paid family leave

March 1, 2012

co-written with Rachel Dempsey In the last post, we talked about the problem of pregnancy discrimination against women in hourly jobs - cases where mothers were refused simple accommodations that would help them have healthy pregnancies. Discrimination against pregnant women and mothers is a huge problem for working-class women, for whom a single missed day at work could mean that they lose both their jobs and the ability to support their families. Professional women, by and large, are more likely to have flexible schedules and are more likely to be given paid maternity leave than working-...

Joan C. Williams

paid family leave healthcare

February 23, 2012

A few weeks ago, we asked MomsRising members to sign our petition urging Congress to support paid family leave, and the response was huge. Nearly 10,000 people signed the petition so far. We want to keep up the MOMentum and get to 15,000! Click here to sign the petition (And if you’ve already signed, thank you! Feel free to send the link to friends and family so they can sign too!) http://action.momsrising.org/sign/pfl_petition/ MOMentum for paid leave is growing at the grassroots level. We frequently hear from our members about how important paid leave policies are for their families’ health...

Ruth Martin

open flexible work healthcare paid family leave

February 21, 2012

In the 1970s, after it became illegal to discriminate based on race, some employers responded by imposing high school education requirements for blue-collar jobs. Today, employers who want to keep women out of “men’s jobs” do something similar: they wait until workers get pregnant, and then deny them “light duty,” like desk work for a police officer, for example, or a transfer from the warehouse to the phone bank, making them unable to perform their jobs. Discrimination against pregnant women is finally beginning to get the national attention it deserves. Last week, I and others urged the...

Joan C. Williams

paid family leave

February 14, 2012

Breast pumps are tax deductible but what about storage bags? The bottles? That nursing pillow? With just two months left before April 15th, millions of Americans like me are waking up to the reality that we've got to gather those piles of receipts and hunker down with that dreaded tax return. Last year at about this time, breastfeeding mothers like me rejoiced when the IRS reversed a previous decision and declared that breastfeeding supplies would be tax deductible. The decision came after 25,000 people signed MomsRising's petition to the IRS and 43 members of Congress appealed to the IRS to...

Ashley Boyd

paid family leave childcare & early education environmental health paid sick days healthcare

February 8, 2012

With presidential primaries in full swing, each state stands to enjoy a moment in the spotlight. As riveting as the recent political theatrics have been, the campaign season also underscores just how many important decisions are made at the state level. From education to health care to workplace policy to environmental protection (our main focus at Rachel's Network ), issues affecting women like us are determined within state lines. With all that's at stake in each state, you may be startled to learn that most legislatures remain boys' clubs, with women so severely underrepresented that the...

Miriam Feffer

healthcare paid family leave

February 8, 2012

From Your (Wo)manInWashington blog MOTHERS changing the conversation @ www.MothersOughtToHaveEqualRights.org Almost a year ago, The New York Times published an editorial entitled "The War on Women" which began: Republicans in the House of Representatives are mounting an assault on women’s health and freedom that would deny millions of women access to affordable contraception and life-saving cancer screenings and cut nutritional support for millions of newborn babies in struggling families. And this is just the beginning. That issue rose to the top in budget negotiations and nearly caused a...

Valerie Young

paid family leave healthcare

February 6, 2012

While I’m at work writing to you, my husband is home taking care of our four-month-old daughter. After my three months of paid leave were up, he started his three months of paid family leave to stay home and care for our second baby like he did with our first. I know, right? We’re both lucky to work for employers that provide paid family leave. So lucky that I feel torn between shouting from the rooftops my personal ode to paid leave and how it has benefited our family, and keeping it to myself because so few families receive this vital support that it feels like I'm bragging. At MomsRising...

Ruth Martin

paid family leave

January 26, 2012

From Your (Wo)manInWashington blog MOTHERS changing the conversation @ www.MothersOughtToHaveEqualRights.org My sister Americans: The state of our union is strong. Electing women to fully 51% of public offices has ushered in a new era in our great experiment in democracy. Legislators now put the common good ahead of their personal power and individual gain. We, men and women together, make better policy decisions and make them faster than in any prior administration. As a result, the cost of government has decreased dramatically and we have more funds available to put to good use in making...

Valerie Young

paid family leave childcare & early education environmental health paid sick days

January 25, 2012

Great news! MomsRising got invited to tweet at the White House during tonight's State of the Union speech by the President! And I'll be there representing us. We'll be keeping our ears open for the issues that matter every day to families, like health care coverage, unemployment insurance, fair pay, paid sick days and paid family leave, child care, the environment and more. And we need your ears too! Tweet with us @MomsRising in conversation on Twitter starting at 9:00 PM EST tonight. Photo by Flickr user If you don't tweet, please join the conversation right here on the blog! Leave your...

Monifa Bandele

paid family leave open flexible work

December 20, 2011

Another smart post from our friends at Role/Reboot . -Eds. I’m on the board of a small, parenting-related nonprofit organization, a board comprised of smart, thoughtful women who are mostly mothers of small children (and one dad, though our father pool is growing). In addition to our full-time parenting jobs, pretty much all of us have professional jobs, or are students. We’re all juggling a lot of balls, and we all take on this additional volunteer job as board members because we believe that the work of this organization is world-changing. Photo credit garryknight/Flickr Recently, we’ve...