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Paid Family Leave

Warning bells are ringing

September 28, 2010
I recently got an email from a blog reader who said she had been obsessively reading and re-reading my first post , and all the comments that followed it. After years of managing what sounds like a challenging career and raising young children, she said she feared she was on the verge of a nervous...
Katrina Alcorn's picture

Musings on the Pursuit of Happiness and Work-Life Balance

September 28, 2010
LOUISVILLE, KY -- As I mentioned on my blog MotherTalkers , I was a speaker at the Coffee Party Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. Before I delve into day two of the conference, I have some leftover pics and stories from the previous night . There was a bipartisan panel in support of the Fair...
Elisa Batista's picture

Work-Family Policies Must Include Grandparents

September 12, 2010
Grandparents are the glue that holds many families together—yet our workplace laws don’t honor their critical role. Grandparents play a more vital role than ever in building strong families and caring for our nation’s children. In addition to providing emotional and financial support, millions of...

Straight Talk about Motherhood and Work

August 23, 2010
Recently I was asked a terrific question by an Australian (and soon to be an American) woman at a training for women bloggers thinking about running for office. BlogHer and the White House Project had put together a great program. I talked about my experience in international work as an Ambassador...
Linda Tarr-Whelan's picture

Massachusetts Maternity Leave Ruling Leaves Moms Cold

August 19, 2010
According to Salon's Broadsheet , the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled last week that the state's maternity leave act (MMLA) should stand, leaving mothers who work for a company with less than fifty employees with only two months of unpaid leave after the birth of a baby. The other moms? They're...

Nap-Time Cooking

August 12, 2010
Once you see this, hit the kitchen. When my son was a newborn, I struggled to figure out how to feed myself and my husband—breastmilk and formula took care of our boy. Stephen and I ate far too many meals of takeout or fried egg sandwiches, while junior guzzled eight meals a day. Finally, once he...
Debbie Koenig's picture

What Should Society Do For Parents?

August 10, 2010
From Your (Wo)manInWashington blog MOTHERS changing the conversation @ www.MothersOughtToHaveEqualRights.org Let's face facts: raising children costs money, and lots of it. Parenthood has economic consequences, and they extend far beyond the family home. If women decide having children is too...
Valerie Young's picture

Sorry I Missed Your Anniversary! Thanks for Keeping Families Afloat.

August 4, 2010
This July marked the sixth anniversary of the nation's first state law that provides comprehensive paid family leave. Passed in 2002 and in effect since July 2004, California's paid family leave insurance program provides most workers with six weeks a year of partial pay (55% of wages up to a...
Joan C. Williams's picture

Screw Work Life Balance: We Need Work Life Policy! Join the Movement at BlogHer

August 2, 2010
For over two years, The Four Hour Work Week has been a national bestseller. Why? Because most of us resent feeling tethered to our jobs, and we know we could still do great work even if we had the ability to control our schedules and factor family needs into our day. But workers are completely on...
Morra Aarons-Mele's picture

The White House Talks, Is Congress Listening?

July 28, 2010
This year the White House, in cooperation with the Council on Women and Girls, hosted a conference on Workplace Flexibility. The conference came on the heels of a report by the Council of Economic Advisors on the benefits to employers of offering paid leave and flextime, official guidance on...

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