All Blog Posts

06/13/07

This week I learned about BlogHers Act from two MomsRising volunteers . BLOGHERS ACT is a year-long initiative by BlogHer.org (an association of 11,000+ women bloggers) to harness the incredible power of women online. This group intends to take on two initiatives: 1. Making a difference on a single global cause; and 2. Identifying the top four issues that women online want the U.S. Presidential candidates to address in order to win our votes in the ‘08 Election. The Announcement: http://blogher.org/node/20441

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Joan Blades

06/13/07

My younger daughter is graduating high school, and my older daughter just graduated from Penn State, so this fathers’ day is a good time to reflect on past successes… and failures. So here’s some advice for young men contemplating fatherhood today: Marry well . Find someone you can talk to about almost anything; you’re going to spend a lot of time talking after children arrive... And find someone who isn’t planning to stay at home for 20 years raising kids. Sure, there are great parents who pull off the breadmaker/homemaker stuff, and I know and admire them. But most involved dads have partners who have a job or a career; it gives us more time with the kids, and more say in decisions about the kds.

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Robert Drago

06/13/07

With Father’s Day just around the corner, I’m excited to see the new FamiliesRising Web site get started. While co-producing THE MOTHERHOOD MANIFESTO film, my only disappointment was the number of men I met who didn’t see how these issues applied to them. As the father of a 13 year old, I know just how important it will be to entire American families to win the kinds of things that MomsRising has been working so hard for.

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John de Graaf

06/13/07

I'm a busy guy. I work full time, have kids to raise, dogs to train, a house to maintain, vehicles to keep going, and a dozen hobbies from my younger days that get dusted off a couple of times a year. My wife and I do our best to help each other keep our household running and still strive to periodically enjoy each other's company in a context beyond toiling side-by-side on a never ending task list. This isn't a complaint - I like keeping busy - rather it's an explanation as to why I usually shy away from taking on additional commitments.

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OneDadRising

06/13/07

Since my wife Genevieve and I had twins, Sam and Hazel, on Election Day of 2004 I’ve become increasingly aware of just how out of whack our nations priorities have become. There seems to be no end in sight to the resources we will squander in Iraq. While here in the American Homeland we can’t seem to get it together to provide basic Healthcare for every child. America’s mothers are working two jobs (beyond the full time role of caregiver inside the home) just to make ends meet.

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John Sellers

06/13/07

“Grampsy, you know, you’re not like a normal grandfather,” seven year-old Jesse exclaimed during my most recent visit with her and her sister in a New York suburb. Although I’m now back at home in the greater DC area, I’m still smiling as I think about her comment, made while we were jumping together on the backyard trampoline. As we bounced I asked her what she meant by “normal.” “Well, Grampsy,” she said, “Normal grandfathers don’t go on trampolines with their grandchildren.” I responded, “Maybe we need to rethink what being a ‘normal grandfather’ means.” This led to a brief and interesting discussion, intermittently punctuated by my inability to picture my own grandfather without a tie around his neck. He died in 1962, a time when the role of grandfather was a lot more formal.

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allan shedlin

06/12/07

Activist in the Making A couple of days ago, my daughter left for school, just an average, six-year-old first-grader. She came home a political activist. Nicole and several kids were playing on the jungle gym after school, when one child was approached by a yard monitor and questioned. It turned out the child did not attend the school, but was playing with his friend who did. The child was informed that it was against the rules for children from other schools to be on the play structure and he was asked to come down. In response to that, some of the children, led by a militant third-grader, created a petition. They went around the school yard gathering signatures to give to the principal, requesting “fair and equal access” to the play structure for all children. When Nicole came home from school, she was bubbling over with excitement about the petition. She wasn’t even quite sure what a petition was, but she was certain it would right what she personally considered an egregious wrong.

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Dawn Comer Jefferson

05/31/07

The Supreme Court just delivered a huge blow to the fight for equal pay for equal work. It told Lilly Ledbetter, a 60-year old "fiery mother of two," that even though, for years, she was paid between 15% and 40% less than her male counterparts on the management team (a fact she learned late in her 19 year career), she could not make a claim of workplace discrimination. Why couldn't she make a claim? Lily Ledbetter learned about the pay discrepancies too late. The court ruled that claims must be made within 180 days after the pay is set. But how many of us know what our co-workers make? In fact, it's illegal to ask in many states.

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Joan Blades

05/31/07

The Supreme Court just delivered a huge blow to the fight for equal pay for equal work. Have you experienced workplace discrimination? What happened? *Share your experiences here. (If you're on the homepage, then just click the blog title above, or click on the "Read full post" link below to get to the blog page for sharing.) To share your story, scroll down to the end of this blog--through all of the comments/blog text--to the "Post a Comment" section.

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Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Family Economic Security

05/31/07

Would you like to return to the paid labor force but are concerned about how to find an opportunity that will allow you to fulfill your family or other non-work obligations, nervous about how to “market yourself” to potential employers, or unsure about what type of work you want to do? We know how...

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