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 enhance the economic security of those who do carework, both exclusively or in conjunction with paid employment.

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MOTHERS BREAKING NEWS

February 14, 2013: Child Care - We Don't Work Without It:There are a million ways to mother, and no one "right" way.  A family ought to have options.  At the moment, there aren't as many as there should be.  Mothers are either primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in 2/3 of American households.  Women spend more than double the time that men do providing care for children.  We make up half the paid workforce, yet are much more likely to experience poverty.  We work and raise children without a national paid family leave policy, which becomes increasingly necessary as you move lower on the income scale.  What policy shift could really make children's lives better, promote women's economic security, and deliver some measure of stability to millions of households across the country?  A stronger early education and child care system, as outlined here by the Center for American Progress in Investing In Our Children: A Plan to Expand Access to PreSchool and Child Care.

February 14, 2013: Women's Status Around the World - Will John Kerry Do As Much?: Hillary Clinton kept the interests of women front and center during her time as Secretary of State.  She knew that pressing for women's empowerment around the world was the right thing to do, but also the best and most direct route to democracy, peace, and economic progress.  Now she's gone, and how much of that part of the agenda go with her?  Will John Kerry demonstrate the same passionate commitment?  If he doesn't, will all be lost?  Columnist Ruth Marcus shares my concerns in a recent Washington Post column.

February 14, 2013: FMLA Is 20 Years Old - And Businesses Didn't Go Bankrupt!: When 12 weeks of unpaid leave became available for about half the private sector workforce two decades ago, opponents argued it would just kill American business.  Well, that never happened.  Now, people all over are clamoring for improvements on the law, like making more workers eligible and having some portion of the leave include partial income replacement.  From Jodie Levin-Epstein of CLASP in the Huffington Post:

The clear majority of voters in both parties want Congress and the president to consider new laws such as family and medical leave insurance. A recent bipartisan poll found that 96 percent of Democrats and fully 72 percent of Republicans take this view. And, for those politicians/policymakers who want to close the Hispanic voter gap, it is notable that nearly 80 percent of Latinos consider congressional and presidential action on FMLA to be "very important."

An expanded FMLA could be both good policy and good politics - real opportunity for some bipartisan law-making.

February 14, 2013: Our Lack of Paid Leave Makes the US Less Competitive: In 1990, the United States offered no mandated parental leave time, compared with a non-U.S. average of 37.2 weeks. By 2010, the United States was offering 12 weeks’ leave, but the non-U.S. average had leaped to 57.3 weeks. Neither in 1990 nor today did the United States provide public paid leave, while other countries paid, on average, 26.5 percent of previous wages in 1990 and 38 percent today. Blau and Kahn found that about 28 percent to 29 percent of the decline in the American female labor force participation can be explained by the relative stinginess of its family leave and part-time work policies.

So reported Wonkblog last month, sifting data on women's workforce participation worldwide.  Other countries around the world are implementing and expanding policies to keep quality workers connected to the workforce.  Drawing on all the brainpower available, their economies are well-placed for global competition.  More countries are increasing the amount of time off they allow, and increasing the percentage of income replacement they pay.  Without paid leave in the US, only some mothers will be able to stay employed and generate some income when they birth or adopt a child.  Many mothers just give up and abandon paid work, and then find it very difficult to return when the kids are in school, or family needs have shifted, or they are compelled to resume paid work.  The US’s "either/or" approach to motherhood and work doesn't serve us well on any level, individual, family, or as a nation.  Who comes to the game with only half the team?

January 31, 2013:Pick up a copy of What Do Mothers Need?, a collection of essays by experts and scholars on how motherhood is changed and how our world needs to change as a result.  We're proud to boast that one submission in the book is by our very own Lorri Slepian, NAMC Board Member and a most esteemed "founding mother" of Mothers’ Centers and NAMC's public policy advocacy initiative.  Editor Andrea O'Reilly points out that mothers have been neglected by feminists, overlooked by the recent Occupy movement, and having a harder time now that even a few decades ago.  “If mother activists and scholars agree on anything, it is that a mother-centered feminism is urgently needed and long overdue because mothers, arguably more so than women in general, remain disempowered despite 40 years of feminism.”  Give yourself a copy for Valentine's Day!

January 31, 2013: Moms Hold the Purse Strings: Who pays the bills and manages the money in your house?  According to a recent Working Mother magazine survey, almost two-thirds of responding moms claimed the title of chief financial officer, and another third claims to share the responsibility with their partner.  Women have long held a huge amount of purchasing power and were frequently targeted by advertisers.  But now they are more likely to be in charge of the long term saving and planning as well.  They also overwhelmingly want to teach their children about saving, investing, value-shopping, and sticking to a budget.  As the article says, "You run the money, honey!"

January 31, 2013: Nancy Folbre on Sharers, Takers, Carers, Makers: This, my friends, is the source of a great deal of the injustice we face today, as brilliantly set forth by Nancy Folbre in her recent New York Times column: 

When John Locke laid the conceptual foundations of liberal democracy in the 17th century, he contended that a system that guaranteed men rights over the product of their own labor (including wild apples picked from a tree) would always prevail over a system based on arbitrary authority, like feudal dues or taxation without representation.

He excluded women from his theory, assuming that childbearing and family care were not forms of labor, but like apples, gifts of nature (until picked by men). Classical political economy, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx, presumed that women’s domestic labor was “unproductive” even if it was performed by paid servants.

If only John Locke had given birth, raised infants to adulthood, and run a household himself, how different his perspective would have been.

January 31, 2013: Mr. Mom is Dead.  Really?: In spite of a flurry of articles about the new fatherhood, I don't believe at-home Dads are sweeping the nation anymore than I believe women will be out-earning them across the board in a few years time, as has also been breathlessly reported recently.  Still, the more pictures and stories there are about full-time parenting fathers, the higher the societal value placed on carework will go.  Here's a couple - from the HuffPo Parents Blog, from the Wall Street Journal about parenting as "a guy thing", and how it's not babysiting, but parenting when a Dad cares for his own kids, in The Atlantic.  How do you think dads parenting publicly will change ideas about the value of family carework?  Will women benefit?  Please let me know at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Thanks!

January 17, 2013: Invisible and Uncounted: You probably know that the central factor of economic productivity, GDP, does not include what we spend a lot of time doing - raising children, running households, and looking after family members that have trouble managing it all themselves.  This invisible work, amazingly, isn't tracked around the world even when it is done for pay.  NPR recently reported that the UN is trying to collect data about "domestic workers", those who look after children, clean houses, or care for the elderly.  Current estimates indicate that 53 million do this work worldwide, primarily women, and probably half do so without any legal rights or a single worker protection.  The number of paid domestic workers has exploded since the mid -1990's, in reaction to the number of women leaving home for work, and aging populations, like our boomer generation.  Nonetheless, without the support of regulations setting a fair wage or reasonable working hours, abuse and exploitation abound.  Policy making can't occur, though, until reliable, complete data is gathered, and most nations just don't keep track.  What is about "traditional women's work", which produces and maintains people, the most basic building block of every society, that renders it so unworthy of attention?

January 17, 2013: What's Between You and the Glass Ceiling?: "Well, there's one word: children. What happens is that women work fewer hours than men. They take off more time for maternity leave. They tend to also work - they're far more likely to work part-time than men are. And according to surveys, they seem to want it that way, though we have to always make the caveat that yes, there is discrimination. But the major factor in the gap – both the gender gap, wage gap and the gap at the very top, the gap among the alpha females - is due to children." From NPR's All Things Considered, about women's failure to reach the top of the professional world.

January 17, 2013: Paid Leave for New Parents - Anywhere But Here: From Lisa Belkin in the Huffington Post:

As Zach Rosenberg has been highlighting on 8BitDad, companies aren't required to offer paternity leave here. That is hardly surprising because while other countries are expanding their policies to include Dads, we are essentially the last place on the planet that hasn't even embraced the narrower idea of leave for mothers. There are only three countries like this -- Papua New Guinea, Swaziland... and the one that prides itself on being the leader of the world.

January 17, 2013: Know The Facts about Abortion: Pregnancy termination remains a flashpoint in the US, 40 years since the Roe v. Wade decision.  Here are some updated facts from the Guttmacher Institute about women who have abortions.  They are mostly white and in their 20's, and from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.  The majority have at least one child already, and were or are married or living with a partner.  About half of all pregnancies in the US are unintended, and of these, about half are terminated.  More than three-fourths of abortions occur in the first trimester.

January 17, 2013: What CAN'T a Pregnant Woman Do?: I sat down, I napped, I may occasionally have gone for a walk when I was pregnant.  Look at these mothers-to-be - some of us will run marathons, sing an aria, or dance a pas de deux.  You go, girl!  I'm cheering for you right from my seat here on the sofa. From The Washington Post:  "So expectant mothers adapt. They perform with precision, even as their instruments change. Dancers mourn the loss of muscle tone as it melts away like a Dali scene. Opera singers revel in the surge of hormones that give their voices richer, fuller timbre. Cellists lay their instruments on their bellies and hope the baby doesn’t kick when the timpanist strikes."  Occupational hazards for the pregnant woman! 

January 3, 2013: Look Into My Crystal Ball:The Huffington Post lists 13 parenting trends you can expect to see in 2013.  Check it out - you'll see pictures of Princess Kate, Jessica Simpson, Alicia Silverstone, and breastfeeding in public!  Not the customary content of the NAMC Advocacy eNews, but hey, it's the holidays!

January 3, 2013: Full-time Parent, Part-time Worker: We know that having children is likely to makes a woman economically vulnerable.  But what's really amazing is the number of different ways that motherhood contributes to economic insecurity.  Under the spotlight this week - gender differences in part-time work, brought to you by the Center for Economic Policy Research  (CEPR).  In the US, part time work is not simply the younger sibling of full-time work with the same rules, conditions and compensations of full-time work to a proportionately smaller degree.  It's in an entirely different league - for starters, the pay rate per hour is often significantly lower, even in the same jobs.  It rarely comes with benefits like access to the employer's group health plan, or retirement savings plan.  Also, federal legislation like the Fair Labor Standards Act which protects employees simply doesn't apply to part-time workers.

Can you guess who makes up the majority of part-time workers in the US?  Women!  Could it be that their economic needs are so well satisfied by their partners or others that they simply don't need to work full time?  No.  Twice as many women as men are in the part time labor force because of non-economic reasons.  From the CEPR blog:

Women "choose" part-time jobs primarily because they are more compatible with their outsized unpaid work responsibilities including household work and childcare. When asked why they work part time, women answer “Child care problems” at more than seven times the rate that men do, and are almost four times more likely than men to cite “Other family/personal obligations.” In fact, of the people who usually work part-time and answered “Child care problems” as their reason why, 94.6 percent were women.

Connecting the dots - mothers trudge along, in a workplace tailored to non-mothers, hampered by inadequate and costly child care, taking part-time work as a consequence, with all its short-comings.  If the work of coordinating family life and raising children was regarded as more worthwhile, men would do more of it, public supports would exist to promote it (such as accessible quality child care, paid family leave), and it wouldn't predispose those who do it to poverty.

January 3, 2013: Single Mother Myths: A lot of people who act like they know what they are talking about will tell you that poverty and crime are the result of too many unmarried women having kids.  They are wrong.  The facts of single motherhood are vastly different from the characterizations that (mostly male, mostly white) politicians and pundits sling around.  Based on data from a recent Legal Momentum survey, Greg Kaufmann writes in The Nation single mothers in the US are mostly separated, divorced or widowed.  In other words, the vast majority were married.  In addition, in spite of the fact that they spend more hours at work than single mothers in other countries, US single mothers have much higher rates of poverty than those in other industrialized countries.  The reason?  A great deal of employment is for very low wages, and public income supports are too low.  Not to mention our status as the only advanced economy with no paid family or sick leave.  Welfare queens?  Not so much.

January 3, 2013: The Price of Motherhood Around the World: Get out  your passports - we're taking a whirlwind trip to compare the motherhood penalty around the globe.  There's no country where a woman can escape it entirely, but there is quite a range between the best and worst.  What accounts for the difference?  Access to high quality and affordable child-care, mostly.  From The New York Times Economix Blog:

The United States is about on trend with developed countries over all: in the United States, the median childless, full-time-working woman of reproductive age earns 7 percent less than the median male full-time worker. For women with children, the wage gap more than triples, to 23 percent. That gap in Japan is even bigger — the median Japanese mother working full time earns 61 percent less than the median Japanese full-time male worker.

Note that the 23% gap is between full time working men and women.  The post goes on to state that the gap for mothers over all is actually much greater, because about a quarter of them work only part-time.  Countries with fabulous early education and child care systems have the smallest gap in income between mothers and non-mothers.  Of course, the US doesn't fall into that category.

December 20, 2012: Will You Pay For Being Pregnant?:The mommy tax has been around for a long time.  But did you know that just being pregnant at work may cause others to think you are less competent, less committed, and more irrational? Research shows that appearing pregnant may cost you the job interview, a higher salary if you're being hired, and promotions  once employed.  Certain perceptions about pregnant women are so subtle, and so ingrained, that they may not be recognized as discriminatory even by women!  Read this article from The Atlantic, The Pregnancy Penalty:  How Working Women Pay for Having Kids.

December 20, 2012: What Capitalism Does to Families:"Unfortunately, we have socialized the benefits of child-rearing more thoroughly than we have socialized the costs, taxing the working-age population to provide benefits to the elderly through Social Security and Medicare but providing uneven and somewhat unpredictable public support to parents. Single mothers in particular remain far more susceptible to poverty in the United States than in similarly affluent countries."  The brilliant Nancy Folbre on the economics of childrearing - or how the sinking birth rate reflects capitalism's privatizing the risks of motherhood while turning all the benefits of children over to the economy.  From the Economix Blog in The New York Times.

December 20, 2012: Please, Sir, I Want Some ... More?: It's not enough to be smarter, better educated, and better trained.  Simply being more qualified isn't enough to ensure that you are being paid as much as the guy in the next cubicle.  You can work your little heart out and wait to be noticed, but that doesn't mean you'll get pay equity.  “I can’t tell you how many times I hear stories of women who go into a negotiation saying, ‘Oh my gosh, thank you so much, I’ll take it!’” says Ms. Houle, noting that one student she coached even hugged her boss. “Here these women are, more educated than ever, incurring incredible debt to get that education, and they’re going to take whatever they’re offered. It’s like, ‘No, no, no!’ “/* New York Times.

December 20, 2012: I Am Mother! Hear Me...Online?: Here's a snippet of Joanne Bamberger from Women's Enews:  "Fortunately, more and more women, especially mothers, have started using their existing online spaces--the so-called "mom blogs"--and the confidence they've gained through the influence they have earned in those spaces, to flex their political muscles. Increasing numbers of mothers online are embracing the newfound courage that's developed from writing about their lives and families to speak out for causes, social issues and candidates they believe in, moving from writing about their beliefs at personal blogs to creating their own online political communities and joining established networks that already reach millions of readers."  Just like this enews, the NAMC blogs, including Your (Wo)Man in Washington, and our Facebook pages - activist moms online rock!

December 06, 2012:  Why Do We Need Paid Family Leave NOW?: There are lots of reasons that working people in the US should have access to family leave when they need it.  Here are 4 to remember: 

• The paid labor force is now 49% female, and women still do most of the family carework - but the economy cannot function if we don't show up at work.
• Women in 2/3 of households earn as much or more than their spouses, or are single mothers.
• Four out of five children have no full time caregiving parent at home.
• The US has the only advanced economy without a national program guaranteeing some form of paid leave to workers -it's not rocket science if every other country has come up with a plan.

Two experts at the Center for American Progress, Sarah Jane Glynn and Heather Boushey, are proposing that a paid family insurance program could easily be created on the existing framework of the Social Security System.  You can read their proposal for Social Security Cares right here.

December 6, 2012: Why Are So Many Single Parent Families Poor?  No Mystery Here!: Karen Kornbluh has been an advocate for mothers and work/family policies from way back.  She points out that 25% of all children live in single parent homes in the US, an unusually high number among industrial nations.  We also rank as the country with the 3rd highest rate of single parent family poverty.  The reason?  In The Atlantic, Ms. Kornbluh lays the blame squarely on public policy failure - no reliable maternity leave, no paid sick leave, no affordable, high quality child care system.  "Our lack of quality childcare and after-school programs puts these kids at risk and endangers the nation's future in a knowledge economy. Our lack of support for flexible work arrangements and Social Security credits for caregivers puts these parents at risk."  Unpaid family caregiving, the economy, and public policy are all related.  But the US continues to act as if that is not so.

December 6, 2012: Motherhood and Murder Rates: It's true, many well-intentioned advocates argue that if mothers would only get and stay married, poverty, violence, incarceration rates, and most other social ills would decline.  I say enough already!  Mothers are blamed for way too much, especially considering the barriers and inequities they face, compared to fathers or non-parents.  And now, happily, there is some data to back me up.

Blaming single parents for violence has long been a dog whistle talking point of the family values set, since the phrase "single parents" actually means "single mothers," and "single mothers" means "poor women." But now, it seems that some new data from Washington, DC is challenging that long-held assertion that the out of control vaginas of the 47% are leading to big, slutty crime rates — over the last 20 years, the murder rate in the District has dropped 75%, while the percentage of single mothers has remained steady. Sorry you got blamed for all that murder, poor ladies.

Those bad girls at Jezebel point to a Philip Cohen essay, Single Moms Can't Be Scapegoated for the Murder Rate Anymore.

December 6, 2012: Gender Matters In Everything - Including Violence: Not that we need another reason to speak out against domestic violence - in addition to its physical and emotional toll, it has a huge cost in economic terms as shown in recent research.  About.com US Government Info reports: "The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide against women by their intimate partners exceeds $5.8 billion annually, according to a report just released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)."  Instead of being a shameful, private secret, intimate partner violence is now seen as a public health issue which public policy can effectively address. "CDC is actively involved in ongoing efforts to prevent violence against women," said Sue Binder, M.D., CDC Injury Center Director. "This report provides information that is crucial in helping communities demonstrate the impact violence against women has on society."

November 19, 2012: Why Are Women Worth Less?: Women earn less than men, and this is one reason our poverty rate is much higher.  Many commentators explain the gender pay gap by pointing to women's "choices" of jobs in lower-paying fields, less-demanding work, part-time work, or work that allows them to fulfill domestic and/or child care obligations.  There is no more discrimination at work, they say, and if women worked as long and as hard as men, they'd make just the same.  My friends at the American Association of University Women have tested this theory and found it false by comparing men's and women's earnings at the beginning of their working lives, before children and "lifestyle choices" have an impact.  Their conclusion? Discrimination against women in the workplace continues.  You can read a summary on the National Women's Law Center blog and view the video of the CNN report.

November 19, 2012: Paid Family Leave - We're Already Paying For Not Having It: You know it's gonna happen - people get sick, people get old, people have children.  It's happening now, and it increases costs, even though family leave insurance is not the official policy.  Cali Williams Yost writes a very persuasive essay in Forbes.  An excerpt:

In the U.S., we pride ourselves on our capitalistic, profit-oriented savvy; therefore, given the growing magnitude of employee caregiving realities, you would assume that employers would support a clear, consistent uniform strategic response. One that minimized business disruption and kept employees engaged and productive over the long-term. Unfortunately, the reality is the exact opposite.

Far from being a tax, job-killing or anti-business, paid family leave boosts the bottom line.  It doesn't make sense not to have it.

November 1, 2012: Are Women Better Suited To Housework?: Both political parties contribute to gender inequality and exploit the difference between men's and women's economic status to reinforce a political structure that fails parents and children, according to Salon's recent "Devaluing Care Work - And Women".   Paid sick days legislation, and getting home health aides the same protection other workers have, continue to fail in state assemblies and still don't register in national politics.  Why?  Because care work is done mostly by women, often for free, is poorly regarded, and it's women who pay the price if a family member falls ill or child has to stay home.  We've shown a real lack of desire in pushing for national policies that would improve our status at home.  

As Jessica Valenti writes in her new book, “Why Have Kids, “Mommy blogs organize to take down diaper ads but are largely silent on the lack of paid maternity leave. They’ll complain about unfair division of labor at home yet rarely link their husband’s dirty laundry to the larger political system that tells women they’re better suited for housework.”

The NAMC, this enews and Your Wo)Man in Washington, at least, don't fall into this category.

Another aspect of NAMC’s work being making a business case that offering good work/life options is a good business practice and that it’s important for women (and almost every employee) who bear the brunt of home and childrearing responsibilities.  We could include a link to www.NAMCWorkplace.org or a link the pdf of the conference brochure.

November 1, 2012: Parenting Leaves a Lasting Impression: More data is emerging about the link between a child's earliest years and long terms effects on the brain and cognitive development.  The Washington Post's "On Parenting" blog has highlighted recent research showing that exposure to stress, for example, or language can impact brain size and development. The parents' educational level has much to do with the degree of cognitive stimulation the child will experience.   With the data mounting, ensuring that parents have access to the resources they need for economic security and effective parenting should be a public priority.  You can find the posts here and here.

November 1, 2012: A Different Kind of Gender Gap: Usually when we talk about the the "gender gap" we mean the inequality between what men and women earn at work.  But there's a whole different meaning every four years in November - the difference between how men and women vote.  It's not a new phenomenon, and it directly effects how an election turns out.  If forecasts prove correct, the gender gap in the presidential election may reach an all-time high this year.  The New York Times has a great article with fabulous graphics.  And it supports my theory that gender makes a difference in everything.