Somewhere in the waning hours of this interminable primary, I found
myself channeling Barack Obama as he began a long overdue and eagerly
anticipated conversation ... on gender.

“Tonight, I want to talk directly with the women of America.

“First, let me repeat what I said in Iowa about my deep respect for
Senator Clinton. She has indeed ‘shattered myths and broken barriers
and changed the America in which my daughters and yours will come of
age.’ There is no one in this country who better understands Senator
Clinton’s tenacity, resilience, and commitment to public service than I.

“So I want to thank the millions of women who voted for me without ever
believing they were betraying the dream of full opportunity for women.
But I also want to recognize those millions of women who voted for
Hillary Clinton — women who invested their passionate hope to break the
glass ceiling, to complete a symbolic journey to equality.

“In any hard-fought campaign, disappointments are real and there are
lingering wounds. But I know those women didn’t just support Senator
Clinton because they share her gender. They believed that she shares
their life experience, and understands their needs. They believe that
she hears them.

“Well, I stand before you today as the son of a woman who traveled the
astonishing arc of an entire generation. The American dream transformed
this young mother into an accomplished international worker with deep
ties to her own children and profound empathy for the poor families of
the world. My mother knew that women’s rights were human rights.

“I also stand before you as a partner in a two-worker marriage.
Michelle and I have lived the struggles of balancing work and family,
paying for child care and the mortgage, finding time for our jobs and
our children. We too, even now, juggle our own ambitions and our family
time.

“I stand beside you, as well, as a father, fully invested in my
daughters. I share a commitment that their lives will not be limited by
an unfinished revolution.

“And so I, too, hear you.

“I hear the older women of American who, like Lilly Ledbetter, worked a
lifetime without getting equal pay for equal work. Women who went into
retirement with unequal pensions. I say enough of that.

“I hear women who spent decades taking care of others to find that this
work diminished their security and opportunities. I hear women who work
for modest wages and spend evenings with their husbands — or without
any husband — trying to decide whether to pay for health insurance or
keep the car running. I say we can do better than that.

“I hear the mothers who look at their growing children and wonder if
they will have to fight in Iraq. They want to know how to keep those
children protected. They want someone who has the strength to combat
terrorism, but also the strength to avoid the next military
misadventure. I say there is a different path.

“I know that poverty most often wears a female face. I hear women of
all races speak the same language when they worry about educating their
children, or a media culture that undermines their own values. I say we
can stand together.

“But I don’t just hear you. I will promise you. I will promise that in
an Obama administration, helping to bail out families will be more
important than bailing out Bear, Stearns. Child care will include not
be an afterthought, but as basic as school. Family medical leave will
be, at long last, expanded to every worker.

“An Obama administration will trust American women to make their own
moral and medical decisions about child-bearing. We will not say that
the government knows best. An Obama administration will restore our
belief in government as an aid, not a hindrance. And we will have women
as decision-makers at every table, at every level.

“I don’t make these promises because they fit on the platter of
‘women’s issues.’ This I know, from the dreams of my mother and the
dreams for my daughters: Most men share these concerns. And I am one of
them.

“There’s a long way between now and November and I need your help. You
want a president who hears you and shares your hopes. I will be that
president. I will be your president.

“Thank you for listening.”