8.3 - Taking Action

After a very rough time landing her first job in Pennsylvania, Kiki—whose story was shared in Chapter One—has been fully employed for over a decade. Her children are now grown and she is terribly proud of them. As a single mother with a full-time job it would have been easy, and vastly more comfortable, for her to forget the humiliation of ending up on welfare, but she didn’t. She never wants her daughter to suffer the same discrimination that left her unemployed and dependent on government subsidies and food stamps.

So Kiki has been working with the nonprofit organization, 9 to 5 National Association of Working Women, for over a decade advocating that Pennsylvania pass a law to protect single mothers like her from bias in hiring. They haven’t succeeded yet—and neither have people in more than half of the states in our nation, which also leave mothers unprotected from discrimination based on their marital/familial status during job discussions.1 This problem is bigger than Pennsylvania.

Kiki hasn’t given up. October 2005 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act legislation that Kiki is working to amend so mothers can’t be asked questions about their marital and childbearing status in job interviews. This particular amendment has been stuck in a legislative committee for the past three legislative sessions. To commemorate the Golden Anniversary date, as well as to draw attention to the languishing amendment, Kiki went to a local party store after work one day and purchased stationary decorated with golden balloons and ribbons. She then brought her new purchase back to the home office she shares with her cat, Eddie, and went to work.

Kiki’s home office is sparsely decorated with oak furniture, a purple rug, and the electronic devices needed to for advocacy: computer, fax, scanner, and printer. Copies of the state house and senate amendments are carefully tacked on her bulletin board along with prized pictures of her daughter’s college graduation and her son’s wedding. And a special place is reserved for the card she got from her daughter with a picture of Rosie the Riveter that says, “We Can Do It.”

In this office, surrounded by oak bookcases filled with papers, letters, and over a decade of advocacy history on this legislation; and comfortably situated in her favorite yard sale find, a purple secretary’s chair, Kiki drafted the text for the golden stationary that she would mail to all the state legislators in Pennsylvania: “You are cordially invited to end discrimination against Pennsylvanians in the job hiring process. October 27, 2005, marks the 50th Anniversary of the enactment of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.” The letter goes on to describe history of the bill and the last line says, “On this Golden Anniversary of this Act, I cordially invite you to please vote YES to eliminate discrimination against the people of Pennsylvania based on their marital/familial status. Please vote YES when this bill comes before your committee for a vote and please vote YES when the bills are passed on to the floor for a vote.” Kiki recalls, “To make it look like a party invitation I put an RSVP with my phone number at the bottom. I received a total of six phone calls; one of which was an aide to say her boss could not attend. I said, ‘Well, if you read it carefully, then you would see that it’s not a party, it’s a request for help.” Kiki then asked the aide to please read it again and ask her boss for help. The other calls Kiki received from legislators were all favorable, but the amendment still didn’t move forward.

The Mothers' Movement

by Judith Stadtman Tucker, Editor, the Mothers Movement Online



Just as we now look back at events that set earlier waves of the women’s rights movement in motion, perhaps the first quarter of the twenty-first century will be remembered as a period of renewed outrage over the persistent relationship between motherhood and women’s inequality. Today, the nation’s mothers are calling for change—in popular books describing the nature and origins of the contemporary motherhood problem, through formal advocacy statements issued by mothers’ support groups, and in the emerging public forum of a progressive-alternative mothers’ media.

The new breed of outspoken mothers is perfectly clear about what they want. They want mothers and fathers to have more and better options for integrating work and family life. They want respect and recognition for the social and economic value of mothers’ work—both paid employment and the unpaid caring work mothers do at home. They want flexible workplaces, more control over working hours, and equal pay for equal work. They want to close the critical gaps in U.S. family policy, and they want reasonable protection from economic hardship they may incur due to their maternal status. Above all, mothers’ advocates view the need for these adjustments as a social justice issue, and are working to mobilize an organized social movement—a diverse grassroots uprising—to move their concerns to the forefront of the national agenda.

The mothers’ movement, while still in its infancy, is rapidly gaining momentum. Across America and around the world, mothers—and others—who think about social change are ready to act.

The fight continues, and while Kiki keeps advocating for the amendment to move out of committee with the help of organizations like 9to5 and the Pennsylvania Commission for Women (a state commission enacted by the governor), she’s been gathering together with friends to knit scarves for mothers who are visiting food pantries.

“We get hammered with ‘Toys for tots, toys for tots!’ but moms are left out,” comments Kiki. “These scarves are going to be infused with love for women we don’t know, but who are just like I was. I figure that if I can’t stop the job discrimination right now, then at least I’ll knit some scarves to keep them warm.” Kiki thinks for a moment and then says, “But why not give the gift that will last all year which is dignity, and do this by getting involved in politics and putting pressure on the legislators to make anti-descrimination bills a reality?”

Kiki’s encountered more than a few people who are astonished to hear her story, “Many people can’t even fathom that we live in a society that is so cold and callous against mothers that they are deterred from getting jobs simply because they have children. But just because it isn’t happening to you, doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. And that’s the truth of it. When people start talking about these issues and realizing how backwards we can be in terms of keeping up with the times, then changes will happen.”

There are women, men, and parents like Kiki working on important family issues across our nation. Just like Kiki, all need our help and support to move these issues forward. By coming together we can help make the changes necessary to level the playing field and support America families.

America can design work to be compatible with good parenting, and we can provide needed resources for working parents. Our country will be stronger as a consequence. Society needs kids—we all depend on a vibrant younger generation to take care of us. Many of the visibly explosive issues of the day—retirement security, Medicare, exploding health costs—are symptoms of a society that is aging. We can fuss over the numbers all day long, but in the end nothing works if we don’t raise children to take the world forward when we’re ready to retire. The economic strength of our country relies on healthy families.

In the last few years there has been a rapidly growing awareness of the need for meaningful support for parents and children. However there is a remarkable quiet in the halls of power on these issues. Legislation for paid family leave, paid sick leave, childcare, and benefits for part-time work has been introduced. But this legislation has remained stuck in committees and largely invisible to the average citizen. It is time for millions of citizens to work together and empower leaders with vision. Citizens can and must initiate change in their local and national communities.

Aided by emerging internet activism, political engagement has grown dramatically in the last decade. MoveOn.org, cofounded by one of this book’s authors, is an example of how citizens working together can make a difference. With MoveOn, friends tell friends about ways they can engage, and now MoveOn has well over three million members who amplify each other’s voices. These members have helped define the advocacy agenda for the organization, created amazing ads, hosted press events across the nation, delivered petitions to senators in every state, made millions of phone calls, provided political backing to good leaders, effectively opposed some very bad policies, and raised millions of dollars in small contributions for candidates who reflect their values. And after Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of MoveOn members opened their homes to hurricane victims. The hearts of Americans are big, and this is why a movement to ensure mothers and families are supported is ultimately going to be successful.

This type of organizing, and more, can be done to provide paid family leave, open flexible workplaces, after school programs, healthcare for all children, excellent childcare, as well as realistic and fair wages. The opportunities for constructive change are vast.

The time has come to begin a new discussion about motherhood in America, to join together to create a groundswell of support for change, to tell elected leaders our priorities, to make the issues facing mothers central to our policy discussions, to solve these problems—because nothing is more important to the continued success of our nation than guaranteeing the health and happiness of our greatest and most important investment, our children.

To make change, go to www.MotherhoodManifesto.com.