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MOTHERS is a netroots community of mothers and other family caregivers who look after children or other dependent family members.
We promote social change to enchance the economic security of those who do carework, both exclusively or in conjunction with paid employment.
Click here to learn more…
MOTHERS BREAKING NEWS
October 29, 2009: Three Minute Interview with Ginger Garner: This Mother, Educator, Author, Blogger, Physical Therapist and Yoga Practitioner Talks About Childbirth in America, and Why It Needs to Change.
October 23, 2009:Michelle Obama on Women and Health Reform
October 20, 2009: You Heard It Here First:Women have more at stake in health care reform than men do. We've beaten the drum loudly on that these past few weeks. Now our friends at the National Women's Law Center have put together a video as part of a campaign to raise women's awareness. You can watch it right here on your computer.
October 20, 2009: "A Woman's Nation" - Good News, or Bad? : Lots of buzz this week surrounding women now making up half the paid labor force, because the recession has taken more men out of work, and because families need the money women earn. But is that the whole story? The wide view, from journalist Bonnie Erbe:
October 15, 2009: Three Minute Interview with Kristin Maschka:Advocacy Coordinator Valerie Young caught author Kristin Maschka during her current coast to coast book tour, introducing "This Is Not How I Thought It Would Be: Remodeling Motherhood to Get the Lives We Want Now." Kristin talks about the unexpected aftermath she encountered after becoming a mother, and offers suggestions and insights for your own transition in our 3 minute interview.
October 9, 2009: Video: Women Senators take the floor and slam gender discirmination in current health care system.
October 7, 2009: Nobel Prize Winner is a Mother:Two of the three winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Medicine are women. One of them, microbiologist and mother Elizabeth Blackburn, talks about her work, her family, mother stereotypes, and the often messy way it all comes together.
September 23, 2009: From the White House to your house: A four minute video on health care reform. Whatever your opinion, you have to be informed.
September 23, 2009: Am I Blue?: According to some "experts", American women, for all their workplace success and education, are increasingly unhappy. According to Maureen Dowd's recent NYT column, we are stressed to the max by the demands of home, work, and a society idolizing youth and beauty. Were we better off when choices were fewer and our worth established by our gardens and dinner parties? No, no, and no, says work/family expert and law professor Joan Williams:
Even mothers who had planned to proceed full speed ahead hit the maternal wall. Having a child is the worst economic decision a woman can make, in part, because workplace discrimination against mothers is the strongest and most open form of gender discrimination.
Now THAT'S what we're talkin' about..... Read more here.
September 23, 2009: Why We Need Paid Sick Days: Your doctor, your government, and your community are getting ready for the H1N1 epidemic. Yet the most effective way to stay healthy lies beyond our grasp - paid sick days. Is it crazy to see this looming without a way to fight infection? We think so!!
September 23, 2009: The Women's Crusade: We were bowled over by the NYT Magazine Special Edition devoted to the condition of women around the world. Authors Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof assert that the oppression of women is the human rights issue of our generation. Further, the answer to many intractable problems, such as war, terrorism, and poverty is the empowerment of women and their equal access to opportunity.
Many other throughtful writers have resonded to the article since its publication. Debating the interplay between global economic development and the role of women, a nuanced and well-rounded perspective has emerged. We don't often stray from domestic policy in our enews, but on this occasion we felt bound to offer this discussion to you. After all, no woman (as they say) is an island, and this country is part of a world community.
The Kristof/WuDunn article from the NYT Magazine is here.
Notable reactions and responses have been collected here.
September 21, 2009: MRS. O - UP ALL NIGHT: Michelle Obama spoke out recently about how women are mistreated under the current health care system. She cited the higher premiums women are charged, and the classification of C-section delivery, having given birth, and having suffered domestic violence as excludable "pre-exiting conditions" for which no coverage may be offered. "These are the kinds of things that keep me up at night" stated Mrs. Obama, a former hospital administrator before moving into the White House.
Because women often work part-time, in small businesses, or in lower wage jobs, they are less likely to have access to an employer sponsored health insurance plan. Individual policies are not regulated by any national standards, and a worker has no leverage when contracting for coverage. The various reform measures in Congress would make all these practices illegal.
Mrs. Obama placed discrimination and bias against women in the health insurance industry in the context of our long quest for equal rights. "In many states, insurance companies can still discriminate because of gender. And this is still shocking to me."
September 01, 2009:
The Three Minute Interview: Caregiving as a Work of Art: Motherhood has many facets - it influences your economic status, your politics, what you buy, and what you read. It also influences your art. Here's a three minute interview with artist Nita Sturiale about her project, "Visible Labor | Working Bodies":
August 31, 2009: And Then There Was One:Australia has enacted a paid family leave policy, leaving the United States as the sole industrial nation with no reliable economic support for parents of a newborn or newly adopted baby. Newsweek magazine suggests that this country will only make the leap to paid leave when "the political cost of inaction" is too high. The cost to families, to parents, and to mothers is already too high - the missing link remains harnessing that personal experience to political action.
August 30, 2009: How Mad Are You?:The latest charge hitting the airwaves is that mothers are perpetually mad at their husbands for slacking off in the housework department. While fathers are proud to see themselves doing more at home than their fathers did, mothers are trying to model both their mothers and their fathers, and (not surprisingly) see themselves coming up short. Conflict skyrockets in the first five years after a child is born - who does more? Who ought to try harder? Listen to this 7 minute audio clip with Lisa Belkin and Jeremy Adam Smith.
August 27, 2009: You Can't Afford to Look Away:We were shocked that including pre-natal and obstetrical care in the health care reform bill would be open for debate. Currently, insurance companies can exclude maternity-related expenses, or make coverage harder or more expensive to get, through a variety of legal means. And if you are one of the millions of uninsured women, coverage isn't even an issue. One of the goals of reform, in addition to ensuring access for all to quality medical care, must be guaranteeing women pre-natal and maternal care. Stay engaged.
August 27, 2009: Divorce Can Multiply Caregiving Demands:Say years ago your parents divorced. Eventually, each of them remarried. And when you married your first husband, his parents were divorced, and then they each remarried. Your second husband also has parents, and your parents and your current and ex-spouse's parents are all living. And now they are getting older.....and you are looking after untold numbers of aging parents, in-laws, former in-laws, and step in-laws, from San Francisco to St. Petersburg and Tampa to Toledo. This nightmare scenario is reality for increasing numbers of boomers and boomer children, and was the subject of a recent New York Times blog.
August 1, 2009: "Caregiving - Our Own Personal Burden?":Whether you are driving to work, sitting by the pool, or packing the diaper bag, this piece from our friends at fem2pt0 will give you pause and set you to ponder.
August 1, 2009: Babies, Work, Bosses, Home: There is no right answer, no simple solution, no one way to do it. Mothering takes as many different forms as there are mothers who do it. In this post and the comments that follow, you will find some thoughtful responses from women who faced the work/family conundrum. MUCH more helpful - and real - than the media screeching and judgementalism so often heard on this topic. Read Lisa Belkin’s blog post in the NY Times here.
July 30, 2009: From the White House to Your House: Before the women and men of the US Congress head home for their August vacation, they continue their attempts to pound out a health care bill. The White House has released four one page summaries about various aspects of its proposal. We clicked first on "How Health Insurance Reform Will Help Women". You'll also find:
How Health Insurance Reform Will Help Your Family
The Economic Effects of Health Care Reform on Small Businesses and Their Employees
How Health Insurance Reform Holds Insurance Companies Accountable
July 27, 2009: Wall Street Journal readers on "work life balance": Here's a thought-provoking discussion about spending your anniversary drafting a report for the boss, and planning the family reunion while at your desk. Is this another way to view work life balance? It may be necessary, but desirable? There are issues of class as well - professionals seem more likely to experience "schedule creep". Surely, other workers have similar needs, but more limited opportunity. What is the outcome for them? Write us back with your comments - we'd like to write about your ideas and experiences tool.
July 27, 2009: Perception Or Reality?: Are some jobs just too demanding for mothers? If we can "see" women as letter carriers, doctors, and business owners, can we see "work" as one part of life, rather than the all-consuming, most important, primary function of life? Here is a riveting discussion with author Pamela Stone about motherhood and work, the illusion of "choice", and what American workers will tolerate that their counterparts elsewhere will not.
June 15, 2009: Maternity Leave and the Economy:What happens when worries about holding on to your job arrive at the same time as your baby?
June 15, 2009: A Lifetime of Caring: Caring for children is demanding, complicated, and wonderful work. It is so important to children, to the caregivers themselves, and to soceity as a whole. But it will likely not be the only carework we do. More and more men and women will play a major role providing care for their own parents. And a good thing too - if family members didn't look after each other, the cost of it, over $350 billion this year alone, would break the US Treasury. Stepping up, making sacrifices, adapting, adjusting - the caregiver pretty much goes it alone. Most caregivers of elderly relatives work, and most, so far, are women. We can expect carework, and the issues it raises, to stretch across our entire adult lives. We won't "grow out of it" as our children mature and leave home. It is worth our time and effort to create a culture that acknowledges and treasures this work, and respects the men and women, mothers and fathers, and sons and daughters, who do it. The Washington Post considers the work of caring for parents in this thoughtful article.
June 15, 2009: Read It and Weep....:Spain has just increased its period of paid paternity leave from 13 days to one month.
June 8, 2009: Benefits of Workplace Flexibility to Hourly Employees and Business:
John Wilcox, Sloan Work and Family Blog: Corporate Voices recently did a study on the benefits of Workplace flexibility to hourly employees. Here are the key highlights of there findings.
June 8, 2009: When Opting Out Isn't an Option: Ann Friedman, the American Prospect: For too long, the narrative about working women has centered on professionals with children. It's time we focus on the majority of women workers.
June 8, 2009: A Progressive Program for Family Leave Insurance: Heather Boushey, Center for American Progress:Taking time off to care for a child or parent isn’t a viable option for most because of the economic impact. More times than none it would be unpaid leave and let’s be realistic who can afford it! Could Social Security benefits now be the answer to our unpaid Family Leave woe? Heather Boushey of the Center for American Progress has an interesting take on what can be done to alleviate some of the burden. “It’s time to take what is now a benefit of the privileged and turn it into a right for all workers”
May 26, 2009:Let's Not Waste a Good Crisis:Economic turmoil is certainly unsettling, but it can also offer opportunity. Can this recession help women improve their economic and social status? Silvia Ann Hewlitt has some ideas.
May 21, 2009:We've seen a slew of new data on paid sick days in recent months, because this time legislation will come closer to passing. The Healthy Families Act has just been introduced (again!) in the US Congress, and the atmosphere on the Hill is more favorable. A recent report from the Center for Economic Policy Research points out that other industrialized, wealthy, and developed countries have devised a workable solution to illness, childbirth, and other unavoidable family health events;
The report, "Contagion Nation: A Comparison of Paid Sick Day Policies in 22 Countries," finds that the U.S. is the only country among 22 countries ranked highly in terms of economic and human development that does not guarantee that workers receive paid sick days or paid sick leave. Under current U.S. labor law, employers are not required to provide short-term paid sick days or longer-term paid sick leave.
You'll find a brief press release about the report and its findings here.
A New York Times article about the introduction of the Healthy Families Act is here.
May 21, 2009: What If.....?:The recent flu pandemic has made clear once and for all that work/life policy has an effect far beyond the family circle. What if everyone went to work no matter how sick they were? What if sick children were sent to school carrying contagious diseases? What if everyone kept cooking in restaurants, stacking groceries, delivering your mail? When national and local authorities told us all to stay home, did they intend for us to miss a few days' pay, or worse, lose our jobs? We were lucky this time. Businesses were not forced to close, public services were not suspended, and the economy was able to roll with the punches, even in its damaged state. Next time, if the virus spreads faster, and is more severe, the lack of a federal paid sick days policy could be catastrophic.
May 18, 2009: "Taking Care of Our Caregivers": Cabinet Secretary Acknowledges Dedication of Caregivers:Freshly-minted Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, formerly governor of Kansas and mother of 2, wrote to the Washington Post about the status of those who care for the elderly and disabled. The paper published a lengthy article about home health aides and the role they play in families where one or more members needs care. Home care workers put in long hours, are poorly paid, often have no health benefits and no paid time off to see to their own health needs. Unpaid family caregivers, of children or the elderly, ill, or disabled, struggle with many of the same problems.
In her letter, Secretary Sebelius states that home health aides and nursing assistants are the "backbone" of the long term care system. Calling the hands-on assistance they provide "invaluable", she cites departmental efforts underway to make caregiving jobs more attractive and decrease turnover. In turn, the quality of care provided, upon which so many households depend, will improve. We'd like to believe these improvements will highlight the critical nature and social value of carework generally, no matter where, for whom or by whom it is done, and whether it is paid or not.
You can find the Secretary's letter here. The original article, which initially appeared with the cover headline "Cut Rate Angels", can be found here.
May 18, 2009: Motherhood Can Be Deadly: In the US, there is a motherhood penalty, which is largely economic. In other parts of the world, the penalty can be death.
May 14, 2009: It's Not Always About the Children: As women, we take care of everybody, not just our children. And we think mothers deserve a least a month, not just a single day. So there's plenty of time to talk to your own mother or grandmother, and help her make the necessary moves to protect her own economic security. The Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement can help get the conversation rolling with five important questions.
May 12, 2009: Gender Wage Gap:We know we mentioned Equal Pay Day in the last enews. But we just can't get over it. Just looking at the 10 most common occupations for women, where women comprise half or more (and sometimes much more) of all workers in that occupation, men make more, on average, in every single one. Male elementary school teachers - 12% more. Male registered nurses - 13% more. Male secretaries - 17% more. Shifting focus to only women's highest paying fields, the same gap occurs. Male lawyers make 20% more than women. Male doctors make 36% more. And male human resources managers make 21% more. If Mama ain't happy..... Read the Institute for Women’s Policy Research fact sheet.
May 12, 2009: The "Risky Business" of Single Mothering:If you are a mother, you may one day be parenting alone. More than 1/4 of all children in the United States live with one parent, and in 5 out of 6 cases, that single parent is a single mother. In 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, 44% of babies were born to unmarried women in their 20's. More than 3 out 4 single mothers are in the workforce, and the vast majority of that group works full time. Even so, 37% of single mothers and their children live in poverty. It's a double whammy - women make only about 77% of what men do, and women with children make 10 - 15% less than that. That translates to only $25,000 per year for the typical single full-time working mother. All women are vulnerable to economic insecurity - but single mothers are in a truly perilous situation.
Our friends at Women Work! have published a new fact sheet. You can find it here:
May 7, 2009: It's Not You, It's the System: Child care issues weigh heavily on many women. Often what's available is expensive, and perhaps of dubious quality. Why do mothers struggle year after year, and does it have to be this way? This one hour radio broadcast explains.
May 7, 2009: One Step Closer to Paid Leave: A new bill that would offer 4 weeks of paid leave to new parents employed by the federal government has survived the committee process and could soon see a vote in the House. There was some opposition. One congressman warned that Frankie and Flo Fed would either give birth, adopt, or accept a new foster child year in and year out just to get the four paid weeks, costing the federal government a fortune. Supporters of the bill claimed that retaining workers actually cuts costs, and allows the federal government to compete with other, higher-paying employers for an increasingly limited talent pool.
May 7, 2009: Let's Do the Time Warp Again!: We may be the world's only remaining superpower, but our social policy belongs to another century, when we pretended a mother could depend on someone else to support her and her new baby. Recent months have seen many more mentions of maternity leave and other issues arising from the intersection of motherhood and economics. Here's the latest - the Economic Policy Institute highlights the shameful status of the US as the only industrialized nation with no national paid maternity leave policy.
May 6, 2009: Forbes Magazine Says Moms Want Maternity Leave Benefits: Yes, we do. So skip the Mother's Day candy and flowers - make paid parental leave and family leave minimum labor standards in the American workplace.
May 6, 2009: When You've Got Your Health.....: The recent flu epidemic points out the necessity of paid sick days. When schools close, kids are home, and parents need to be home too. But what if you don't have paid sick leave? What if you can only take it for your own illness? What if you can't afford to miss a day's pay? Millions of American workers have to deal with these problems. The New York Times agrees, the President needs to promote paid sick days legislation. It's a matter of national security.
May 5, 2009: Golden Years?: Who depends more on public benefits in later life, men or women? If you guessed that it's those who perform the majority of the carework in this country, you're right.
Women aged 65 and older are only half as likely as their male counterparts to receive private pension income. However, they are nearly three times as likely to reach age 85, and will suffer more chronic disease and require more medical services. Women are the majority of Social Security and Medicaid recipients. They outnumber men in residential nursing facilities by a ratio of 3:1.
Even with their Social Security benefits, 2.5 million older women live on less than $10,326 per year. By definition, that puts them below the poverty line.
Will you be one of them? Data from IWPR's "Women and Entitlements" Fact Sheet, February 2009,
May 4, 2009: Heard on the Hill: The Joint Economic Committee probed reasons behind the persistent pay gap between male and female federal employees in a hearing recently. Chair Carolyn Maloney, a vigorous advocate of work/life reform, deplored the government's failure to be a model workplace on the issue of equal pay. She further noted the various effects of parenthood on men and women. Federal employment data "...previously has found that women with children earn about 2.5 percent less than women without children, while men with children enjoy an earnings boost of 2.1 percent, compared to men without children. So fathers enjoy a bonus, while mothers pay a penalty for their decisions to have children.”
April 15, 2009: More on Family Responsibility Discrimination: The good people at the Sloan Work and Family Research Network and our friends at the Center for WorkLife Law have put together a four page policy brief on family responsibility discrimination. Highly readable, with graphics, pictures, the works!
April 14, 2009: The Two Minute interview - Parents and Discrimination : Sometimes discrimination happens at work because of bias against those who care for other family members. In recent years, a dramatic rise has occurred in the number of lawsuits alleging Family Responsibility Discrimination (FRD). MOTHERS Advocacay Coordinator Valerie Young talked to Consuela Pinto, Senior Counsel at the Center for WorkLife Law, about FRD and what to do if it happens to you.
April 8, 2009: The Problem with Conventional Wisdom.... ....is that it is often wrong. Joan Williams, founder of the Work Life Law Center, counters three flawed assumptions about the progress of reduced hours, telecommuting, flexible scheduling, and work/life programs getting the ax due to the recession. As is often the case, the REAL story is more complicated, and more interesting.
April 8, 2009: Heidi, Heather, Janet, and Jobs: A few weeks ago, the effect of the recession on work/life policy was the hot topic in Baltimore. Three of the brightest lights on motherhood and economics gave their views on how the pace of change is picking up and the landscape can be permanently altered. Now is the time for paycheck equity and part-time worker parity, precisely because families and children are struggling so. Blogger Girl w/ Pen! gives a recap:
April 8, 2009: Child Care and Jobs - Canada Looks at the Link: Parents over the border can receive 55% of their income while on maternity or paternity leave. Now they argue if that's enough. Not only that, child care advocates say that a recession is exactly the right time for the country to beef up early education programs, as more women are compelled to work and early education is the ultimate infrastructure investment.
April 8, 2009: Expanding "Soft Touch" in the UK: Both the US and the UK have been thinking about "soft touch" laws, which allow employees to ask for a flexible schedule without fear of firing or retaliatory action. Regarded as an alternative to requiring family friendly hours, the UK offers parents of children under 6 the right to ask, and requires the employer to consider but not comply. An expansion of the rule will soon extend the right to ask parents of children under 16, in spite of objections that businesses are already on the brink from a shrinking economy. A "soft touch' bill was introduced in the US Senate last year, but made no progress.
April 7, 2009: Babies at Work: In the absence of paid maternity leave, is bringing your baby to work a viable option? Here's a discussion on NPR to listen to.
April 7, 2009: Is Paid Family Leave Worth $7 a Month To You?: California Congressman Pete Stark has introduced legislation establishing family leave insurance paid for by minimal contributions from both workers and their employers, less than $7 per month. That doesn't seem too high a price to MOTHERS for job security while attending to critical family needs, like a parent's terminal illness or the birth or adoption of a new baby. Rep. Stark makes his case here.
April 7, 2009: Preparing for the Pitter-Patter: If springtime means a new chick in your nest, take a look at this article from work/life experts on how to prepare for maternity leave. You may or may not quality for FMLA, and in the US there really are no good options. So prior planning is essential. Get the 411 here.
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