This week’s observance of National Women’s Health Week, with its theme of “This Is Your Time,” underscores the need for every woman to stay vigilant, through regular health screenings, good nutrition and exercise, about maintaining her own health. I applaud the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for raising awareness this week that individual women need to make their own health a priority.

But I would like to broaden the conversation. So many of the threats to women’s health stem not just from their own choices but the environment they live in, the public policies that affect them and their access to health care – all factors beyond their control. I’m referring to things like whether a woman has health insurance to pay for health screenings, breathes air that is polluted or lives in a low-income community, or even whether medications are available to meet her distinct needs.

Guiding all of the work we do at the Public Health Institute (PHI) is the awareness of the social and economic factors that contribute to everyone’s health. Many of our cutting-edge programs focus on ways to change the conditions that shape a woman’s health and better understand her health needs:

• The Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) at PHI is a landmark longitudinal study that tracks the health of 15,000 women pregnant from the SF Bay Area between the years 1959 and 1967 – such as Sue above — as well as their children. Their work includes the Three Generations Breast Cancer Study, the first womb-to-breast cancer study in the world, which also examines disparities in environmental exposures and breast cancer. CHDS is uniquely able to trace the long-term effects of environmental exposures in women and girls, examining the effects of chemicals including DDT and PCBs on fertility, pregnancy and the health of the mothers who were exposed and their children and grandchildren.
• In Kenya and Tanzania, PHI supports local organizations to increase women’s access to Misoprostol. An inexpensive and widely available drug, Misoprostol can prevent post-partum hemorrhage and unsafe abortion, the two leading causes of maternal mortality in many countries. Most important, evidence now shows that women can use this drug safely, in their communities, without going to a facility or seeing a provider.
• PHI’s Global Clean Cookstoves Project is at the forefront of developing clean energy technologies to make cooking safe, environmentally sound, and healthy for women and families. Together with scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, PHI is field-testing state-of-the-art stoves with village women in Western Kenya to replace open-fire cookstoves used by 3 billion people worldwide. By identifying stoves that reduce killer levels of exposure, PHI hopes to reduce the impact of cookstove smoke, the fifth leading cause of death in developing countries.
• The Coalition Advancing Multipurpose Innovations (CAMI) at PHI works with researchers, biotechnology developers, policymakers, advocates and providers to promote the development and distribution of prevention products with more than one purpose. The products would prevent unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and other illnesses. For example, testing of a microbicide gel supported by CAMI has been shown to protect against acquiring both the AIDS virus and the genital herpes virus.

These programs don’t just better the conditions, health and lives of millions of women. Together, they are building stronger families and communities. Investing in women and mothers has a huge multiplier effect on the well-being and productivity of the family, the community, the nation and the world.

PHI will be hosting a Facebook chat Wednesday, May 16th at 3pm ET, noon PT, to talk about domestic and global women’s health. ‘Like’ Dialogues to Health to join the conversation.

TIME raised a ruckus recently with a profile of “attachment parenting” guru Dr. Bill Sears, highlighted by a cover photo of a mother breastfeeding her three-year-old son, according to the Huffington Post. Healthy Child believes breast is best—especially for the first year, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics—and welcomes the discussion these photographs have incited (although not the flaming, that’s just plain mean). Some additional information to add to the chatter: African Americans have the lowest breastfeeding rates, yet the community is hit hardest by health problems that breastfeeding protects against.

Our newest Mom on a Mission has set out to change these statistics.

Victory for Safer Cosmetics

Thanks to an amazingly vocal community, which sent thousands of letters, petitions, tweets and Facebook posts on the subject, the Safe Cosmetics Bill achieved a major victory last week, as Congress held the first hearing on cosmetics safety in 30 years and decided not to short-circuit it by adding it to a FDA-related bill, according to ABC News.  However, the innocently-named “Cosmetic Safety Amendment Act of 2012,” written by the Personal Care Products Council, was recently introduced and would allow decisions about ingredient safety made by the industry-funded Cosmetic Ingredient Review panel binding to the FDA, according to the Breast Cancer Fund’s Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

If you need a reminder of what’s at stake, read this beautiful Mother’s Day blogpost by Lisa Archer, with the Safe Cosmetics Campaign and be sure to sign the action alert supporting meaningful reform of the cosmetics industry.

March for Safer Chemicals

If we can do it for cosmetics, why not for chemicals in general? There are 80,000 chemicals registered for use in commerce—not one of them has been tested for children’s safety. That’s why motivated moms—including Healthy Child’s representative, mom blogger Christy Funk—are heading to Washington, D.C. on May 22nd to march with Safer Chemicals Healthy Families in support of a long-awaited overhaul of the woefully outdated federal law, the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Join us!

Flame Retardants’ Smokey History

The Chicago Tribune wrapped up its four-part series on flame retardants with a must-see video that it teased with the following statement, “The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world. The toxic chemicals are present in nearly every home, packed into couches, chairs and many other products. Two powerful industries — Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers — waged deceptive campaigns that led to the proliferation of these chemicals, which don’t even work as promised.” Our feelings exactly. Join Healthy Child in our support of a petition by our Parent Ambassador Sara Snow to Graco to phase out these toxic chemicals from baby products!

BPA Linked to Breast Cancer

For years advocates have warned about studies of mice that found links between BPA and breast cancer. A new study of monkeys published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and reported by the Wichita Eagle found similar results—leading researchers to conclude that the chemical is a risk factor for breast cancer in humans.

Healthy Child Makes Celeb News

Yes, Us Weekly is a guilty pleasure—and not exactly news—but we can’t resist the opportunity to toot our own horn when we recently found a tweet from Vanessa Lachey quoted in its pages: “’This past weekend I discovered these two AMAZING books! Let’s learn together!’ she tweeted April 17 with a pic of Breastfeeding Made Simple and Healthy Child, Healthy World.” Thanks @VanessaLachey!

You see, my own daughter survived the Massacre at Va Tech just over five years ago after being shot twice in the back of her head. A miracle, really, when eleven of her classmates were killed along with so many innocent lives that day – a total of 33 counting the gunman. Because the shooter’s mental health records were not in the system to disqualify him from purchasing the lethal firearms and high capacity magazines he used in the massacre, he was able to wreak devastation on so many families.

It’s hard to even imagine the pain of losing a child. It’s possibly even harder to wrap your brain around the fact that if our background check system worked properly, the mothers of those 33 victims would have been celebrating this recent Mother’s Day and many more to come. Instead, these mothers will suffer agonizing emotions for the rest of their lives because a dangerously mentally ill person was able to get his hands on a gun.

Can you even comprehend what it’s like to know that your child died needlessly because as a society we allow our elected officials to place more value on pandering to the gun lobby (which opposes any and all attempts to improve background checks) than on our children’s lives? We have the means to do better, but we are silent, giving the impression that we condone the gun lobby’s violent vision for America. We should be mortified and ashamed that we, many of us mothers, allow this to happen.

Incredibly, 5,740 children and teens were killed by guns in the two years following the Va Tech tragedy according to the Children’s Defense Fund report “Protect Children Not Guns 2012.” As a mother who almost lost my own daughter to gun violence, I plead with mothers across America – stand up for the mothers whose lives are irrevocably altered because their son or daughter has been killed by a dangerous person with easy access to firearms. We can and we must do better in this country to protect the lives of our children.

Convenience is not always so convenient: Spray bottles of misting sunscreen may feel heaven sent on hectic summer days. Unfortunately, this convenience comes at a cost: Spray sunscreens put you at risk for inhaling sunscreen particles. To avoid inhalation, don’t apply spray sunscreen directly on your skin. Instead, spray your hands with the sunscreen and apply it as you would a traditional sunscreen lotion.

Popular powdered mineral sunscreens can also put you at risk of inhaling nano- or micro-sized zinc titanium. Luckily, if you’re a fan of mineral based sunscreen, there are more and more mineral based lotions on the market. For recommendations, or to check out your current sunscreen, visit the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Sunscreen database or the Skin Deep database.

Baby is not always best: It’s common sense that products specifically formulated for babies would be the safest options for sensitive skin. Which shows just how nonsensical, and dangerous, the cosmetics industry can be: Baby sunscreen options from many of the leading sunscreen companies appeared on EWG’s sunscreen hall of shame. Babies (and parents!) need UVB and UVA protection to adequately shelter their skin from damage and the possibility of skin cancer later in life. One of the sunscreens even contained oxybenzone, a potential hormone disruptor which is not recommended for “large surface areas of skin for extended and repeated periods of time.”

It’s a numbers game: Bigger isn’t better when it comes to SPF numbers. Though many sunscreens now boast SPF numbers in the 50s and higher, those high numbers are not guaranteed to be more effective. In fact, the FDA has said that these numbers are misleading. Stick with a UVA and UVB protecting, 30+ SPF, and make sure to reapply regularly throughout the day.

As we approached the visually painful 18-foot steel fence in the Sabal Palm Sanctuary section of the border, I pulled up a jacket over my chest as the border patrol agent was peeking into our vehicle. I was pumping in the backseat, with my battery-powered Medela pump making that familiar ‘whish-whish’ sound. My nerves calmed once the border patrol agent let us pass without questioning what the heck I was doing attached to that machine.

As a new mom to a 9-month-old and a new Executive Director for a national reproductive justice organization, I find myself in precarious situations when on work travel. Do I bring my son? Can I find childcare? If not, who will care for my child while I am away? Where will I pump? Where do I store the milk? The quandary leaves me scrambling for resources that range from the kindness of friends, strangers and colleagues, to extra cash to cover overtime childcare costs.

Both my partner and I have careers that require a high percentage of travel, leading to a decision to either pump or breastfeed on the road. Since I started my new role in mid-October, fresh off the return from parental leave, I have traveled 21 times to seven cities ranging from Washington, DC to Oakland, California. My son has joined me on a dozen of those trips; some have been quite exciting (White House Holiday Party where, at 4 months old, he was held by the President and First Lady) and others a unique experience (staying at a Chinese-only speaking day care in the Bay Area with a friend’s son for two days).

At one meeting that provided on-site childcare, my child rotated to almost every lap of each of my colleagues, often chiming in the dialogue with a gurgle or a defiant ‘bah bah bah’. I’ve nursed on trains, planes and automobiles….one time, performing acrobatic-like maneuvers to wiggle out of a back zippered dress on a shuttle flight in order to position my son to my breast, all while attempting to be “discrete”. I felt the stares of men in suits on that typically infant-free business flight from New York to Washington, DC. Despite the endless stories and struggles of traveling with my infant, I have felt very empowered that, as a new mom, I could ‘juggle it all’–a career I love and am passionate about, a positive and fulfilling personal life, and attempt at being the best parent I could to my precious little baby. But this is not without the anxiety and difficult decision-making that put me at odds with my independent style; I’ve had to plead for help and support in ways I have never done before.

In all the recent debate about attachment parenting, feminism and ‘extended’ nursing, including a New York Times ‘Room for Debate’ feature and a provocative Time magazine cover article, no one talks about the flip side of being a nursing working mama….pumping. During the daily grind, I have to figure out ways to squeeze in three pump sessions a day (or more if traveling without my son), often excusing myself from meetings to seek a private refuge and attach myself to that darn pump. In addition to pumping in the back seat of a car at the Texas-Mexico border, I’ve pumped at countless random locations, including the U.S. Capitol, bathrooms at bars, funder’s offices, empty conference rooms, cramped Amtrak and airplane restrooms, closets, hotel rooms, and the ladies room at a sports arena during a Miami Heat basketball game.

With a horrific gasp, I’ve spilled milk on my office carpet, a hotel bed and a conference room table. While on the pump, I’ve practiced speeches, joined conference calls, responded to emails or looked at photos of my baby (I am told it is supposed to help the ‘let down’….it doesn’t for me). And speaking of ‘let down’, how about the race to work with your heavy breastpump bag in tow (and its serpent-like tubing parts), getting the pumps in throughout the day, and the rush home to see your baby and find out what you pumped is just not enough for the next day. My partner would be the bearer of good or bad news, as he applied his biomedical engineering degree to measure the liquid gold to the milligram. Yes, pumping is the very un-glamorous side of the decision to breastfeed.

But it comes with the territory and along with the decision to breastfeed (or not), it should be supported. In all the debate about breastfeeding, I feel that it is a personal choice that may or may not work for all mothers; however, it is critical that as a society, we have the policies and infrastructure in place to support those decisions. We should not be relegated to a bathroom or closet because society has not deemed it critical to create private nursing or pumping spaces in public locations. We should not have to feel the burning judgmental stares because we decide to breastfeed on a plane, or anywhere in public. We should not have to hear the banter of folks who are uncomfortable with the idea of mothers continuing to nurse when children are ‘too old’.

We should not have to hear the denigration of mothers who are unable or uninterested in nursing at all. On this mama’s day, we- as a society- need to respect and support the decisions that women and families make when raising their children. We also need to serve as advocates for change at the political and societal level so that the U.S. is no longer one of the lowest-scoring industrialized countries to be a mom, with a dismal breastfeeding policy score of ‘poor’ and the only developed country to not guarantee paid parental leave. Until then, I will continue to keep track of my random nursing and pumping adventures, hoping for one day to turn this randomness into acceptance.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women only make 77 cents on the dollar compared to what men make. For women who are mothers, that pay gap is compounded by what is commonly referred to as the “Motherhood Penalty,” which amounts to approximately 5% per child on average.

To illustrate how wide this gap is, Catalyst compared the median income of a working single mother ($24,487) with that of a working single father ($36,290) and found working single moms make just 67 cents on the dollar compared with their male equivalents.

This is a particular problem as more and more women with children are joining the workforce and are contributing significant portions of their household incomes. As Catalyst reports, as of 2010, 70.8% of women with children under the age of 18 worked outside of the home and 39% of working mothers are primary breadwinners. In New York alone, women head more than 1 million households (15 million nationally) and it’s estimated that because of the wage gap, New York families are deprived of $8,600 a year, or as much as $10,784 nationwide.The National Partnership For Women And Families estimates this could purchase 2,751 gallons of gas, 13 months of rent, or food for 1.8 years.

As I wrote on Equal Pay Day last month, the gender wage gap is not just about inequity, it’s about economic security, and not just for women, but for their families as well. So, for working mothers, the lack of economic security means putting less food on the table, it means feeding their children less healthy food, and it means having less access to quality health care for their children.

As a mother myself, I know that nothing means more to moms than the health and well-being of their children and I can’t think of a better Mother’s Day gift for American moms than the promise of economic security for their families. One important step we must take is to close the gender wage gap.

In 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for victims of wage discrimination to pursue compensatory damages. That was a good start, but now, I’m pleased that Senator Reid intends to bring The Paycheck Fairness Act up for another vote. This important piece of legislation would amend the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to provide more protections for women in the workplace and punish companies that discriminate against women. Republicans blocked this legislation before and appear poised to filibuster it again.

So, to all mothers this Mother’s Day, I urge you to make your voices heard. Talk about this issue with your friends. Call, write and tweet your senators to support The Paycheck Fairness Act. Post this blog post to Facebook, sign our petition, and share them with your friends. Also, make sure that you and all your friends are registered to vote in the November elections and make sure that you support candidates that have your best interests at heart. And when it comes time to vote, remember, it’s not just about the Presidential or Congressional elections. Use your voice on the local level where it has the potential to be more widely heard. And, of course, if you feel you can make a difference, run for office yourself.

We must overcome GOP opposition to closing the gender wage gap and together I know we can, not only for all working women, but on behalf of our children whose health and well-being depend on it.

Cross posted with author permission from The Huffington Post.

Should Mother’s Day just be about nice cards and pretty flowers? Or should it be about giving the people who care for us, and the essential work they do, real worth? How did we do this Mother’s Day?

Mother’s Day Tea in the East Room of the White House, May 10, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Sonya N. Hebert)

In our wealthy nation, millions of mothers – largely women who devoted all or part of their lives to taking care of others – face an old age of poverty. U.S. Census data show that they are twice as likely to be poor than older men. We would all agree that they deserve better, that mothers should be rewarded rather than punished for caring for others. Yet despite all the rhetoric about motherhood and apple pie, our present economic system does not reward this essential work in any way that helps us put food on the table or a roof over our heads. We need a more caring economy

The work of caregiving in families, whether it’s done by women or men, is not even included in measures of economic productivity such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – which instead count work that destroys rather than nurtures life such as making and selling cigarettes, the medical costs and the funeral costs as “productive.”

This makes no sense. We need new economic measurements that take into account that caregiving is essential for children’s welfare and development, that there would be no labor force without this work, and that both our short and long-term economic health depend on the work of care. We need Social Wealtheconomic indicators.

Women are still the main caregivers both at home and in the labor force. And why would men want to do this work when it is given so little value? Professions that entail caregiving such as child care and elementary school teaching, where women predominate, are lower paid than jobs that do not involve caregiving, such as construction work or plumbing, that are predominantly male.

Even though over half of mothers are now in the labor force, in the U.S. there is no government supported paid parental or sick leave and only a small number of businesses have policies that support caregiving. By contrast, in all other industrialized democracies, there is paid family leave. Not only that, there are also government subsidies for childcare and home elder care, not just tax credits. It is sometimes claimed that such policies will encourage people to stay home and not take outside jobs and will lead to a high birth rate. But nothing of the sort has happened in nations with such mothering-friendly policies. For example, Scandinavian nations have a low birthrate, a high rate of women in elected positions, no huge gaps between haves and have nots, and prosperous economies.

The lesson from this is that when caregiving is valued, everyone benefits. And only when caregiving is valued can we realistically expect more caring social policies.

That is why Congress recently introduced the WORK Act, for Women’s Option to Raise Kids, to allow low-income mothers on public assistance to provide the essential work of full-time caregiving for children during their first three years.

Investment in caregiving will pay for itself in less than a generation — and make a huge profit in the bargain. Consider the enormous community expense of not investing in good childcare — from crime, mental illness, drug abuse,and lost human potential to the economic consequences of lower quality “human capital.”

What is, or isn’t, economically valued and rewarded is a matter of values and policies, not of any fixed economic laws. Let’s take a good look at our values and policies this Mother’s Day, and see to it that our policy-makers do the same by valuing the work of caregiving and our true social wealth. We need to join together in a Caring Economy Campaign. This is the real gift we should give mothers – and fathers and children – this Mother’s Day.

Riane Eisler is president of the Center for Partnership Studies , and author of the international bestsellers The Chalice and the Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations. Shireen Mitchell is founder of Digital Sisters and Vice Chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations.

This doesn’t, however, make me a “soccer mom,” a term political commentators regularly use to define me–and tens of millions of other moms.

Why do I so dislike being labeled as a “soccer mom” ?

The very idea of soccer mom, when used in a political context, conjures up an image of a mom standing off on the sidelines of an important game. That’s misleading. Modern moms are most definitely in the game. With new technologies at our disposal, we are now powerfully networked and politically active.

We are “Networked Moms.”

Women are now networked together in ways unimaginable just a decade ago. By the end of this year, more than 90 percent of moms with kids under age eighteen in our nation are expected to be online. And, more than 36 million women are now active in the blogosphere, either publishing or reading blogs.

There’s a very different landscape now than 1996 when the “soccer mom” moniker was coined, but many politicians seem not to have noticed that times have changed and they treat women’s and mother’s issues like political footballs in a stadium that they assume is full of passive spectators.

They’re playing with that football at their own peril.

In order to win a national election, the mom vote (married and single moms) is most definitely needed. Eight in ten American women will become mothers by the time they’re 44 years old. Those moms are a powerful political force and a critical swing vote.

Here’s some advice to politicians: Don’t play games with – or worse, ignore – the issues that matter to women and mothers. Don’t try to ply us with meaningless platitudes.

Don’t talk at us. Listen to us.

Moms are struggling. With three-quarters of moms in a labor force–and nearly half serving as primary breadwinners, we have a modern workforce with family economic security policies from the Dark Ages.

Here’s what’s really going on with moms: Childcare now costs more than college in many states. Nearly a quarter of young children live in poverty. Nearly 80% of low-wage workers–and nearly 40% of private sector workers–don’t have access to a single paid sick day. More than 177 other countries have some form of paid leave for new moms but the U.S. still doesn’t. And not surprisingly, without such policies in place, having a baby is a leading cause of “poverty spells” in our nation. On top of this, women, particularly moms, still don’t get equal pay for equal work. Discrimination against moms is rampant.

In our nation, if you work hard and play by the rules–then you should be able to put food on the table and a roof over the head of your family.

Too often this isn’t the case anymore, particularly for moms. We can do better.

Moms want candidates who listen, who speak to the issues that we face each day, and who work toward real solutions for real people. And they’ll tell you so. A poll recently conducted by Anzalone Liszt Research found 57% of women voters (including 75% of Hispanic women and 80% of Black women, as well as 65% of women under 50) say they are more likely to support an elected official who supports paid sick days.

Yet moms rarely hear these issues brought up in Presidential campaigns. In fact, in the over a dozen debates for the Republican Presidential nomination, moms heard little, if anything, about access to sick days, affordable childcare, family leave, and other high priority topics that parents deal with every day on Main Streets across our nation. This is a huge mistake for any candidate seeking to win the support of moms.

Networked moms are powerful and we’re everywhere. My experience as the Co-Founder and Executive Director/CEO of MomsRising, a network of more than one million politically active moms, bears that out. Moms are blogging, they’re connecting on Facebook and Twitter and they’re taking online action to support issues they believe in every day. They’re sharing both messages of support for each other, like this 2012 Mother’s Day “mom fantasy” video, as well as ways to take action on priority issues. MomsRising has mobilized moms around paid sick days, environmental health issues, access to affordable childcare, fair pay and access to health care. We’ve done it successfully because moms pack a powerful political punch and our political power is growing. We are most certainly not on the sidelines, we are online and we are active.

Are these new networks changing our political landscape?

Definitely.

Take, for example, the Komen Foundation’s announcement that it would stop funding Planned Parenthood to conduct breast cancer screenings. There was such an Internet storm of protest from women and mothers that grew exponentially as friends told friends online, that the Komen Foundation was forced to reverse its decision. Women care about health care and they’re prepared to act to defend it.

The recent Internet furor over the absence of women’s voices at the Congressional hearing on contraceptive coverage is another good example of this power. The photo of an all male-panel on birth control spread like wildfire on Facebook, on Twitter, on blogs and through email, and ignited the outrage of women across our nation in an instant.

Women and mothers are networked and engaged like never before. Candidates who don’t listen to women run the risk of losing our votes–and thus their elections. Right now, because of his vocal support of women’s health and economic issues, President Obama’s support from women is increasing, especially among women under 50 (those most likely to have younger kids). In contrast, Governor Romney lost 15% of his support in that same age group.

It’s time to listen to moms. After all, we all lose out when candidates fail to address issues like sick days, affordable childcare, fair pay, and family leave which are important for moms, for businesses, and for our economy.

Modern moms aren’t Soccer Moms standing on the sidelines; we’re Networked Moms working on the front lines. This year we’re in the game and we’re playing to win!

The current presidential campaign has brought attention to the "war on women" and the "war on moms," with both Republicans and Democrats speaking out on the need to recognize and value the work mothers do in raising their children. Attention to this question is long overdue, and it is critical that we evaluate why our society has devalued the unpaid domestic labor women perform. However, what is missing from this political debate is the fact that the work of many mothers and pregnant women is undervalued in all the work they do, and often have to do, in addition to raising their children. Discrimination against mothers, pregnant women and girls in employment and education is rampant, and it has especially adverse effects on lower-income and minority women and girls.

Pregnant women in the United States are frequently forced out of their jobs, and, appallingly, some courts have been letting employers get away with this, ignoring federal law. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 guarantees that if an employer offers any other class of temporarily disabled workers a benefit or accommodation, such as light duty assignments, pregnant workers must be given the same treatment. And yet Peggy Young, a driver for UPS, was put on unpaid leave with no medical coverage when she asked her employer for a light duty assignment after her doctor recommended that she not lift more than 20 pounds. The trial court ruled for UPS, even though UPS provided light duty assignments to many nonpregnant workers who were temporarily unable to perform their regular duties. In March, the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and the ACLU of Maryland, along with numerous other civil rights organizations, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Peggy Young’s case, urging the court to rule in line with federal law. It is essential that pregnant workers do not get forced out of the workplace just at the time when they most need economic security and health benefits.

It’s not just in the area of employment that mothers face discrimination; pregnant and parenting teens also face many obstacles in completing their education. Pregnancy is the No.1 reason girls drop out of school. Schools contribute to these statistics by illegally pressuring, coercing and sometimes forcing pregnant and parenting students to drop out. This violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the landmark civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities. Under Title IX, a school may not pressure or force a pregnant student to leave her current school, transfer to an alternative school, a special school for pregnant students or a GED program. Furthermore, a pregnant student cannot be excluded from classes or extracurricular activities, including sports teams. However, schools continue to ignore the mandate of Title IX. In March, the ACLU and the ACLU of New Mexico filed a lawsuit against a New Mexico middle school that initially expelled a pregnant student, Shantelle Hicks, and then publicly humiliated her by announcing her pregnancy to the entire school at an assembly.

What’s more, almost entirely absent from the public debate is the critical need to improve pay and working conditions for domestic and childcare workers — predominantly low-wage, immigrant women — who make many other women’s workforce participation possible.

Moms deserve more. They need employers, schools and the courts to abide by and uphold the laws and policies that prohibit discrimination against mothers and pregnant women and girls trying to support their families. This Mother’s Day, we need to work towards a country where women’s work is truly respected and valued both inside and outside of the home.

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So for all those candidates and elected officials interested in the women’s vote and eager to prove their support for motherhood and families, here’s a sampling of what mothers want and need, not just one day a year but every day:

The right to care for a sick child or personal illness without losing our paychecks or our jobs. Moms need leaders to actively support the right for workers to earn paid sick days and champion local, state and federal policies that would guarantee this protection. Make sure no one has to choose between being a good parent and being a good employee — and that no one has to serve you flu with your soup.

The right to coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Half of private sector workforce employees aren’t covered by this law because they work for an employer with fewer than 50 workers, haven’t been on the job for at least 12 months or work less than 25 hours a week. Moms need Members of Congress to work to expand FMLA to cover all employees after 90 days of employment.

The ability to afford leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Many who are covered under FMLA can’t afford to take the time without pay. As a result, nearly three million eligible workers a year who need leave to care for their health or the health of a loved one don’t take it, according to a 2000 Labor Department survey. And nearly 9 percent of those who do (including 20 percent for low-income families) are forced to rely on public assistance to keep food on the table, according to a 1995 Department of Labor report. Moms need leaders to voice their support for policies to create family leave insurance funds like those that are working in California and New Jersey so that caring for a new or seriously ill child doesn’t trigger financial catastrophe.

The right to care for one’s partner regardless of their gender. Being able to marry who you love — and being able to care for one another in sickness as well as in health — shouldn’t be a gift, it should be a right. Moms are glad to see more of our leaders standing up for the rights of all families by supporting marriage equality legislation and bills to expand FMLA access to same-sex partners.

The right to attend children’s school activities. Far too many children in this country never see their mom at a school play or sporting event because employers won’t let them take off work or rearrange their schedules. Mothers need leaders to support the right to use family leave to do what’s best for raising our children.

A recognition that men are parents, have parents and also need time to care. All the policies listed above are gender-neutral. Moms — and dads — need leaders to end on-the-job punishment of men who want to be good fathers, sons and husbands. That will also boost women’s efforts to get men to share the work at home.

This list flows from deeply held American values: that no one should have to risk a job to be a good family member or put a loved one at risk in order to keep a job. Mothers want basic standards that guarantee these rights to everyone.

And candidates, if you don’t believe me, check the polls. More and more voters — from all political perspectives — say they’re more likely to support candidates who’ll make sure family values don’t end at the workplace door, and who understand that for the economy to recover, we need policies like these to help people stay employed and have money to spend at local businesses.

Doing the politically smart thing for moms is also doing the right thing for families and for our nation.

Cross posted with author permission. This post originally appeared at the Huffington Post.