Candace Owens on Family, Success, and Defying Western Messaging During First Visit to Russia

[00:23] [applause]

[01:30] >> Uh first and foremost, thank you guys so

[01:32] much for having me. This is my first

[01:34] time in Russia. It has been absolutely

[01:37] beautiful, wonderful,

[01:39] defied all of my expectations, and to

[01:42] be able to, in addition to that, while

[01:44] I'm here visiting with our children, my

[01:46] husband and children,

[01:48] to be able to sit on such an impactful

[01:51] panel and discuss what is most important

[01:53] to me, the family, is truly an honor.

[01:55] So, thank you so much. I

[01:58] It's a huge topic actually in America.

[02:01] We have been sort of been just to make

[02:03] this make sense to you guys. It became

[02:04] quite controversial this idea of family

[02:09] success. Can you have both? This

[02:11] question became quite controversial. And

[02:13] I would say especially within the

[02:17] government institution, public schools,

[02:19] and you saw this word messaging when I

[02:21] was growing up that you you cannot have

[02:23] both. You have to make a decision.

[02:25] Either are going to climb the corporate

[02:27] ladder and find success or you are going

[02:31] to be at home raising children. And this

[02:34] obviously put a lot of pressure

[02:36] especially on women. Women receiving

[02:39] that sort of messaging for a very long

[02:40] time. That you can't have both. It got

[02:43] to a point where it was quite toxic. And

[02:46] my most recent book that I authored was

[02:49] a response to that toxicity. There was

[02:52] this idea of a woman making

[02:55] as the

[02:57] ultimate form of enslavement. The idea

[03:00] of a woman making a sandwich, whether

[03:01] it's for her husband or for her

[03:02] children, became sort of this

[03:05] ideological symbol of oppression. I was

[03:08] I was quite stunned by that. And so I

[03:10] did author a book with the title "Make

[03:12] Him a Sandwich" to kind of combat this

[03:15] idea that is a

[03:17] new age form of enslavement. And in this

[03:20] book we do sort of tackle that question,

[03:22] what is success? Because that's

[03:25] have to be able to define the terms of

[03:27] the debate. So, they say, can you have

[03:28] family and have success? Well, what is

[03:31] success? And in one chapter I sort of

[03:35] explain that even the definition of

[03:37] success is different

[03:39] when you speak to men and when you speak

[03:41] to women. There is a a biological

[03:44] difference. And what I mean by that is

[03:46] if you ask people,

[03:48] who is the most successful man in the

[03:50] world? By and large, every single time

[03:53] that we ask this question, we either

[03:55] hear Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, we hear men

[03:59] who have at one point or another been in

[04:02] the top 10 for the richest men in the

[04:04] world. So, we're hearing that answer

[04:06] that it is defined by financial success,

[04:09] by empire building. And when we ask the

[04:12] same question to women, who is the most

[04:14] successful

[04:16] woman in the world? It's totally

[04:18] different answer. Half of today even

[04:22] name women that are in the top 50 for

[04:24] the most financially successful women in

[04:27] the world. In fact, they don't even know

[04:29] who those women are. We will typically

[04:31] hear Taylor Swift. This is obviously

[04:34] very western western responses, perhaps.

[04:36] But Taylor Swift,

[04:38] Oprah, we hear a lot. People will say,

[04:40] "Those those must be the most successful

[04:42] women."

[04:43] And that's interesting because this

[04:45] might be actually the only question the

[04:47] only country in the world where you guys

[04:49] might know the answer to who the richest

[04:52] women, I guess entrepreneur,

[04:54] self-starting entrepreneur in the world

[04:56] is. Because it is actually Russian

[04:57] woman,

[04:58] Tatiana Bakalchuk,

[05:01] Wildberries. But nobody would know this.

[05:03] Nobody knows this answer. Of course, in

[05:06] least of all the United States of

[05:07] America.

[05:08] And so, when you examine those

[05:09] differences, we realize that success is

[05:11] measured differently. And for women, the

[05:14] women that define that sort of success

[05:16] are women

[05:17] who are leaning into their biological

[05:20] instincts to to nurture and to

[05:22] communicate. Even though someone like

[05:24] Taylor Swift doesn't have a family, she

[05:26] found her success in speaking about the

[05:29] idea of finding wealth and finding

[05:32] family and painting a picture that

[05:34] people could understand. Similarly with

[05:36] Oprah, she really responded to was able

[05:38] to communicate effectively to the

[05:40] suburban housewife. And

[05:43] so, we're we're talking about men in a

[05:46] totally different capacity. Men are envy

[05:49] men who are again like I said before

[05:51] building these sorts of empires. And so

[05:53] in my own personal life,

[05:56] I have found the same. Before I had a

[06:00] family, I did still have a podcast and

[06:03] my podcast was not as successful as it

[06:06] is today and it was I would say

[06:09] to to to start a family and to have

[06:11] children is the biggest event in a

[06:14] woman's life and

[06:16] and in a man's life it completely

[06:17] changes

[06:19] who you who you are as a person and you

[06:22] realize within yourself

[06:25] a bigger purpose.

[06:27] The biggest purpose actually. There's

[06:29] nothing more defining and the ways in

[06:32] which we respond as husband or as a wife

[06:35] to that event are different.

[06:38] For me that day-to-day with the children

[06:40] has made me a much happier person. I do

[06:43] my podcast from home which is a massive

[06:45] blessing. I start my mornings being able

[06:48] to home school my children and what it

[06:51] has given me is real life perspective

[06:54] and something worth communicating about.

[06:57] Realizing that the conversations are not

[06:59] just political. I'm not theorizing. I'm

[07:02] actually trying to help nurture that

[07:05] female instinct, help nurture

[07:08] the morals that I want my children to be

[07:10] able to grow up in. And if you see

[07:13] society moving in a way that terrifies

[07:15] you and you go like all my kids do

[07:18] the the inheritors of this sort of

[07:20] society, you want to do something about

[07:21] it. And so when my podcast became that

[07:24] space where I am able to to bring that

[07:28] focus, that energy and that purpose, it

[07:31] it grew that into the science that it is

[07:34] today.

[07:35] Similarly, I would say for my husband

[07:37] it's his instinct though was to build.

[07:40] You can hear

[07:41] gentlemen today speaking that and you

[07:43] have to go build the empire.

[07:45] I think at times there has been some

[07:46] conflict

[07:48] between governments and thinking that

[07:51] maybe

[07:52] you don't want that messaging to come

[07:53] out. Maybe they think,

[07:55] "Oh, we don't want people out building

[07:56] big families. That's not going to help."

[07:58] And I think we've disproved that

[07:59] perspective more.

[08:01] Um

[08:01] governments and institutions should

[08:03] encourage big families because it

[08:05] encourages better people.

[08:07] Um people that build with purpose and

[08:09] people that nurture with purpose. And so

[08:12] um it really has been a blessing to hear

[08:15] about uh

[08:16] the messages and to hear more instantly

[08:18] about what's going on in Russia in terms

[08:20] of those policies that are being put

[08:21] into place to encourage big families.

[08:23] And I can't believe that any nation that

[08:26] supports that sort of a dynamic uh

[08:29] whether it's the West or the East or

[08:30] hopefully both the Eastern and the

[08:32] Western Hemisphere uh we will have a

[08:35] much more whole and productive society.

[08:40] >> [applause]

[08:57] >> You know, if

[08:58] my main conclusion would be that we are

[09:02] grappling with the same issues West and

[09:04] East. And I think something that we hit

[09:06] upon today was just the media messaging

[09:09] and the constant we try to make a

[09:11] division between what's going on in

[09:13] Russia, what's going on in America. Uh

[09:15] that there are those similarities. My

[09:17] entire trip has revealed to me just how

[09:20] similar we are. And our motivation as a

[09:24] people society not just uh family

[09:28] understanding that uh family encourages

[09:31] us in a positive way. It's just been a

[09:33] tremendously encouraging trip. And I I

[09:35] can't wait to go back onto my

[09:37] and to be able to share that with the

[09:39] American people as well.

[09:43] >> [applause]

[11:08] >> Yes.

[11:11] Yeah, I I I would say this is I think

[11:13] for both of us we were startled at how

[11:15] much we enjoyed being parents. You know,

[11:18] that's why I say it gets back to

[11:20] the pursuit of happiness.

[11:22] Like you realize that you have a purpose

[11:24] and I think prior to we sort of working

[11:27] we don't we

[11:28] work towards trying to build our

[11:30] financial accounts,

[11:32] but it's uh such a

[11:34] cataclysmic, in a good way, event when

[11:36] you have children because you suddenly

[11:37] realize like you know there's something

[11:39] so much bigger, there's something so

[11:40] much more in life. And we just

[11:43] really didn't think that we would enjoy

[11:45] being here as much as we do. It's

[11:46] positively life changing. I don't say

[11:48] this when you're dealing when you're

[11:50] dealing with issues in the world like

[11:52] you know

[11:52] our deaths and our space would just be

[11:54] headlines.

[11:55] It's so minimized. It's so minimized

[11:58] when you come home and no matter uh what

[12:00] you have going on, if you're a toddler,

[12:03] you can just say something that's

[12:05] so simple and so funny and all of the

[12:07] stress is is just removed. You realize

[12:09] that this is what actually matters.