kiki peppard

On Monday, Kiki delivered your 6,100-name petition all over Harrisburg; visited dozens of legislative offices; spread the word to anyone who would listen about SB 440 and HB 352; AND spoke at a conference of the Pennsylvania Women's Commission! Whew. Her report is so amazing, and awesome, I am sharing with you the whole, wonderful thing...

Good Morning,
I am still recovering from my trip to Harrisburg on Monday, October 23rd. Thus my delay in getting my report out to you. My dear friend and colleague Debbi accompanied me on this trip. She had never been involved in any political activity so this was quite an eye opening experience for her.

If your ears are buzzing, it is because Joan Blades just wrapped up a presentation in New York, at theWomen’s Media Center and she was talking about how wonderful all of you engaged mothers are.

Emily McKhann, my business partner, and the ad hoc MomsRising on-the-ground reporter, was also there. Part of the discussion included Emily and Joan sharing with the group the Pennsylvania story and the progress that is being made there. Here are some of Emily’s “Treo” dispatches from the event:

This morning Joan and Kiki were on the Lisa Birnbach radio program on Greenstone Media.

A great description from Kiki:

Lisa, the host of the show, was great, supportive and a single mom with three children. She spoke of her own experiences in the past being asked, during a job interview, if she planned to have more children.

She asked me great questions, such as did I have high expectations about the outcome of the legislation and I told her I always did. Except for those times in the past that I put on my black mourning dress in November at

The Huffington Post has a wonderful feature called "Becoming Fearless," edited by a very talented woman named Romi Lassally.

To me, Kiki is the ideal representation of fearlesness, and right now, HuffPo is running a post that I wrote about Kiki and the remarkable campaign she has initiated in Pennsylvania, called, Fearless Kiki, so stop by!

Well, the blogs are keeping it going and it is awe inspiring.

Over at MotherTalkers.com, Elisa has a fantastic conversation going on about single moms in the workplace. I really like this comment from "Shenanigans":

If you've got someone in your office who has to leave early to pick up the kids regularly, figure out a solution. If they're worth keeping, put them on part time or figure out how they can do some work from home or have them put in time in some other way.

Politics TV is running video of the remarks made by Senator Hilary Clinton, Senator Barak Obama, Senator Chris Dodd, and Senator Ted Kennedy at last week's Capitol Hill screening of The Motherhood Manifesto documentary. It is amazing to watch these clips and to hear how personally the Senators talk about the importance of MomsRising.org, the MotherHood Manifesto, and the issues surrounding motherhood and family life that we all care so deeply about. (Senator Obama is especially moving.) Plus, you get to see our lovely Joan and Kristin too!

Across Pennsylvania, in Harrisburg, in Washington, DC, in the blogs and over the airwaves, our campaign for the mothers of Pennsylvania, and everywhere, reached new, exciting, and interesting heights this week.

Let's start with Kiki in Harrisburg:

Kiki delivered a 123 page, 5,200 name petition to key lawmakers in Harrisburg, much to the amazement, and befuddlement, of some legislative staffers. “That is not true!” exclaimed one staffer when Kiki told her that in Pennsylvania it was legal to ask about marriage and family in a job interview. The especially disturbing part about that exchange is the staffer works for Sen. John Gordner - who appears hell-bent to stall the legislation in his committee until it dies - as Mr. Gordner obviously isn’t sharing the legislation with people in his office. Kiki did learn from members of Gordner’s staff that within the past week or two, calls and emails have flooded their office from all over the country regarding that “mysterious” SB 440. (You guys ROCK!)

Kiki went to Harrisburg today with what she called her “army,” the 123 pages of signatures and good wishes from 5,243 members of MomsRising that she held in her hands.

Starting with the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, Kiki visited Rep. O’Brien’s office, the chair of the House Judiciary committee, which is holding up HB 352.

From Kiki:

My first stop was to Rep. O’Brien’s office where I met with his secretary Christine Crone. I introduced myself and gave her the “packet” and asked that Rep. O’Brien PLEASE take action and bring HB 352 to committee now. While I was talking to her, Michael Piecuch, Esq. who is chief counsel to the Judiciary Committee walked over. I repeated my speech to him as well. He said he has been asked if there is federal protection against marital/familial status discrimination. I told him if there were, I wouldn’t have to be fighting for the last 12 years to amend the PA Human Relations Act.

WTAE-TV News Pittsburgh aired an editorial recently calling for Pennsylvania lawmakers to stop discriminating against mothers and to pass legislation now that would end these horrible discriminatory practices in job interviews.

How cool is it that! Do you hear us, PA legislators? We are getting louder!

Watch it here.

Last week we put the word out to the blogs that help was needed in Pennsylvania. Immediately, without pause, blog after blog picked up our story, and the need for change here, and in 27 other states, and RAN.

Because of you bloggers, conversations, and action, are buzzing through the internet. The one common refrain, other than being completely ticked off by the whole concept of maternal profiling, is that people had absolutely NO IDEA, like me (and most of the people I talk to) that it is perfectly legal to discriminate against mothers in job interviews.