the constitution. he mentioned his sister is a judge as a possible nominee. well, his sister is very much a liberal. she is not a constitutionalist. there is a lot of work to be done between now and november. actually, between where we are now and november, that is a lifetime of politics. -- 30 waysays and 30 in 30 days. rebecca hagelin, let's bring in our callers and listeners. carmen, hamilton, montana, independent line. why do we keep getting force-fed the heritage foundation? oddamn, state, we are being propagandized. host: we have a lot of think tanks. who do you want to have on? caller: i don't want anything that has to do with corporations. on the want people talking religion and politics. withmix religion too much their politics. nobody wants to hear it. we are so tired of hearing about god and politics. thats not supposed to be in politics. i want you to know that lady. you people have ruined this country. you are the worst. all you people tried to control the united states. i am sick of your god talk. no one of you knows who god is. host: how do you respond to that sentiment? guest: happy mother's day. [laughter] i have heard it before. so i would ask to find common ground with him. my question is, do you believe in freedom of speech? do you believe the rights of parents to raise her children the way they see fit? one of the misnomers of common politics and the way of faith and directing with politics is that christianity is diametrically opposed to a government that would dictate christianity. so he has nothing to fear from the conservative christians involved in a political system. at the basis of christianity is that it is a choice. if it is not a free choice for someone, then it is not authentic. so than a constitutional government that the biblical christian would espouse is a constitutional government that protects everybody's right to choose, which religious faith they will follow or no religious faith. versus in theat bible is choose who you will follow. freedom at all without anything else that you do. this point about senator cruz saying his performance underscored the narrowness of his appeal. expand -- le to a trump eight into the support among evangelicals, that proved too small a base to carry him to victory. is that true? guest: we had several problems with ted cruz that route that forces that were out to take him down. first of all, he came to washington d.c. and did exactly what he said he would do, he stood for constitutional principles. he stood against the cronyism in a washington d.c. people are really tired of the establishment politics. we see that on both sides of the aisle. but ted cruz stood against was fighting the establishment and republican party. the establishment didn't like him. the people who controlled the microphone day in and day out and politics were after him. then you had those people who are diametrically opposed to this phase, people like carmen, not looking beyond ted cruz's personal faith, which is protecting religious freedom for all. he had that element. then what donald trump had, sadly, and this is one of the things i write about in my book, it's writing about the craft culture we grow up in. our children are getting bombarded with craft, crude programming. in boxes are slammed with pornography. it according to the kaiser family foundation, kids are spending eight hours a day consuming media and a lot of it is negativity. donald trump is an entertainer first and foremost. the reality show tv star who has also owned casinos and all kinds of entertainment shows. he knows how to entertain people. it is a tabloid culture. donald trump knew how to speak to that. the outrage people are feeling toward the establishment and business as usual, and had donald trump come in speaking the craft language culture, this is what we have ended up with. we have ended up with a person who has stood for all those things we love and hold their cash and hold dear -- for all the things we hold dear. ted cruz is only 45 years old and can come back when america has a better understanding. to july andloser ted cruz got to spread his message more and more, weise -- we saw more people understand. host: are you surprised he dropped out? guest: i am not surprised when he saw he did not see a viable way forward. longid he would stay in as as there was a viable path forward. was i surprised it happened on tuesday night? yes i was. everybody was. cruzw that ted and heidi are amazingly wonderful people who love this country, and for him, the timing was right. let's go to jail and lewis, colorado with rebecca hagelin. caller: first and foremost, i would like to wish you a happy mother's day, young lady. i am a mormon as mitt romney is, so i am pro-life, but i have a real issue. the european caucasians came to this country because of the church of england. we are now putting church into state, and the constitution if you go back and read it, for everybody and everybody's religious believes, not just church, we need to quit imposing our beliefs and spend more times -- and spend more time raising our families. the reason they are turning out the way they are, we are not applying ourselves as parents in our religious believes so we can affect the outcome in our country. state the way you want to do it is the reason why you left her other country, england. -- you know come everyone of us have our faults. we can point out the bad and everyone, but when we need to start doing is change our attitude and point out the good of what we have available because that is what made this country strong. host: thank you for the call. guest: i don't know if joe just heard the exchange with carmen. once again, christianity at its core with be against the government which would try to institute the church. ,he constitution prohibits that which is why i am such a strong constitutionalist. our faith has to be in our heart determining what our relationship is with god. it is not the business of the government to be involved in that. host: based on that, what would you tell critics on capitol hill? as a parent, what is one thing they should not do that they are doing that is hindering families? guest: they should stay out of the way of moms and dance to raise their children according dads' principles and values. it should stay out of the way of the freedom of speech. the one thing they can do is uphold the constitution and the bill of rights. it all comes down to that. -- colors for right in that callers were right. ours is a judeo-christian heritage. in the early stages, people came here to worship god as they see fit. you cannot deny our judeo-christian founding. having said that, the founding athers thought it would be grievous crime against god and to come ingovernment and dictate a faith. again, christianity teaches that you cannot dictate a faith. each person has to choose. book, "30 ways in 30 days." michelle is calling from summerville, south carolina with rebecca hagelin. good morning, michelle. caller: yes. daysjust wondering, "30 and 30 ways" to strengthen your family? i am looking at her. it i have high definition on c-span. it is very obvious that she has had tons of cosmetic surgery. doneigher -- her hair is perfectly. host: what is your point? caller: what is she doing in those 30 days? is she only working on her looks? is she talking to her kids? does she talk to her husband at all? or is she just concerned with how she looks? host: as a mother of three -- 28,t: my children are 29, and 23. host: what advice did they give you in writing the book? guest: oh my goodness. it is kind of fun. when i worked the first rest several years ago, this is a new version of a book i wrote several years ago. when i wrote the first draft of it, i gave it to each of my children and asked them to give me a reality check on it. it was a very sobering time and also a wonderful time to sit down. they were all teenagers at the time, and reflect upon them. what were the mistakes i made? what could i have done better? it was a beautiful time here it the updated the book in title slightly change, my daughter is now 24 and married. i thought it would be really wonderful to have her at the end of every chapter right her point of view about the tip i given each chapter. at the end of every chapter of the book is now a writing from a 24-year-old daughter. giving her reflections on what worked and didn't work or what she might've changed. so, that is also i think something that would be hopeful to harris of teenagers is having somebody who grew up under these teachings, but that is really still close to a teenager. if i may, i would like to read a little passage from kristin. i have to do my glasses on here. one moment. this is what my daughter said, her name is kristin. it this is in the section that i tell parents to assess their homes. youree what is coming into homes and what the culture might be teaching your children. she says, it is easier to go with the flow. the things that are popular whether music, clothing are popular for a reason. they look and sound good for entertaining and are exciting and are convenient. when something is popular, it is easy to find. but as christians, we are called to think deeper about the choices we make. to choose for reasons beyond pleasure or convenience. don't becomeo say so well-adjusted to your culture that you get into it without even thinking. instead, fix your attention on god. you will be changed from the inside out. recognize that what he wants from you and quickly respond to it is something you should search for. unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to it levels, god brings the best out of you, develops maturity in you. you go stronger, not by finding a comfortable place within the status quo, but by searching out and reaching for the things that are higher. host: our guest is rebecca hagelin. george is joining us from texas. public in line. good morning. caller: yes. good morning. guest: good morning. caller: i would just like to know, i see hillary clinton on their all the time. i see bill clinton on there all the time. ,eople says secretary clinton president clinton, i didn't know they were president and secretary? host: she was secretary of state, george. caller: when did she become secretary? host: hillary clinton? caller: and she still -- is she still secretary? a -- that is just them said they were broke when they got out of the white house. that is a bunch of garbage. they are a bunch of liars. host: george, thank you for the call. do you want to respond? guest: i don't the guy have a comment on that one. host: raleigh, north carolina. good morning. caller: happy mother's day. guest: thank you. caller: i really appreciate what you said about christians not wanting to foment a christian state even though i am highly suspect that a lot of your colleagues and counterparts agree with that, but it is true that the constitution does limit government power, but there is a government power. it's completely eliminate religious power. our constitution totally stripped religion from having any power. they had plenty of rights and protection, but no actual authority, which is the way it should be. but i want to get your thoughts on is the support that the evangelicals in this voting cycle have allocated to cruz versus trump. as far as the christian principles and all of that, i at , i'm sorry,t trump respect the cruz supporters for at least taking -- for at least sticking to their so-called christian values anyway. but what i am interested in, trump has received the majority of support from evangelicals. that has got to be really disheartening to the republican to --nt to is -- movement movement that is relying on them to drive election cycle. christian values versus trump, where it was pretty much raw anger and bigotry and resentment and narcissism and crude and cross and disrespectful and bullying. evangelicalsof the have chosen the latter. host: we will give her a chance to respond. thank you for the call. is right.y there are evangelical supporting donald trump. that mystifies me, quite frankly. divide and some of the evangelical movement over that. i think i would call upon the evangelicals to read more about donald trump's history and to critically examine what he says every day and compared it to what he said last week or the week before. i would be very concerned on his positions he is taking and flip-flopping on for planned parenthood for an example. he says he supports planned parenthood. planned parenthood has betrayed millions of woman -- of women telling them their unborn children are not human beings that are deserving of life. for every aborted baby, 50 million of them, roe versus wade, there are mothers hurting. today on mother's day and particular, one of the things i want to say to the mothers who are hurting over past regret, let's just take abortion for example, is there can be healing. there can be forgiveness. there can be a reckoning and with your god and yourself over a past mistake. the message of my book is all about hope, it is all about whether you are a parent who feels like you did most things right, or you screwed most things up. everyday, there is an opportunity to start over. for the mothers and fathers of adult children who say, well it is too late for me now. you know, that feeling of hopelessness and sadness that robs you of the joys of today is an awful message we should reject. as long as there is breath in you, there is an opportunity to restore relationships that you have with your family. interestingost things to me over the past couple of weeks, steve, was an interview i saw with anderson cooper. i have never met anderson cooper. maybe in passing. given a book out and was -- giving an interview on his mother in his book and said his father passed away when he was 10 years old. and that he had this fantasy as a child growing up, that -- and a father left a letter for him somewhere, and that anderson was stumble across it and know what his father thought about it. then he realized such a letter never existed. one of the most powerful chapters in my book, when i saw the interview, i went, wow, i have a chapter in my book, on how to write a letter to your teenager. it is a message precisely for moms and as that says, if you have never really told your children what you believe, if you have made mistakes, if you have never lived your life declaring your love for them, you unconditional love, if have a better relationship with your child, well, how about writing them a letter? sit down and in your own handwriting, write a clear declaration of your love. talk about the things you regret. your hopes and dreams for them. what you want your relationship to be going further. is so great about a letter like that is that you can cross it out and go back to it, rewrite it and ask other people what they think about it very when you get something that really tugs at your heart. even if you are a grown adult, i encourage you to get that letter to your child. host: have you written those letter? guest: i have. bookthrough steps in the about how to write such a letter. the message in and out of every single chapter is to love your children so much that you dare to be involved in their lives. that you dare every day to make yourself vulnerable is apparent your a parent and love on child with meaningful touch and spoken word that are positive and pink a picture of a bright ature for them -- and paint picture of a bright future for them. it there is an author that talked about this previously about the things parents need to do every day to bless their children are younger. ,hose things are loving meaningful touch, a warm hug, a pad on the back, -- a packed on the back and positive words of affirmation. painting a vision of a bright future, letting them know that you are going to be there for them whether they make mistakes or choose your ways are not. and so, i think the most powerful part of my mother's day allage today is for moms of stripes. host: mother of three third the book is called "30 ways in 30 days to stripping your family." rebecca hagelin is a columnist for tom cole.com. thank you for being here. we appreciate it. sunday,continue on this of may, declared as mother's day. jennifer lawless will be joining us. it later on as mother's day, we will learn how the federal government is affecting working moms. sarah jane will be joining us. guest newsmakers -- our is governor puerto rico who talked about whether puerto rico should make its next payment debt deadline july 1. here is a portion of the program. >> last year, you declare the data puerto rico unpayable and last week with this past week, the government development missed most of a $22 million payment. there is a larger $800 million on the due on july obligation debt. will you be able to make a payment on july 1? >> today, the answer is no. toon't think we will be able have that money. i do not an issue if want to pay. it is that i do not have the money. the money will not exist. the single happen on the first of july. >> last year the commonwealth did increase the sales tax that is charged in puerto rico. so revenues have been running slightly above last year's level. why would puerto rico not have the money if year over year revenues are up? >> very good question, because the deficit increased this year. to meet our obligation last too. the debts increased, to give you real numbers, the budget is 36%. the state with a high ratio is hawaii with 13, 1/3. the average in the united states is five. the average in the world is seven. we are at 36%. it's just a burden that is too heavy for the commonwealth. >> monday on the communicators. the republican republican f.c.c. commissioner. he comments on the political divide within the f.c.c. editor.ined by a senior >> to take the most aggressive, leftist approach to policymaking. the middle ground when that becomes the first primary goal of the item, when the policy and direction they want to go becomes the first goal rather han any consideration of any collegality or attempt to bring or develop consensus, you wind up with what we had today. there is interest in bringing my appointments onboard, i will be less likely to be supportive and i will express my views. >> monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome back jennifer lawless. she is with american university, director of that institute. good sunday morning. thanks for being here. we begin with this morning's front page of "the new york times," talking about women and their political clout that they're giving money in record amounts in large part because they're working moms, they're moving up in the workplace, and now have what "the new york times" is calling political clout. jennifer: that's right. for decades, women have voted for equal rights with men and engaged in other forms of political activism but now they're beginning to catch up in checkbook activism as well. hillary clinton is a motivating force behind that. host: let's read a portion of the piece, focusing on the democrats and hillary clinton and emily's list, saying democrats have benefited from emily's list, who elect democratic women who are abortion rights activists and in the process has helped whether a growing network of female donors n the party. far more than any other fundraising effort on the right or female candidates but even among republicans, female donors are playing a more significant role, some of the largest contributors to super pac's have been women, including diane chiefcks, the billionaire executive of a wisconsin-based roofing and building supplies company. jennifer: emily's list has been able to get women to be big donors and allowed them to develop some type of financial clout over the last 25 years. as a result it's brought familiarity to these women about how to engage the political system of the on the republican side there is no comparable organization. so sure, you have very high profile donors who have a lot of money who are able to contribute, but they're lagging overall because there is no infrastructure by which to bundle these contributions and teach women how to become the political activists they can be. host: there is a term you refer to, political ambition gender gap. what is that? jennifer: it suggests women and men who are similarly situated in terms of their educational and occupational credentials aren't equally likely to consider running for office. a professor and i interviewed almost 10,000 women and men who are lawyers, business leaders and activists and we found that women were about 1/3 less likely than men to consider running for office and they were about 1/3 less likely than men to do it. so even though women and men win elections at queel rates, they're far less likely to become officials because they're not running. host: the headline says "girls just want to not run." jennifer: anybody in the 1980's will understand that, it's from cyndi lauper's song. we found a gender gap in political ambition. in college, 18 to 25-year-olds saw a difference in running for office that was bigger than that which we found among adults. if we don't begin to close that gap and encourage young women to think about electoral politics as a means by which to bring about positive change, we are not going to see any big change even if women get the same kind of educational credentials as men. host: let me get reaction to what hillary clinton said in a debate. hillary: i believe i am a feminist because i believe women deserve the same rights as men in every aspect of our economy and our society here at home and around the world. devoted a lot -- of my public life to advocating for women's rights, being human rights and making the case that we have to do everything we can through laws, regulations, culture, to change the still existing stereotype that hold women back. i think it's also really important to recognize that we have made progress but we are still a long way from where we need to be. i know that if you look at pay, for example, equal pay is still a problem. it's a problem that gets worse as you get older. so young women coming right into the work force often are paid pretty close to equal. it's not actually equally, but within a few years, there begins to be a disparity and it's hard to explain all of the difference, because people claim, well, women make different choices and therefore they have a different kind of work life because of those choices. but that does not explain all of it. i would -- outside of philadelphia, she was talking about how she never knew she was paid 40% less than the men doing exactly the same job in the factory that she worked in. now, what did that mean? it meant her family was cheated. it's not just a women's issue. if you have a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter who is working and they're not being treated family, the whole family suffers. host: hillary clinton in a debate earlier this spring. jennifer lawless, your reaction? jennifer: she's right. we are in a situation in this country where there is not pay equity, women do not have the ame access men have. to just give you one example, we asked women and men who were well situated to run for office who was responsible for the majority of the household tasks and childcare in their home and even though these women and men had a similar situation at work, women were 10 times more likely than men to also be baring the childcare burden. women and men are not navigating the same lives out there. policy should reflect that. host: going back to your research on women not wanting to run, this is a graph that you put together. it changed a little bit among men. for those watching, blue is men and pink is women. back in 2001, 59% of men had thought about running for office. only 43% of women. fast forward to 2012. 57% of men thinking about running for office, 37% for women. so a decline. jennifer: they're different people so we shouldn't make too much of the decline. it's the size of the gender gap that's important. over the course of a generation, we are not seeing any fundamental shift and we are not seeing circumstances that are closing that gap. when we did the original resemp, this is before 9/11. it was before hillary clinton ran for president. it was before nancy pelosi was speaker of the house. we thought that all of those high profile events might change people's attitudes and might spur women's activism and we didn't see that in terms of running for office. host: in your upcoming book, why are we so polarized? jennifer: we have good news in the book. this book is co-authored with danny hayes at george washington university. what we find as far as house elections are concerned, because districts have become so polarized, because people are so concerned about whether there is a d or r in front of the name, the media coverage candidates receive has very throil do with the sex of the candidate. so in a lot of ways an upside to the polarization that has contributed to dysfunction and gridlock in washington has also somewhat rendered the sex of the candidate moot and that's good news because when women run at the congressional level, they're treated, evaluated and campaign very much like men. host: she has co-written a piece available online and this is the headline. women's card comment escalates the campaign's gender wars." jennifer: two reasons, the first is in every presidential election since 1980, there has been a gender gap where women are more likely to support the democratic candidate. it wasn't the case in 1984 but it does suggest that women have a predisposition to support democrats. so going in, hillary clinton has an advantage already. what the republicans try do in presidential elections is mitigate that. in addition to policies that don't embrace women, trump has made sexist and misogynistic remarks. given clinton is highlighting issues that disproportionately affect women like health care and pay equity, she's going to likely exacerbate it even more. host: can he overcome some of his past statements? jennifer: he is starting really with a very substantial deficit, depending on the poll you look at, 60% of women have an unfavorable rating of him. he certainly in the last week hasn't done anything except say i love women to begin to close that gap. host: this is from priorities u.s.a., the superpac supporting hillary clinton using the words of donald trump. let's watch. >> you wouldn't have your job if you weren't beautiful. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion? >> there has to be some form of punishment. >> for the woman? >> yeah, there has to be some orm of punishment. host: jennifer lawless of american university, there will be more of these ads coming out in the days and weeks ahead. jennifer: we sthee part of the narrative heading into the general election will be targeting female voters and the clinton pam pain making it clear that she respects women and wants to improve their status in society and highlighting examples of donald trump suggesting the opposite. as we move forward, there will be incredibly high profile examples of sexism, but the presidential election cycle is far different than all of the other races across the country. it's important not to send this message that when women run they're going to encounter the kind of biased statements that donald trump is making. in most cases, that's not the norm. host: but here is donald trump this past week talking about women's issues. donald: the women's vote, nobody respects women more than i do. i will tell you that. and women are looking for security in their country and they know i'm going to do the best job. look at hillary, remember the ad? who is going to be awake at 3:00 in the morning? when they called her on benghazi, she was sleeping, folks. she was sleeping. she was sleeping. host: he has said repeatedly, as we heard in that ad, that if hillary clinton were a man, his campaign would have been over a long time ago. jennifer: any impartial person would view that statement as ridiculous. here is a person who was a former secretary of state, former senator, it's hard to imagine why that would be the case. he said something along the lines of she's not qualified to serve on a city council. that's unbelievable to most people who are watching this objectively. it's simply not true. host: let's get to your phone calls. independent line with jennifer lawless, the director of the institute for women in politics at american university. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. in regards to women's role in the political process, i believe there have been several run. so in light of the many economic hurdles in the u.s., how important are women's contributions to the american political process in regards to economic policies? host: thank you, alex. jennifer: studies indicate there are differences in how women and men lead and how they legislate. at the congressional level, it's hard to uncover any real differences because we have such polarized partisan institutions, but there is no question women bring a unique perspective and even if that perspective doesn't trump whether they are a republican or democrat, it could shed new light on issues. host: republican line, good morning. caller: good morning, sir. miss lawless, a question for you and a question for the american people. in order for someone to run for president, do you think if it's a he or she, mostly he, do you be married once or not at all or three times going on four? would you please answer that? host: let me ask you, why are you asking the question? caller: because i don't think it's nice, especially for the kids who might run for president some day, to be married three times going on four. that's a joke. it is a joke. three times going on four? donald trump is going to be married soon again. all you got to do is dangle his money in front of those women faces and they want some of it. host: there is no indication that he is going to be married a fourth time. caller: you never know. host: of course. let's deal with the fact here. jennifer: i generally don't think the marital status of a candidate is relevant. i think we should be evaluating the candidates and suggesting maybe they not run based on how well they would do the job. host: from georgia, good morning. caller: hello. i am calling concerning the gender problem. that happened not to be my greatest problem in america. my problem is racism. as far as hillary clinton is concerned, we have a problem within the gender -- the minority women make a lot less money than white women. this is a problem that has nothing to do with black women having their babies killed and she has never said one word about that. i don't see any empathy for anyone except her. that's my statement. thank you. host: thank you. let's go to ralph from new york. good morning, republican line. caller: yes, hi, how are you? i am calling concerning the resume that was given about how great hillary has done since obama hired her as secretary of state and backfired when donald trump's campaign is going to attack her on all those syria, s that -- 2014, benghazi, the other countries that they alienated and the line in the sand. i think it's going to work against her that just because your name says secretary of state doesn't mean you did anything good for the united states. she left the mideast burning, and with her history also of trying to explain how the clinton foundation receives all that money from deals in the mideast, donald trump is not going to leave any stone unturned. the american people deserve better. it's about experience. hillary is part of the machine. thank you. host: thank you, ralph. jennifer: i think people have a right to have the view about hillary clinton that the caller has. it's important to judge people based on what they did in judge. if you look at the resume and qualifications, it's silly to say she doesn't have the background that a presidential capped date -- candidate has. you might disagree with what she did. host: if you have a man and woman both in the same job, both with the same experience and educational background carrying on the same responsibilities, why does the man get paid more? jennifer: i am not an economist into am reluctant to wade that debate. i think most people on the side of pay equity would phrase it the way you just did and most people who say pay equity is not a problem would say in those circumstances, the man and woman would get paid the same. i think the reality is that at the aggregate level, women are still being paid 78 cents on the dollar. that sends a terrible message where we are as a country. host: are the media treating women candidates, not necessarily clinton, but at the house, senate, congressional level, any differently than a male capped date? jennifer: they're not. we identified in every congressional district the largest circulating newspaper, the reality is newspapers are still where people look for information on their house races. leading up to the election we collected every article that mentioned either candidate or both and we looked at whether the article mentioned a candidate's gender, family role, traits vying the candidates. first we found in terms of volume of coverage, it was the same overall. second we found the issues associated with men and women were generally the same. it was no longer the case that men were associated with national security issues and women were associated with abortion, for example. we also found that men and women were equally likely to be associated with words like leadership but also integrity and empathy. most interesting to us was as far as appearance is concerned, we hear a lot about how women's appearance is a major factor in media coverage, 96% of men and 95% of women received no mention of their appearance. of those who did we are talking about less than one mention over the course of 30 days of coverage. generally speaking, the media has gotten to the point where they're covering aspects of a race whether there is an incumbent or national tide, they're not interested in the battle of the sexes. host: our guest is a graduate of brown university, earned hir masters from stanford, and you ran for office yourself. what was that like? jennifer: i want to say i didn't graduate from brown. i taught at brown. graduated from union college. it was -- running for congress was the best thing i ever did. i ran in a democratic primary against a popular incumbent because i thought he was wrong on the issues. i was able to have thousands of conversations with voters and learn about the kinds of things that matter to them and understand their reluctance to get involved in the political system. at the end of the day i garnered almost 40% of the vote, but i have no regrets. people say to me don't you feel like you've dodged a bullet? no. i wish every day i was there. host: would you run again? jennifer: i would love to run again. host: tom in california, good morning, democrats line. caller: good morning. i totally agree with everything she said. it's so on point. i hate to say it, but donald trump is the proaster boy for what's wrong with men's values in politics today i have been in the fire service and when we go see children -- school age children at career day, i still see only the same numbers of girls that seem to be interested at all in some sort of -- asking questions about the job or being interested in any male oriented jobs. nothing has really changed since i first statted. we are lucky if one out of 30 young girls even acts interested at all. when i ask them about it, most of them don't seem to realize that they could do a job like that or any other types of male oriented jobs. it's sad that this hasn't changed at all in the last 25 years. host: tom, thank you. jennifer: it's true there is gender segregation in the jobs kids think about going into it. politics is not viewed as a noble profession. it's seen as a place where dysfunctional people who engage in bad behavior don't accomplish anything. parents are not going to encourage children down that path. there is a lack of nobility associated with this profession and as a result we often wind up with not the best people running for office. host: hillary clinton has made reference to the fact that when her husband was president he vowed to make his cabinet more diverse. she's trying to take that one step further. this is a headline saying she wants to make sure that she has a cabinet full of women and presumably that could mean that half would be women. jennifer: right. that would be a very important statement to make if she wants to convey that women really are 51% of the population and that they should have 51% of the decision authority talking about the federal government. we have reached a point in time saying you want to appoint 50% women does not in any way suggest you will be compromising the credentials of the occupants of that office because we now have women graduating from colleges and law schools and business schools in equal numbers as men. we no longer have a tradeoff. if she really wants to encourage more women to think about politics, then putting more of them in positions of power is a very plausible route to go. host: senator bernie sanders' policies has been what? jennifer: generally as good as clinton's. if you look at the specific votes there is not much to suggest that there is a big difference. he would argue that his push for income -- to close the gap in income inequality would have a disproportionate effect on women as well. which candidate is better for them and to what extent is it important for you as a voter to break the glass ceiling and elect a woman president of the united states? -- she's ewest book the co-author of a number of books including running from office, why young americans are turned off from politics and why women don't run for office. north carolina, republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. interesting topics. i am curious, obvious hi you research and do a lot of well thought out studies if you ever factor in the role of islam because islam truly does look to subjugate women throughout the world and hillary mentioned she wants to be a champion for women's rights around the world. if that's the case, it would be hard to support the democrat party who is soft on islam. i wonder if you factored any of those things into your studies. thank you. jennifer: my research focuses on people who are either planning to run for office or who are currently candidates. we are constrained by the religious affiliation of the people who are part of the surveys. so there isn't enough diversity and aren't enough muslims in the sample to be able to say anything about that. host: back to "the new york times" article, emily's list. did they help you when you ran for the house? jennifer: they did not. part of their view is that they should be engaged in very nnable races, so a primary with the popular incumbent didn't fall into their list. host: has emily's list made a difference? jennifer: they have made a difference in terms of competitive races. part of the reason women raise as much money as men had high profile races is because emily's list helps bundle contributions for them and publicize that they're doing. an endorsement from emily ace list is a credible commitment to demonstrating you are pro-choice. in terms of getting new women into the pipeline and getting new women to run for office, no one organization can do that all. so i think what we see is a lot of these national organizations trying to make sure that the women who have already chosen to run have the training, have the ability, have the infrastructure, have the campaign and the dollars to be successful. we still have to do a much better job casting a wider net and getting more women to consider running. host: did you follow the senate primary in maryland between donna edwards and chris van hollen? she was very critical during the campaign that she didn't get support from women that she thought she was going to have in her bid for senate nominee. jennifer: i did watch. i live in washington, d.c. so the shared media market made me feel like i was watching the campaign on a daily basis. i think the van hollen campaign would beg to differ. you have women in the house and senate who got involved on both sides. i think primaries are very tricky. a lot of political elites and the most politically active people don't note what to do with them. you want to hedge your bets and make sure that whoever emerges victorious in that race is on your side in general and i think that's what we saw here. host: caller: good morning. host: thanks for listening to us on c-span radio. caller: yes, i listen on tv right now. i'm an african-american scientist, and i have top-secret clearance and i'm multilingual. and as i speak on hillary rodham clinton, i think she's the best qualified of all those candidates running, and she's very qualified. she knew all the heads of state on this pleant. she flew air force one. you put miles on it between theth and moon. i know what ist, she's talking about, colin powell had similar experiences, and those emails that came across her terminal were not at the time. she's the most qualified of all the persons of our candidates right now, and all this stuff, it's nothing but hate monger stuff, witch hunting stuff like that. we need to get beyond that. she's trying to be commander in chief of this country, the first time in history this is going to happen, and we're going to make history. and to your guest, miss jennifer, you're doing a great job. the thing you're discussing here, i think that -- you're going to make your proud, all your ladies that are growing up , and we need to get beyond all this witch hunting stuff like that. first african-american, first female commander in chief in this country, and this is going to make history in the united states. gender, angela merkel, she's a ph.d. scientist, and she's chancellor of germany. and i think argentina has a female president. host: we'll stop include because we're short on time, but we want to give our guest a chance to respond. thank you very much for the call. guest: there's no question that this is going to be a very negative campaign, and anything that anybody has ever said about hillary clinton that should raise eyebrows will be raised again. i do want to mention one thing about the benghazi hearings, and i think that those hearings, testifying for 11 hours in front of that committee, really made it clear that she has the temperament to with zpand endure a pretty negative, growling campaign. so anybody that was concerned about that, i don't think is anymore. whether donald trump has that temperament is the open question. he hasn't exhibited it thus far, but he hasn't had to. i think that's the unknown as we move forward. host: mark, north carolina, you understand pen line. thank you for waiting. good morning. caller: yes, i watched intently. i've listened to the discussion. please have your expert tell us three accomplishments of hillary clinton, not her resume. you know, she's been there. she's been that. can she list three actual accomplishments by hillary clinton? guest: i'm not here to encourage people to vote for hillary clinton. i'm not a surrogate of the campaign. i'm a political scientist who compares women experiences to men's experiences when they're thinking about running for office or when they're actually running. i'm not in the business of listing one candidate's accomplishments and not another. host: i know you're not, but in looking at the trump campaign, and you mentioned earlier the polling among female voters, let me go back to that point. what does he need to do? clearly he needs to build a broader base if he wants to win the election. guest: he does. so republicans are not able to win presidential elections when the gender gap is more than about 10 percentage points. right now, it could very well be triple that. so the first thing that donald trump needs to do is stop saying things that reen force the idea that he is overtly sexist. stop engaging in a campaign that is so rash and brutally aggressive that it turns off female voters. on top of that, the republican parties for quite some time has had a policy problem where democrats are able to say that they're conducting a war on women, and the policy is that donald trump has mentioned thus far don't mitigate that concern. saying that women themselves to be punish when had they a abortion is so far beyond the mainstream, even among anti-choice activists. those are not the kind of statements that do anything to sthaug a trump presidency would be good for women. host: the "new york times" story, 43% of women who have contributed to -- a contribution for women in this campaign election cycle thus far. guest: right, i think that hillary clinton is trying to build on this idea that it is time to, as she said in 2008, crack that highest, hardest glass ceiling. and the kind of strength that she wants to develop, she wants to be built on the base of women who have decided that it's time to really play an active role. host: our guest is jennifer lawless from american university. chuck is joining us from bam barge republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. everyone is talking about how qualified hillary is. scommer bill were corrupt before they left arkansas. they've been corrupt from day one. if this is the best they have for a candidate, i think the democrats want to talk about the republicans. the only thing these democrat politicians have ever run basically is their mouth. donald trump is a businessman. our government is a business. we don't need any more of these clowns that know nothing about business calling the shots. thank you. host: chuck, thank you. guest: he should vote for donald trump. host: he probably will. republican line, good morning. caller: yes, i'd like to ask your guest, jennifer, what do you think about the chris matthews statement that was made last week? guest: awful. caller: awful. host: about donald trump's wife? caller: yeah, he's -- that's a double side of the coin. he's doing exactly what they're campaigning about, and he's a democrat who is supporting hillary. and i find this very hypocritical, and i wish i would hear more about it. i just wanted to know if she heard that. host: thank you, and whose wife ran for the house and lost as well. guest: right. chris matthews has a long history of saying sexist things, and of saying that they're not really sexist because they're a compliment. so when you say that a potential first lady has a runway walk or that she's a 10, that person should be happy and pleased. and there's no question that it's objectifying women, and it's certainly no place for somebody who is hosting a television show and covering politics. it's unacceptable. floip michigan, dave, good morning. caller: good morning. hi, jennifer. yeah, i'm a union worker, and i wondered, most people don't understand that unions are democracies. they're little democracies. everybody has a vote in them, that's how they're run. it seems to me that women would fare better with unions. is that your experience too? guest: there's been quite some push to get union members to run for office, because women do have experiences within the unions that have enabled them to run and gain the credentials. the thing that's really interesting and important, once women decide to run, whether at the local, state, or federal level, they're just as successful as men. they don't encounter any media bismse the goal is to get them to run in the first place, and unions are certainly fertile ground to spur that political ambition. host: you spoke at portland state university about this, and you said that the barriers remain. this is the headline from the portland newspaper. what is the most significant barrier? guest: the two biggest barriers are women's own perceptions of whether they have what it takes. we found that women feel that they have to be twice as qualified to get half as far as men in politics because they perceive that there's widespread bias and discrimination against them. what happens is people see the way that hillary clinton or sarah palin or nancy pelosi are treated, and they assume the kinds of biases and sexism those women encounter would be typical of their experiences. we show that's not true. that's the first barrier, this high-profile example of sexism, the assumption that trickles down. the second is that women are still significantly less likely than men to be encouraged to run for office. that's the case not only from party leaders and elect officials, but even from political activists' family members and friends. when women are encouraged to run, they're just as likely as men to take that suggestion and go with it. host: you look at golda in israel, 1979 when the conservatives elected margaret that mucher in great britain. we had a caller earlier about angela merkel and germany. why is the u.s., when it comes to electing a female president, so far behind? guest: part of the reason is we really only had one formidable presidential candidate, and now this is her second go. so part of the problem is is that presidential candidates who are the most competitive tend to come from the governor mansions or from the u.s. senate. and right now, 44 of the 50 states have male governors. that's the norm. right now, 80 of the 100 senators in the united states senate are men. and that's generally the norm. so we've had not a lot of options as far as qualified potential female presidential candidates. and hopefully that will change as we move forward. host: when she was selected back in 1984 to be walter mondale's running mate, geraldine ferraro said there was a double standard when it came to her husband's finances that really crippled and some would say ended her own political career. was that unfair, or if it had been the other way around, it was a successful woman who had been in business, had some questionable dealings, that would have come up for a fell candidate. guest: you know, i don't know. it was a different time. and in 1984, the notion of a female candidate on the presidential ticket was very novel. it was very interesting. it was very new. it was also before the year of the woman. we at the time, i think, had only one or two women in the senate. there were only a handful in the house. the way that we treated women in politics, and the way that we scrutinized them was different than we do now, because they were just not the norm. they were not old hat. they were not regularly around. i think this time around it's clear, and it will be pretty object why is as we move move everything that everything is fodder for debate. host: sam from mississippi. good morning, republican line. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: good morning. how are y'all? host: we're fine. good morning. caller: hey, my question is, see, i have four daughters, and i would love for them to be involved in politics. i would love for them to be a presidential candidate one day. the problem i had with the democratic party is like with hillary clinton, everybody knows a woman, just basically an evil woman, period. and i don't think -- you know, i definitely don't think she's qualified. i know a young lady couldn't name three accomplishments that she did as secretary of state, and she's been challenged several times on some questions about hillary, but yet she's not been able to answer it. she says she's there for basically the women thing, but clearly she's a hillary clinton supporter. if she's such a viable candidate, why can she not tell us what hillary clinton has done, because i guess basically because she's done nothing. on another subject, i have no problem with a candidate that's african-american running for , but the problem is barack obama is nobody wants to vote for him on the conservative side, so it doesn't have anything to do with women or black men or black women. it's just a fact that this ideology people have is so whacked out that that's the reason why they're disliked, and hillary is just an eel woman that has no business being -- evil woman that has no business being in office. and i hope she gets indicted, which she probably won't, because of the justice department. host: thank you, sam. did you want to respond? guest: i did not. host: you get the last word, independent line. caller: all right. i feel that hillary is doing more harm for women because as a candidate, she has such a terrible past. first of all, lying about benghazi for weeks after benghazi, and then i listen to her 11-hour statement on c-span, and also hollande from france, after the paris bombing, said that assisi from egypt reached tout france and said he's with him. and then i heard him on c-span, and he said that he's a muslim in egypt, but he feels that he wants to welcome the christians back, the coptic christians have been destroyed after hillary supported the brotherhood getting into egypt. i don't think that it shows that she really knows what's going on, because that's a debate with barry sanders, she said we have to get rid of the military presence in egypt, and that was three days after hollande had said from france that he was the only one that reached out to france from the middle east, after the paris bombing. host: the earlier caller, give you a sense of polarization in the country. guest: it does. it gives a sense of polarization in the country, and it also highlights the importance of a war on women, whether it be president or govern inner or senator or house, and that's because as long as we only have a handful of female candidates, we assume that they are going to represent all women, and that any move that they make that we disagree with might suggest that this is a reason not to have more women in politics f. people look at something that donald trump has said or something that bernie sanders has said, and they don't agree with it, the reaction is never, oh, this is why we should not have men in politics being or they're doing a disservice to men in politics. as long as women are still an anomaly, then women who do put themselves out there are really trying to meet, i think, a burden that is almost unmeetable. host: yet, one interesting fact, since 19 4, over the last, what, 52 years, in presidential elections, women outpace men in voting. guest: not only in voting, but also in the raw numbers of registered voters. it's women who decide elections. and it's women who systematically, since 1980, have been deciding that the democrats should be in the white house. so it's unlike that will we're going to see a difference this time around, not because hillary clinton is hillary clinton, but because of the demographics, because of the structural factors, because of the way the economy is doing, and because of who's running on the republican side. host: if it were hypothetically senator gillen brand of new york or amy clobuchar of minnesota or elizabeth warren from massachusetts, going through all these names, if it was an all-female ticket, would that be too much for the american people or would this country embrace an all-female ticket? guest: hillary clinton said that for quite some time the country has embraced same-sex tickets, and so we've always had, you know, with very few exceptions, two men running. i don't think it would make a big difference. i think the selection of the vice-presidential candidate has a lot more to do with shoring up the base or demonstrating that you might be able to play in a state that you wouldn't ordinarily play in, and i'm not sure that those women come from those states. host: your book comes out next month? guest: within a few weeks, yes. host: jennifer lawless, the director of the center for women in politics at american university here in washington, d.c. she's out with her newest book in a couple of weeks. thank you very much for being with us. guest: thanks for having me. host: we'll take a short break. when we come back, we're going to turn to the issue of women in politics. sarah jane glynn is going to join us from the center for american progress to talk about federal policies that directly affect mothers. you're watching and listening to c-span's "washington journal" on this sunday morning, may 8. we're back in a moment. >> i helped both countries with their constitutions being sort of facilitator of agreement on key issues among iraqis or afghans. this is considerable. has the state or government very anxious to meet with you. >> tonight on "q&a," former u.s. ambassador to afghanistan and the united nations, zalmay khalilzad, discusses his new book. we saw extremists such as zawahiri exploited, although we corrected it towards the end of the period that i was there by the surge, by reaching out to the sunnis, by building up iraqi forces, by establishing a unity government, killing zawahiri at the end to bring about security, violence way down, but unfortunately when we left, the vacuum was filled by a rival regional powers pulling iraq apart, violence escalated. host: tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." monday, on "the communicators," republican s.e.c. commissioner michael o'rielly on several key issues, like net neutrality, currently in the courts and set top boxes. he also comments on the political divide within the f.c.c. he's joined by the communications daily executive senior editor. >> the direction from f.c.c. leadership, including the chairman, to take the most aggressive, leftist approach to policymaking, there's little ground when that becomes the first primary goal of the item, when the policy and the direction that they want to go becomes the first goal, rather than any consideration of any collegiality or any kind of attempt to bring or develop consensus, you wind up with what we have to do, when there's little interest in bringing my opinions on board, and you're going to find that i'm less likely to be supportive, and i'm going to express my views. host: watch it monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from nashville, tennessee, is sarah jane glynn. she is with the center for american progress and the director of women's economic policy. good morning. thank you very much for being with us. guest: good morning. host: let's talk about women in the work place. what percent is it? guest: so, at this point, we've got the majority of all mothers working outside the home, more than 60%, so around 2/3 of all moms work, and that includes the majority of mothers who have very young kids. so even moms whose youngest child is under 5 and not yet started school, they're still working in in a yort numbers as well. that's a huge shift from just a few generations agoing when she we had this donna reed model, where oftentimes in middle-class families, mom would stay home and take care of the children. now, in most families, all the parents work. host: let's talk about a couple of facts. first of all, women now earn a majority of the college degrees, outpacing men, and yet your study indicates that there's still a very significant wage disparity. why? guest: you know, this is, i think, one of the most shocking and dramatic findings around the wage gap. women have been earning the majority of college degrees since the 1980's, and now we're seeing women are actually getting the majority of graduate degrees as well, and yet we still see these pay disparities. some people argue, you know, these pay disparities on based on choices that men and women make. women are more likely to work in low-page occupations. women are more likely to take extended spells out of the labor force to raise children, for example, or care for aging family members. and so, you know, the argument that i hear a lot is, women just choose to do things that result in lower pay. but my argument there is that even when you control for all of those factors, time out of the labor force, occupation, what someone majors in, whether or not they choose a job that has flexibility and friendly benefits, we still see a wage gap between men and women. so there's a piece of this, and some economists have estimated it's about 40% of the wage gap that we can't explain between observable differences between working men and working women. so gender discrimination is definitely still around, and it does influence the types of pay that men and women receive. and then i would also argue, you know, that some of cheese choices that men and women are making aren't being made in a vacuum. so when we say, for example, that women are more likely to have these extended spells out of the labor force so that they can care for a child or provide elder care, that to me says there's something going on here, because we don't see those same choices being made in other countries where they have paid leave offered to new parents or to people who need to provide elder care. so there's a policy environment that all of these choices are occurring within that we also need to take into account when we're talking about the wage gap. host: democrats, republicans, and independents, we do have a line set aside for working moms. that number is 202-748-8003. we would love to hear from you. our guest is joining us from nashville, sarah jane glynn with the center for american progress. let me ask you about some research that you've done and put it on the screen so our outside against can see it. we'll also read it for our radio audience. back in 2015, female full-time workers made 79 cents for every dollar earned by the man. current pace of change, according to your research, it will take until the year 2059 for women to reach pay parity. and almost four times as many women as men work in occupations with poverty-level wages. a lot there to take apart. guest: well, and another fact that we need to take into account is that if you compare women of color to white men, the pay disparities are even larger. so there's a lot going on here. you know, part of it is about occupational segregation, the fact that women are much more likely to end up in these jobs that pay very low wages. women are the majority of minimum wage earners, for example, about 50% are women. so that's one piece of it. but like i said, there's also gender discrimination is part of what's going on here too, and that influences not only the salaries that men and women end up with, but also the trajectories that get them into their careers. so things like girls being told in high school or even before high school, middle school, that they don't need to worry about math, you know, i remember when i was young, there was a barbie that said math was hard. that was one of the talking barbie lines. so the subtle ways that we discourage women from going into particular types of careers, like the stem field that do offer very high wages are also part of this. you know, the wage gap is a very complex issue. there's a lot of different pieces that we can pull apart out of it. groip let's bring in our viewers. joshua from washington, independent line, good morning. join a very interesting question for your guest. are you a progressive or globalist? i'd like an answer, and then i'd like to follow up. gloip i guess i would want to know what you mean by globalist before i answer that. caller: well, we have a war coming in this country very soon between globalists and nationalists. i find your groups to be globalists. you want to destroy us and come up with this paradise. people like yourself who claim to be a woman, probably is a lesbian, with a set of guidelines toward life want to talk about this country, why don't you take your contact on the road and go to saudi arabia or iran and clean that up first ? host: i'm going to jump in. you know, we've had some -- i got to tell you, we've had some pretty stark callers this morning, and some of them have crossed the line, and we want this to be a civil discussion. we certainly want to give you a chance to respond, but we just ask that you ask questions respectfully, not insult the guest that we invite to this program to come here to talk about the issues. insults are never, ever accepted, and we're not going to put up with it. so i'm going to move on. but if you want to respond to what he had to say early on, we'll give you the chance to do so. guest: sure. i mean, i personally don't think being called a lesbian is an insult. i suspect that's the way the caller meant it, but that's ok. and i would also say certainly there are issues globally, you know, gender discrimination is not something that's limited to just one country. we find it virtually everywhere across the globe. but i do think that because things are difficult for women somewhere else doesn't mean that we should turn a blind eye to what's happening here in the united states. host: let's go to kevin in texas. good morning to you, sir. caller: yes, good morning. first of all, i apologize also for the previous caller. host: we've had a few this morning, so i guess this is reaching a tipping point, so thank you, kevin. caller: well, my question is this. of course, i'm a republican, and, of course, i'm going to disagree with anyone from the center for, you know, american progress. but my question is, ok, you assume that lower wage, and even i hear, after you discount the other things, it's about seven cents an hour, seven to nine, maybe 11 cents an hour. you automatically assume that it's the employer that's being discriminatory, when couldn't that also just be the ability of women to negotiate their wages? because, i mean, i hate to sound like a sexist, but i think most women, they don't negotiate like a man will negotiate. so i think you put too much emphasis on the employer and maybe not the employee, and i'll take your comment off line. thank you. guest: you know, i think that's a fantastic point, and i'm really glad that you brought it up, because there is evidence that shows that women are less likely to negotiate their starting salaries than men are. and what's interesting about this is that there are also studies showing that when women do negotiate their salaries, they fare less well than men. so it's a very complicated set of social issues that are happening here. you know, we have a culture that tells us that women should not be aggressive and that punishes women for being aggressive in particular ways. so i think you're absolutely right. you know, i certainly don't mean to make it sound as if every employer out there is sitting around, you know, cackling to themselves, laughing about how they're going to pay women less than men. i don't think that that's the case at all. i think that there are a lot of subtle things that happen behind the scenes, and part of that is around this issue of negotiation, where when women do try to negotiate their salaries, they often end up with a lower offer in the end. so some people have learned not to even rock that boat in the first place. so, you know, you're absolutely right, it's not just on the employers, but there's a lot going on here. i think that that's part of why pay trance parns a is so important, and there are a number of employers that have very set and very transparent pay bands for particular jobs, for example, so they'll say, if you're working in this job category, your pay is between x and y. and then everybody knows that's what the pay band is, and it's very easy to make sure that everyone is being paid fairly and it takes some of the onus off of individuals to negotiate their salary, and it takes away the effect of being a more or less effective negotiator on your end. host: our guest is the director of the women's economic policy at c.a.p., the center for american progress. she's also previously an adjunct faculty member at vanderbilt university and belmont university in nashville, tennessee. let's go to cynthia, joining us from boca raton, florida, our line for working moms. good morning, cynthia. caller: good morning. i have been a working mother for a very long time, starting in the mid 1970's. and it doesn't have very much to do with our being able to negotiate our salary. has more to do with the way the business world views women. i mean, i was lucky, because i'm a nurse, and i have done exceedingly well. being problem of llowed into some of the more or jobs that are out there i think is a really big issue. i know when i was younger, i passed both the mcat's and the lcat's and couldn't get in because they didn't give women scholarships. while it's easier now to get into some of the specialties, it's harder in other ways for women to get ahead, because they put a kind of cap on how far you can go. thank you. host: cynthia, thank you for adding your voice to the conversation. we appreciate it. guest: and i think happy mothers -- happy mother's day, cynthia, first of all. it's a really important point. even in heavily female-dominated occupations like nursing, heavily female dominated occupations like nursing, male nurses are still being shown to earn more than female nurses. that is being shown as true for a majority of occupations. is that it isoint not just about entry, it is about being able to sustain and excel in that career. that is another place where i think we need to have better interventions to help working women. one of the things they found jobs is that we have increasing numbers of women that are obtaining advanced degrees and entering the stem fields. they have what is called "a leaky pipeline." they enter these jobs, but they end up leaving them. the problem is that the jobs themselves are not very welcoming towards women. they do not have the types of policies that could help women maintain employment. this is main -- this is especially true for women that want to have children. that is why you are starting to cds tech companies, like google, facebook, and twitter, they are starting to offer very generous family benefits. they recognize that they are losing talent by not offering something like paid parental leave. when they implement these policies, it may seem very expensive from the outside, at first. but what they know is that, down the line, it saves them a lot of money. they have all of these greatly talented women, who are otherwise likely to leave their jobs after having women. more bighave done a picture, long-term view, and they realize the need to change the work culture to maintain those valued women workers. host: and as been some years since the equal pay law was put into place. wagees prevent sex-based discrimination between men and women in the same establishment that requires substantially equal skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions. that was 50 years ago. guest: the fact that we still have a wage gap today really says something. we have come a long way, certainly it is smaller than it was in the 1960's. we still have a lot to do. that is why i argue, we need to pay attention to discrimination. that is absolutely what is happening here. there are bad actors. if you talk to anyone in a legal community, they tell you that there are lawsuits for a reason. there are bad actors that are discriminating against women. there are a number of other factors that push women out of high page -- high wage jobs and into lower wage jobs. we need to talk about those, as well, not just about gender discrimination. i would argue that there are a set of policies that would be helpful. paid parental leave, and gender-neutral paid parental leave is important. i know it is mother's day, but having paid leave for dads is also incredibly important. not only because it results in better outcomes for children, but also because men said they want more time to spend with their kids. also, if you make parental leave gender-neutral, it becomes something that workers do, and not just something that women do. it helps decrease discrimination and the wage a fact that, from taking time away from the labor force. as paidmething as small sick days would also do a tremendous amount to help working women, and to help them stay in their job. 40% of american workers do not have access to a single paid sick day. that means if you get sick, or your child gets sick, you can go without pay or even potentially lose your job. it can take a while to even find a new job. even in the state we are at now, it can still take a while to find a new job. affordable childcare is also another incredibly important issue here. in the majority of states, the cost of childcare is higher than the cost of median rent or twitching at an in-state college. that tells you something about how difficult it is -- in-state tuition at a college. that tells you something how difficult it is to find affordable childcare. i think this whole suite of family issues but not only help working women, but it would help working parents, men and women alike. i think it would go a long way to help shrink the wage gap, and it would help women stay in their jobs. it would not have to switch to a lower paying job with more flexibility, or stopped working entirely to provide care for their families. host: let me take another point of view. we have a professor from harvard university, who has extensively researched this. it is available online. the wagerds, she said gap is due to the choices that men and women make in her -- in their careers. it is not discrimination. guest: i have a lot of respect for claudia goldin. we have worked with her directly. she is a brilliant economist. i would challenge this idea about choices. one framework is to say, when a woman decides to leave her job and stay home, then that is a choice. she wants to spend more time with her children. talking about a woman leading a high-paying job, then it is likely an independent choice she is making. however, the increase of stay-at-home mothers is only increasing with low income families. so, are these low income families that are already struggling choosing to have their wives stay at home and not receive a paycheck? or are they forced to stay home, because the cost of childcare is higher than what they could bring in from their minimum wage jobs? as always, we welcome our listeners. our guest is sarah jane glenn. she is with the center of american progress, and joining us this sunday from nashville tennessee. our next color is from wisconsin. elizabeth, good morning to you. caller: hello. i've a question in a comment. i am glad she made the comment about choice. it can be such a misleading word attached to what a woman does. there are so many things that impact choice. , this wage gap, gender gap, it all seems to boil down to legislative and enforcing what is legislative. you make the comment about 50 years ago, what they've done for equal pay and why we still have a long way to go. why do we have a long way to go? why does a have to be that way? without the government and legislative process, these things cannot happen. yet, 50 years later it is still happening. why can it not be enforced? why does it still exist like this? what is it about us as a nation that says that we cannot even do something like that to make it equitable and fair? yout: i am really glad brought up this point about enforcement. it is so important, no matter what the issue we are talking about is. it is one thing to have a law on the books. if it is not enforced, then it makes no difference. i think that part of this is a around funding, and whether or not we have enough funding to make sure that folks that are filing complaints are filed -- followed up with. important to note that this legislation, that says that you must pay men and women equally, it was past 50 years ago. we have not seen new additions to the law since then. attends have been made in congress, which have been stalled. i think there is this question around political will. if you poll voters across the spectrum, republicans, conservatives, liberals, democrats, everybody, they all say that men and women should be paid equally. i think equality is a fundamental aspect of our identity as americans. people across the board recognize that men and women should be treated equally. yet, politicians are not being more forward moving. so, i absolutely agree that there is a huge disconnect about what voters say is important to them, and what we see happening in congress. this is true about issues of the wage gap and a variety of clinical issues. host: our next to colors are calling on the lines from working mothers. first is sarah from colorado. sarah, how many children do you have and what do you do? caller: i have to children. the are young, for into. -- four and two. host: happy mother's day. caller: thank you. i work for a small firm in town. host: full-time or part-time? caller: i work full-time. host: how do you manage it all? caller: i get help from my family. i get help from my husband with his work schedule he is able to pick a day of the week off. days,k sometimes 10 hours so then maybe we can stay at home. we also have a great babysitter. go-ahead with your question or comment, and thank you for phoning in. thank you. i was hoping that surging could speak to, since she is an economist, many times when the government issues these policies, they are very effective in the initial stages. i'm speaking about the policies she spoke of, the bundle of family policies she spoke of earlier. they do what they are intended in the initial stages, but down the road, about a generation later, these policies are actually going to make less jobs available for women. employers are not going to want to hire people, men or women. maybe these jobs will not even be available. then, you end up hurting the people you end up trying to help in the first place. host: sara, thank you for the call. guest: that is a great point. i think you are voicing of fear that a lot of people have. if we implement these policies that are geared towards helping working women, that they are going to backfire. that it is going to make women expensive to hire, and that people will end up discriminating against the very population we are working to help. part of the reason i do not think it is true in that instance, the policies we are talking about are not just about parents. it is not just about moms or dads. that is the framework we are discussing it in, because it is mother's day. is thegreat example family act, which was introduced in congress. it would provide paid leave to workers, who need time off for a variety of issues. it would provide wage replacement for workers that need time off after the birth of their babies. so it would be for moms and dads. it would also cover family caregiving. if you have a family member that is seriously ill, and you need time off to provide care for them, then you would be covered. if you need time off to care for yourself, because you have your own serious illness or injury, then you would also be covered. this is very similar to what we already see in states that have a similar program. california, new jersey, rhode island, new york, they all have something very similar in place that provides temporary disability leave, and also family caregiving leave for a new baby or a sick family member. so, it is not just talking about moms and dads. it is not just about men and women in their peak 30's. it is about every worker. every worker can potentially benefit from this. every worker might need to care for a family member. every worker might need time to care for themselves. by broadening what we mean by family-friendly, and including self-care, we can help the race effects that would be in place if we were only talking about mothers. that is one way that the u.s. is cutting edge when it comes to family policies being proposed here. if you look at policies that have been in place for decades in europe, they are heavily geared towards mothers. they are trying to catch up now, by providing more leave for dads. still, it is a struggle for them to equalize things. i think that is one way in which we are in a great position. what we are talking about is absolutely gender equal. it shows that men are likely to take these programs, and dads in particular are excited about the possibility to take time off to care for their children or their parents, as well. reporting thatis san francisco, the first city to require fully paid friend to fully paid parental leave. caller: good morning. they q4 taking my call -- thank you for taking my call. i've been in the workforce for many years. i have two children that are now adults. i think i have a pretty good perspective and some insight on what i see every day, and how things have changed somewhat in the workforce. what i am seeing is not so much -- i have worked with very large groups of people, men and women. what i am seeing with women is of the statususe of being a woman. i am in a management position. i will not tell you where. it is because of choices that women make. some women are making poor choices. result inhoices children without a support structure. thatgoing to estimate probably, not everybody, but about threeople, hours of their workdays are on the telephone, something to do with the children. that all comes to work. what happens is that it demoralizes the other workers. you are picking up the slack in the work for many of these women , who may be should not be in the work laced at this time. host: let me jump in. a man would not have the same situation as a father? is it different between a mom and a dad? caller: i am not talking about calling home for a family situation. i'm talking about several hours a day for family situations. it is not just a call here or there, that is fine. whole --ing about the a big chunk of the workday revolving around childcare issues, personal issues related to the children, and that is a problem. when you talk about this pay findingty, what i am also is that many women are quite content just being where they are at. if there is extra work or extra pay, self-improvement with various classes -- things they can take advantage of, volunteering of on certain projects, they choose not to do that. host: thank you for your call. sarah jane glenn, your response. guest: there are two components to this comment that i would like to unpack. first, i think we have a tendency to put a lot on mom's, while letting caps off to hook. if mom is in a situation -- while letting dads off the hook. if mom is in a situation where data is not pulling his own then itthat it puts -- puts mothers in a situation where they have to do everything on the wrong. i think it is not fair to put the blame on women, without putting men to task on these points. i also think that the childcare piece of this is very important. childcare arrangements fall apart, it has a negative impact on parent's to do their jobs. most young kids cannot be left home alone. if you have a baby, or even a child at school age, you cannot just say that i know your childcare program fell through, but i have to go to work. there are things that need to begun what if you're going to be a working parent. children have to be taking care of. high had a system where quality childcare is out of reach, then people have to cobble together -- a neighbor that is helping out, or maybe after school on some days of the week and not every week. people have this patchwork of childcare providers, because they are scrambling to make and meet while holding down their employment. it is hard for me to say that you are a bad worker, when you have to juggle these things when they fall apart. one stronghat is argument for why we need to overhaul our childcare system. that way, we can enable workers howot only be worried about their child is being cared for, and it can let them vocus on their jobs. i think the point about volunteering also has to do with the point that women do a majority of the child caring in the family. women do a majority of the childcare and the housework. they do a majority of the elder care with families that are also dealing with angie relatives -- aging relatives. when you add that time in, it becomes incredibly difficult to say, yes, i would like to take on this extra project that would require me to work these longer hours. it is not that women do not necessarily want to do these that thet is just structure of their lives makes it very difficult for them to do so while caring for children or other family members. host: many go to some numbers. you can go to american progress.org for more information. for is from the institute women policy research. it looks at the average earnings, the median earnings among all races and ethnicities. the average woman is earning $726 a week, compared to $829 for male counterparts. among african-american women, $615 compared to $680 for african-american men. asians, the average 800 $77 for american women and it just over $1100 for asian men. guest: i think there are a couple different pieces to this. the stats about asian men and women are particularly it varies a because lot when you take ethnicity into account. there are certain groups, like the enemies men and women, that are making much less money a week. there is a lot that is going on within this data. certainly, we can spend the rest of our time talking about how this all shakes out, but one of the things that i find interesting is that lack women in particular have been seeing , yetd numbers increasing their wage gap numbers are not budging. if you look at educational payments -- if you're in a low job, and youaid just need to go back to school to get a higher earnings potential, on average that is true. women that have a masters degree do earn more than women who have only a high school diploma. if you map that against the educational attainment and earnings of men, you'll find that women need one extra degree to earn as much as a man. earn arage woman that bachelor's degree earns as much as a man with a high school diploma. theman with a masters earns same amount as a man with a bachelors. there are so many things that complicate this. when you add in ethnicity as well, you see there's so much more than just choices that men and women are making. host: do you feel that new fathers should be able to take equal time off from work without repercussion? guest: absolutely. i am a huge proponent for gender-neutral policies. i think it is important for men to have time off with their babies. we know from companies that have done this, when you offer paid leave, men are more likely to take it. if you are talking about a two parent family, having a new baby can be very expensive. having both terrance stopped working entirely is not a solution -- both parents stopping work entirely is not a solution. we know that it is very important for fathers, who report wanting to have that time. i think it is especially true among millennial men. they want to be involved fathers and have time with their children. and also has positive effects on kids, as well. fathers that are able to take time off and spend more time with their kids, they remain more involved in their child's lives. this is in no way meant to shame men that are not able to take the time off, but we need to have better policies in place that enable men to be more involved in family caregiving, as well. it is not only good for the kids, but it is also good for the debt. morning on, good outline for independence. you are on the air. .- four independents you are on the air. caller: i do not understand why can leave out race we talk about gender equality between men and women. you cannot separate the two. they have to go together in women advance in the workforce. host: right, we just made that reference in this chart disparity. guest: i think she is right. race is a big part of this. it is problematic for us to talk about women as just one, big, monolithic group. we know that sexual orientation also plays a role in pay disparity as well. there are a lot of moving pieces here. in thesee tend to talk high top line's, because that is what the research and data allows us to do. onre is often limitations what we are able to do in the studies. it is a very valid point. race is absolutely a part of what is happening here. we had a study just come out recently that looked at work place policies like paid leave and flexibility, and when you control for all of these other factors, age, education, the type of job some one has, whether they are apparent, all of these different -- whether they are a parent, all these different factors, -- we found that latinos are less likely to have access to paid leave then white workers. race and ethnicity for sure plays a role in this. we need to have more research to bolster these findings. unfortunately, not all the data set allow us to get into that fine detail. host: lorraine, a quick question from michigan. talkingyes, i am just for the women in the military. i did 21 years as a single mom. hard,me, that was a hard, hard job. any working moms out there, just press on. host: thank you for your comments and thank you for your service. guest: thank you so much. happy mother's day to all the mothers out there. host: thank you for being with us, we appreciate it. guest: thank you. host: a reminder, washed in that amongs going our guests tomorrow will be frank gaffney, who will talk about foreign-policy issues. he is a former advisor to ted cruz. ushard rubin will also join to talk about the amount of unpaid taxes. now this from last night, saturday night live. >> well, it happened. donald trump has secured the republican nomination. the matter how may times i say that, it sounds less like a headline, and more like the ominous beginning of a star wars movie. even know this has been coming for months, everybody seems shocked. even donald trump seems surprised. i that if you had told him a year ago that you'd be the republican nominee, he would say that he was a democrat. donald trump from it that when he got the nomination, he would be so presidential. that is why the first thing he did on cinco de mayo was to tweet himself out, eating a taco bowl, saying that he loves hispanics. soundsf all, a taco bowl like what donald trump would call a group of mexicans in the hot tub. also, donald trump coming clean your office. stack ofng up a newspapers like the world's richest hamster. weirde giving the kind of . you would see from a brain-damaged boxer. >> you also have loose blueprints flying around like you are howard hughes. you also have framed autos of yourself. he is not just one, but two donald trump bobbleheads. appearing --s also also appears to be a tiny oscar trophy he gave himself for his work in home alone two. host: happy mother's day to all the moms and onto out there. newsmakers is next. have a great week. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> coming up on newsmakers, the governor of puerto rico will talk about his country's debt, and the prospects of a response from congress. then, we will talk about the political landscape leaving -- leading into the next phase of the presidential race. then, congressman john lewis will receive the holocaust museum award. newsmakers, on joining us from the american commonwealth of puerto rico is the governor there to talk about their fiscal situation. thank you for being with us. , nick timorous, who is the national wall street correspondent, and jonathan miller from cq local. they are also here to help us this morning. if i may