Romney Campaign Press Release - Ann Romney: "My Career Choice was to be a Mother"

"My career choice was to be a mother, and I think all of us need to know that we need to respect choices that women make. Other women make other choices, to have a career and raise family, which I think Hilary Rosen has actually done herself. I respect that, that's wonderful. But, you know, there are other people that have a choice. We have to respect women and all those choices that they make." — Ann Romney

"America's Newsroom"

Fox News

April 12, 2012

Click Here To Watch Ann Romney's Full Interview

Highlights From Ann Romney's Interview On "America's Newsroom":

MARTHA MCCALLUM, FOX NEWS: "We've had a ton of people tweeting the show this morning when they heard that you were on basically telling similar stories. And anybody I guess who's a mom knows what it's like to actually have to do all of that hard work at home. But, you know, I'm curious: your son Josh also tweeted about this, and he said, you know, my mom could have done anything she wanted in her life and she chose to stay home and raise me. And I thought that was, you know, very interesting and very kind, of course, coming from him this morning. But you did have a lot of choices, and why did you make the decision that you did at that point in your life?"

ANN ROMNEY: "You know, this is what's so interesting about this. My career choice was to be a mother, and I think all of us need to know that we need to respect choices that women make. Other women make other choices, to have a career and raise family, which I think Hilary Rosen has actually done herself. I respect that, that's wonderful. But, you know, there are other people that have a choice. We have to respect women and all those choices that they make. And, by the way, let me give a shout out to all the dads that are at home raising kids. This is obviously an awesome responsibility to raise children. It's, to me, the most important thing we can do. I will tell you that Mitt said to me more times than you would imagine, Ann, your job is more important than mine. He was making money and doing the things, raising funds and investing, and helping other companies and he would come home and say, Ann, your job is more important than mine. He would say, my job is temporary, I know that these things come and go, but your job is a forever job that is going to bring forever happiness. So, you know, he had perspective on this. And, by the way, Mitt respects women [who] make those different choices. He had a lot of women in his life that have been his advisers that he listens to a lot of different women. And if I get a chance, I want to tell you what women are telling me, and Hilary needs to know this because I've been on the campaign trail for one year. And guess what women are talking about, and I don't care if they're stay at home moms, or they're working mothers, or they're grandmothers, guess what they're all talking about? They're talking about jobs, and they're talking about the legacy of debt that we're leaving our children. That's what I'm hearing, and that's what we're talking about here."

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MACCALLUM: "This goes back to the sort of rich argument that has been leveled so much against you and your husband. Basically she is saying well Ann Romney could have chosen to do anything she wanted and Ann Romney can't relate to women who have no choice, who have to work and also raise their families."

ANN ROMNEY: "Look, I know what it's like to struggle, and if maybe I haven't struggled as much financially as some people have, I can tell you and promise you, that I've had struggles in my life. And I would love to have people understand that Mitt and I have compassion for people that are struggling, and that's why we're running. We care about those people that are struggling, and we also recognize that this economic recovery has been very weak. We also recognize that the debt burdens that we're facing in this country are huge, and are going to be a huge problem for our children. That's what I'm hearing when I go out there, is that women are talking about economic issues, and they are talking about the security of their own jobs, the security of their husband's jobs. They are worried that -- some of them come to me and say, my son is living back with me, he's a graduate from college and he's back in the house. These are the things I'm hearing about, and we are recognizing that it's been a very tepid recovery, and people are worried about their jobs, their job security and beyond that I hear so much about how worried they are about the legacy of debt we're going to leave our children."