Opening Letters

Working for Women

national conference fosters ideas for aiding Valley women on economic edge

Catherine Emmanuelle |

FAMOUS FACE. Eau Claire City Councilwoman Catherine Emmanuelle, right, and journalist Maria Shriver at the launch of the Shriver Report.
FAMOUS FACE. Eau Claire City Councilwoman Catherine Emmanuelle, right, and journalist Maria Shriver at the launch of the Shriver Report. (Photo: Kristoffer Tripplaar/The Atlantic)

I made my way up to the seventh floor of a Washington, D.C., museum and stood in the back of the crowded conference room. On stage was Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, seated on a crisp brown leather couch, engaging the crowd as she spoke about policies regarding women’s labor market issues. As she spoke, I made my way through the back of the room, ducking under the C-SPAN cameras situated along the rear wall, when someone tapped me on the shoulder, studied my face and said, “Catherine – Catherine Emmanuelle?” It was Maria Shriver, who then looked down to my name tag and started tugging on the thin elastic string that hung around my neck, and saw that it was me all right. Quickly, she nudged the woman standing next to her, and both of their faces lit up, “It’s Catherine – you’re here! Thank you for writing for our report! Now, you just make yourself comfortable and find a seat wherever you want.” Swooning and feeling as if Maria had just invited me into her living room, I found my way to a seat, and listened to inspiring leaders speak about women, poverty, and community solutions that would help families thrive.

The world I want to live in has women who’ve found resilience through their challenging times.

I was invited to D.C. to help launch The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, a study led by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress. I was an invited essayist for the report, which serves as a national conversation among women living on the brink, women coming back from the brink, researchers, and policymakers all examining multiple layers of economic (in)securities, looking to policy solutions that in turn strengthen women and their families.

I have particular interest in these topics: as a mother, as someone who’s dealt with personal economic insecurities that fostered a deep well of empathy and passion to serve as a policymaker on the Eau Claire City Council, and in my professional work as a family living educator. I know firsthand the value of investing in women, as I returned to school in 2007 after becoming a displaced homemaker, a term that is given to people who lost their main source of income through death, disability, divorce, or separation. In addition to higher education opportunities, many people and organizations stepped up to help me and my family be successful through this time of transition. Like the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which worked with the Eau Claire Housing Authority in a collaboration with a local community action agency, to provide a loan (forgivable after one year) to provide a new roof and weatherization to my home. At the time, whenever it rained, leaks would seep down to my living room, and I didn’t have money to make the repairs. Pretty basic, yet essential and effective: a good education by day, a safe roof over our head at night. Investments like these continue to lift up families in our community, allowing people on the brink the opportunity secure good-paying jobs, pay taxes, and pursue education. (Just four and a half years after starting school, I graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree, and in a few weeks, I will have completed my master’s degree.)  

Later that afternoon in D.C., it was my turn to take the stage, to join a conversation about re-imagining a nation where women rebound from economic brinks. A lively discussion between me and leading thinkers and doers of poverty-reduction work developed over broad ranges of experiences, opinions, and projections about the future status of women, from preschool to aging with economic security. But enough of the show-and-tell. If you want to see the panel discussion, you can check it out here (it’s really fun and thought-provoking if I may say so myself): http://tinyurl.com/pye3pow.

Admittedly, I’m still figuring out how bringing women back from the economic brink works on the local level. Our panel moderator, NPR’s Michele Martin, posed this question: “The world I want to live in looks like what?” My answer: The world I want to live in has women who’ve found resilience through their challenging times. Dr. Froma Walsh, a leading scholar on family resilience defines this as “the family’s ability to withstand and rebound from crisis and prolonged adversity, strengthened and more resourceful.” I am a big fan of Walsh’s scholarship, and she’s researched keys to family resilience, including five that could work on the local level: make meaning of crisis and challenge, maintain a positive outlook, stay connected to others, use collaborative problem solving, and find support through social and economic resources. It looks like a community that is transformed through adversity, a place that is optimistic about what we can do together, and a place that is really good at having conversations and do-able action plans to address issues that affect families. We don’t have to start from scratch. We have many organizations that are working on poverty-reduction already, and hundreds of people who volunteer or do this work professionally. Effective economic security for women can’t just fall on one, or two, or three organizations’ shoulders; the key is collaborative problem solving.

Building economic security for women helps families, which in turn helps communities. According to family policy specialist Dr. Karen Bogenschnieder, “Families are the most humane and economical way known for raising the next generation. Families are a cornerstone for raising responsible children who become caring, committed contributors in a strong democracy, and competent workers in a sound economy.”

You see, what I’d like to see is resilience that is cultivated in a generation today that fuels the next generation to rebound from their brinks so their families and communities thrive. You want in? Check out The Shriver Report’s “10 Things You Can Do to Power a Woman’s Nation” and help to build a world, a community, a neighborhood, where resilient families thrive.

Emmanuelle serves on the Eau Claire City Council and works as a Family Living Educator for the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Trempealeau County. To learn more about the Shriver Report, go to shriverreport.org.