Activist in the Making A couple of days ago, my daughter left for school, just an average, six-year-old first-grader. She came home a political activist. Nicole and several kids were playing on the jungle gym after school, when one child was approached by a yard monitor and questioned. It turned out the child did not attend the school, but was playing with his friend who did. The child was informed that it was against the rules for children from other schools to be on the play structure and he was asked to come down. In response to that, some of the children, led by a militant third-grader, created a petition. They went around the school yard gathering signatures to give to the principal, requesting “fair and equal access” to the play structure for all children. When Nicole came home from school, she was bubbling over with excitement about the petition. She wasn’t even quite sure what a petition was, but she was certain it would right what she personally considered an egregious wrong.

The Supreme Court just delivered a huge blow to the fight for equal pay for equal work. Have you experienced workplace discrimination? What happened? *Share your experiences here. (If you're on the homepage, then just click the blog title above, or click on the "Read full post" link below to get to the blog page for sharing.) To share your story, scroll down to the end of this blog--through all of the comments/blog text--to the "Post a Comment" section.

Yesterday, I stubbed my toe and found myself hopping on one foot, saying "Ouch, ouch, ouch!," while my children looked on with amused expressions. My daughter, age eight, blurted out, "Look it's 'Pain Family Leave!'" Of course, my toe immediately felt better and I had to giggle. But some corporate interests really do think paid family leave is a "pain"—and shame on them! *Sign our petition and also share your thoughts and experiences with businesses after reading this full post. To share your experiences, just click the blog title above, or click on the "Read full post" link below. Then scroll down to the end of web page--through all of the comments/blog text--to the "Post a Comment" section. Fill in the blanks with your text. Then when you are finished don't forget to click the "Post Comment" button at the very bottom of the page.

A number of new books have revived the conversation about the "opt-out" phenomenon of women leaving the workforce to focus on family caregiving, and their efforts to build "on-ramps" back to work. I appeared on The Today Show right before Mother's Day to discuss this issue, which has been relevant to my work as Mojo Mom. It was a challenge to get my message out on a large panel that included New York Times reporter Lisa Belkin, The Feminine Mistake author Leslie Bennetts, and psychologist Gail Saltz. I am proud to report that I accomplished my major goal of endorsing MomsRising.org on air. Watch the video I acknowledge that "Opting out" is a controversial topic, for good reason. Even among married mothers of preschoolers, the group we'd peg as prime "opt out" candidates, 70% are in the workforce. It has been argued that the minority of privileged women who take "off-ramps" receive a disproportionate share of the media spotlight. MomsRising is aware of this dynamic and is consciously striving to make our Open, Flexible Work platform widely applicable to all mothers. The quality of the opt-out discussion has been elevated by several recent books and articles that I'd like to recommend. [more]