Read What Will It Take to Make A Woman President?: Conversations About Women, Leadership and Power for Free Online

it—people who are afraid, people who are small minded—the more they see it, the more they view, the more they buy into that belief system, and then that closes them off to the reality in the rest of the world. We’re not reporting the news anymore, right? It’s entertainment.
    MS : Part of this is about women feeling their own power and developing their own sense of being a leader or a change maker. For you, was that something that you had to purposely develop? You seem very comfortable speaking your mind. Where did that come from in you?
    JSN : I was always the girl that raised my hand first in class and I was always the team captain pushing my teammates to help us win. So I was always, I don’t know if the word “bossy” is correct, but I was always the, “Let’s go, let’s go, come on, come on,”—that girl. And I think I maybe just translated that to my role now in terms of trying to wake up people’s consciousness and speak what I see as the truth in the hopes that they’ll be able to see it through the lens that we’ve created. I was talking with Nicole Brown yesterday, and Nicole said to me, “Jennifer, I felt like when I watched Miss Representation that you were literally thinking my thoughts; you were in my head, because everything you said is everything I think about, all the time.” And it was really cool. I thought, That’s awesome . At the end of the day, I want Miss Rep to be not only a platform to enable other’s voices to be heard, but to amplify—I really wanted to be a champion for and a voice for and an amplification of all the voices that are out there that are saying “enough.” So I guess I do have conviction. I am fearless, although I do have thin skin. But I do feel like it’s our responsibility and I feel like I’ve been given this opportunity through making this film and then being married to my husband and having this strong conviction to keep fighting the fight. As long as I’m allowed to and enabled to, I will.
    In terms of further leadership, every once in a while—because I have such admiration for Senator Feinstein and Jackie Speier and Pelosi and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand—I think to myself, Would I ever do that? But right now I feel like I can have the most impact where I am, and I honestly admire them so much. I think I just want to be there with them, because I’m so annoyed with the pathetic, spineless leadership that we have across the country, that is not putting our country first and not putting our citizens first and our women and our kids and our immigrants and all the people that are elderly—that those in leadership in our country aren’t thinking about our most vulnerable citizens. So there’s a part of me that thinks that right now this is the most effective way: to keep making movies and producing content and getting out there and championing what so many people feel are the causes and the way forward that is necessary. And I love getting behind women who are fearless . . . and men who have consciousness. Let’s not exclude them, because I guess my husband and I came together for a reason, and I’m so proud of him. I want more people to speak out the way he does and to use their positions and platforms to do good for the world. And so I’ll continue to champion him, as I will continue to champion women, and other men who do that. We just need more of them.
    MS : Coming back to the first question that I was going to ask—why do you think we’ve not had a woman president, and what do you think it will take to make it happen? Do you feel like we’re ready for that?
    JSN : Good question. So why have we not had a woman president? Because leadership has been masculinized. Interestingly with Hillary Clinton, I think to a certain extent she distanced herself from being a woman per some of her campaign leaders’ instincts. I think it was a disservice, because all of a sudden women looked at her and they were like, “No, no, but wait,