Nicole Kidman Spoke For All Working Moms In Her Touching Emmys Speech

At the 69^th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, the night’s big winner was women — not just the producers, writers and actresses who received statuettes, but also working moms across the globe.

Working moms were well-represented by actress and producer Nicole Kidman. Kidman took home two Emmy Awards: the Outstanding Limited Series Award as the co-producer for HBO’s “Big Little Lies” and the Best Actress in a Limited Series or Movie Award for her performance in the show. Upon accepting her Best Actress Award, she devoted the moment to her two young daughters.

“I’m also a mother and a wife and have two little girls, Sunday and Faith, who I asked to help me pursue this artistic path and they have to sacrifice so much for it,” Kidman said in her speech. “I want my little girls to have this on their shelf and to look at it and go, ‘Every time my mum didn’t put me to bed was because of this. I got something.'”

As a working mother, Kidman has long been a proponent of finding a sustainable work-life balance. In an interview with Vogue, Kidman shared how she wants to involve her children in her work. They develop a stronger understanding of her responsibilities through set visits, where Kidman highlights the importance of acting and the good that it can do.

“I want them to know sometimes when you’re acting, you get a chance to bring a bigger message,” Kidman said. “This is their contribution.”

Kidman accepted the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series alongside Reese Witherspoon, who also served as an executive producer for “Big Little Lies.” Finding themselves with similar frustrations about a lack of strong roles for women, they independently formed their own production companies to bring their dream projects to life. “Big Little Lies” is their first collaboration, and the series collectively won eight Emmys.

“This is a friendship that then created opportunity out of our frustration that we weren’t getting offered great roles,” Kidman said. “Now? More great roles for women.”

 “This has been an incredible year for women on television,” Witherspoon said in her acceptance speech. “Bring women to the front of their own stories and make them their own hero.”

But it wasn’t just Kidman and Witherspoon who took home statuettes last night; women were represented across the board. Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” took home awards for Outstanding Drama Series, Direction and Writing for Drama. For comedy, Lena Waithe made history when she won the award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy with Aziz Ansari. Waithe is the first black woman to win the award.

In her speech, Waithe thanked Ansari, her mother, her girlfriend, and the executives at Netflix. Waithe also spoke to her experiences and thanked her community for their support.

“Thank you for embracing a little Indian boy from South Carolina and a little queer black girl from the South Side of Chicago,” Waithe said. “I love you all and last but certainly not least, my LGBTQIA family. I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different, those are our superpowers.”

We couldn’t have said it any better than Waithe did. There are plenty of reasons for women across the world to tell amazing stories; they just need to be given the chance to. Last night’s Emmy Awards was proof of that.