All Blog Posts

12/22/06

If you want to be convinced that MomsRising is needed, check out the the responses to my piece on the Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-blades/indiscriminate-breeders_b_36682.html and to my previous article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joan-blades/should-society-support-mo_b_36382.html . Even though it's one of the most heavily commented on articles of the day, it's disturbing how many people are against building a family-friendly America. This online dialog reveals just how important our work is! Frankly, it's time to expose the strong resistance to supporting families in our country. Let's educate people about current realities!

MomsRising Together

Joan Blades

12/10/06

If we want to understand the wage gap between mothers and others, we might need to start by looking at the way we treat our kids. A new University of Michigan study, as reported in the Wall Street Journal, reports that boys ages 10 to 18 are more likely than girls to be paid for doing housework, even though boys spend an average of 30% less time doing chores. According to the WSJ, Professor Frank Stafford, who headed the resrarch, speculates that "Boys may be handling more of the kinds of chores that are regarded as a job that should be paid, such as lawnmowing. Chores such as dishwashing or cooking, often regarded as routine and done free, may fall more often to girls."

MomsRising Together

Mojo Mom -- Amy Tiemann

Paid Family Leave

12/07/06

Do tell! Please share your ideas for what MomsRising should e-mail out to members as a holiday greeting here! *To share your ideas, click the blog title above or "Read full post" link below, then scroll down to the end of the blog text and Post a Comment. The holiday season is a great time for making people smile, and also for helping grow the size of our movement. You, our members, are the key source of great ideas and power behind the dynamism of MomsRising.

MomsRising Together

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

12/01/06

Buried on page 10 of my morning newspaper was a brief article stating that the Labor Department is seeking public comment about the Family and Medical Leave Act, the federal law that grants eligible workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year to care for a newborn or sick family member, or because the worker herself has a serious health condition. My MomsRising radar was immediately activated! It is not immediately clear what the Bush administration has planned, but we should create an action to support the FMLA. As one of two main federal laws that grants any kind of family and medical leave, we need to speak up to support not only the FMLA but to insist on even stronger family leave laws.

MomsRising Together

Mojo Mom -- Amy Tiemann

11/29/06

At the end of November 2006, the hopes and dreams of women, especially mothers, to obtain a job with dignity and respect in Pennsylvania, died on the steps of the state capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a result of complete, deliberate and intentional neglect by the committee chairmen of the Senate Labor and Industry Committee and the House Judiciary Committee who held the fate of SB440 and HB352 in their hands.

MomsRising Together

Kiki

Paid Family Leave

11/22/06

We have exciting news on this front: You all are amazing! Last week in response to news that a ticket agent forced a mother off a Freedom Air flight run by Delta Air Lines for breastfeeding on-board, MomsRising put up a petition and you responded (and can still respond!). In less than a week the petition gathered over 20,000 signatures telling Delta Air Lines that breastfeeding mothers should be supported, as well as supporting the Breastfeeding Promotion Act before Congress. Over 20,000 signatures! Emails and calls from MomsRising members, as well as regular updates about the high number of petition signatures, pushed both Delta and Freedom Airlines to issue statements underscoring their commitment to allowing women to breastfeed onboard planes. Freedom Air also noted that the incident would serve as a training opportunity for all employees.

MomsRising Together

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

11/22/06

I like to call the season from now until the end of the year, “The Months of Eating Dangerously.” In the next forty plus days, we will all be celebrating Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza and New Year’s. These are all wonderful holidays where we gather with friends and loved ones to rejoice in our family traditions and important religious observances. Each holiday is rich with meaning and also with rich food. We are faced with an onslaught of holiday eating. There are office parties, school parties, holiday open houses, snuggling up in front of the fireplace drinking the hot chocolate and eating the sugar cookies that were left for Santa. With all the hams, turkeys, latkes, egg nog and even the ubiquitous fruitcake, it’s no wonder the average person gains five to ten pounds over the holidays. This time of year is rough. My daughters have barely recovered from the Tootsie Pop and Hershey Kiss induced coma brought on by Halloween and we’re already making plans for the upcoming foodapolooza.

MomsRising Together

Dawn Comer Jefferson

11/20/06

In the wake of the Delta Airlines anti-nursing discrimination incident, I was very unhappy to learn today that we are about to lose one of our only public images of a nursing mother. The Sacagawea coin is going to be retired next year and replaced by conventional designs of U. S. Presidents. Does anyone else share my feeling that losing the Sacagawea dollar is a real shame--a cultural loss that we should raise a ruckus to defend?

MomsRising Together

Mojo Mom -- Amy Tiemann

11/17/06

While the MomsRising discussion boards are filling with comments about the recent assault on airplane breastfeeding. Amy at Mojo Mom has logged a must-read post about how truly radical an act breastfeeding is. This new event reminded me of something I'd written about in the past, the Starbucks nursing shame.

MomsRising Together

Miriam

Paid Family Leave

11/16/06

Can you believe a woman was recently kicked off a Delta airlines flight for discreetly breastfeeding her child!? Please share your own breastfeeding tales of triumph and embarrassment here (*Click the blog title above or "Read full post" link below, then scroll down to the end of the blog text and Post a Comment)! And don't forget to sign the petition to tell Delta Airlines to get a clue and be supportive of breastfeeding mothers, as well as tell Congress it’s time to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, which amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding mothers.

MomsRising Together

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner