The best thing about March is the annual outpouring of information about women. This year’s rich harvest includes some terrific profiles of women’s work in photography, theater, and museum leadership. Make no mistake - new ground is being broken here, and we are still seeing many “firsts”. My own WHM observance began last week, at the National Geographic’s [...]
Mothers at the Olympics
I loved the visibility of mothers in the Sochi Olympics. I appreciated the fact that the commentators mentioned whether a particular athlete had children. Even the sometimes corny P&G commercials about moms were significant. The athletes don’t achieve their current status on their own. Many people contributed to their success, and their mothers without doubt played a [...]
Mothers of the Moment
We’re poised at a sweet spot between the release of The Shriver Report in January, and the arrival of March as Women’s History Month. Momentum is growing for paid leave and paid sick days, candidates for the 2014 mid-term elections are shaping their campaigns, and think tanks in DC are churning out data on women [...]
Candidate Mom
Women can and do run for office, but their path to politics differs from the one most men follow. Women are generally asked to run and likely to have been recruited. Men tend to initiate their own candidacy, and worry less about if they are qualified or not. Women tend to feel under qualified, regardless of their [...]
Closer Than You Think
I wrote this post for the Mothers Central Blog, where it appeared on January 16, 2014. Kate Fineske, the mother-in-charge of the site, graciously gave me permission to cross post it on my own blog, where you will find it in full below. Check out the rest of Kate’s collection about parenting, motherhood, and how [...]
Phone Call for YOU!
Big doins’ this week! We’re all getting on the horn to talk about women in the US, how to get to fair pay, why families need a paid leave program they can count on, and what paid sick days would mean for the economic security of moms and dads. Just like child care, these issues [...]
Hitting the Maternal Wall
Having a baby is amazing. It will turn your life upside down with changes. But change is not happening when it comes to mothers’ mobility between work and home. Educated women with professional jobs, as fortunate as they are, still have a lot to worry about. As you read this message from a follower of [...]
The US Supreme Court vs. Moms
In the past 24 hours I’ve come across three items in two major newspapers that are totally unrelated, but in light of each other, suggest to me that women’s status in the US may be sliding back faster than it is moving forward. Maybe you’ll agree? The first is an column by Dana Milbank, a [...]
The FAMILY Act: Stitching Up a Hole in the Safety Net
I will be strapping on my snow boots and slogging up the Hill later this week to see star legislators Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduce a bill that would provide most workers with 12 weeks of partially paid leave for a birth, adoption, or to deal with their own or a family member’s serious medical [...]
Staying Home as a Step Up
My New York Times Sunday Dialogue piece on pro-family policy changes that could improve caregivers’ economic security elicited a number of responses. One led me to a post by Valerie Adrian, a mother of 3 currently pursuing her Ph,D. in Sociology on the opposite side of the country, but engaged in issues of gender and work [...]
Mothers Book Bag on Goodreads.com
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