Anne Hathaway Recalls Challenging First Weeks of Motherhood During International Women’s Day Speech
Anne Hathaway doesn’t think American parents are getting the support they need.
Nearly a year after the Oscar winner became a first-time mom, she spoke out about the U.S.’s inadequate paid parental leave and support for working mothers at the International Women’s Day event at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Wednesday. The Les Misérables star, 34, said that becoming a parent to son Jonathan Rosebanks Shulman opened her eyes to the need for policy change — and she also reflected on what her mother, Kate McCauley Hathaway, went through over 30 years ago as a stay-at-home mom.
“In late March 2016, I became a parent for the first time,” Hathaway, wearing red for the occasion in solidarity with the “Day Without a Woman” protest, told the crowd. “I remember the indescribable — and as I understand it pretty universal — experience of holding my week-old son and feeling my priorities change on a cellular level. I remember I experienced a shift in consciousness that gave me the ability to maintain my love of career and also cherish something else — someone else — so much, much more.”
Hathaway’s entire speech can be seen here (starting at 28:23), but here are a few highlights:
The actress said it was when Jonathan was a week old that the U.S.’s policy on maternity leave “flashed in my mind. American women are currently entitled to 12 weeks unpaid leave. American men are entitled to nothing.”
Hathaway continued, “That information landed differently for me when one week after my son’s birth, I could barely walk. That information landed differently when I was getting to know a human who was completely dependent on my husband and I for everything. When I was dependent on my husband for most things. And when we were relearning everything we thought we knew about our family and our relationship. It landed differently.”
Hathaway, who became a U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador in June, went on to say that despite women getting 12 weeks off, “One in four American women go back to work two weeks after giving birth because they can’t afford to take off any more time than that. That’s 25 percent of American women. Equally disturbing, women who can afford to take a full 12 weeks often don’t because it will mean incurring a motherhood penalty. Meaning they will be perceived as less dedicated to their job and will be passed over for promotions and other career advancement.”
That led her to speak about her mom, who raised Anne and her brothers while her attorney dad, Gerard, was the family breadwinner.
“In my own household, my mother had to choose between a career and raising three children — a choice that left her unpaid and underappreciated as a homemaker because there just wasn’t support for both paths,” Hathaway said.
She said that because her dad was the moneymaker, his time with his children was “limited.” Though she made it clear, “And we were an incredibly privileged family. Our hardships were the stuff of other families’ dreams.”
Later in her speech, Hathaway also talked about how modern families aren’t represented at all by the current parental leave policy. The actress, whose older brother Michael is gay, said, “It cannot by definition serve the reality of a world in which there is more than one type of family. Because in the modern world, some families have two daddies. How exactly does maternity leave serve them?” The audience responded with a long applause.
Hathaway was supported at the event by her husband of four years, Adam Shulman, who looked on proudly at his wife.
See how other celebrities are marking International Women’s Day.
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