I've
been trying to slow down this summer -- or perhaps summer
is trying to slow me down. This year I took a devil-may-care (read:
potentially disastrous) approach to the school break and refused
to sign my kids up for weeks on end of full-day activities. I decided
that, at ages 8 and 12, they are old enough to arrange their own
amusements for a change -- and so far, so good. I love the more
relaxed pace of our mornings, since it's no longer necessary to rush
everyone out of bed and out the door to school or camp by 8:30 sharp.
I love the freedom from niggling worries about the contents of backpacks
and forgotten water bottles or lunch money. Most of all, I love
not having to nag about homework every night. I love the variety
of ripe produce at the farmer's market and time it takes to prepare
wonderful meals with fresh ingredients, I love that people in our
little town are out and about with their dogs and children from
the early morning hours till late into the evening, I love not wearing
four layers of clothing. And as much as I love the MMO, I also love
being able to take time away from it.
I'll be heading to Seattle
early next month to attend and make a couple of presentations at
the Take
Back Your Time Conference (August 4 -7), so naturally I've been
thinking about time, work and caregiving. The question of how we
experience and interpret the inevitable conflicts of attachment
and separation -- to and from routines, jobs, children, lovers/spouses,
ideas -- has been knocking around gently in my head. Whether we
talk about work-life "balance" or work life-integration,
the disconnect is usually posed as a conflict between paid work
and caring work in a social system that's much more work-friendly
than family- or worker-friendly. But caregivers -- mothers, fathers,
friends and family members -- need more than just time to work and
time to care, plus a few hours on the side for sleep and self-improvement.
We need breathing room, time and psychic space set apart from
the carefully orchestrated schedules and master plans of our lives.
It seems to me that without that opportunity for release, we risk
becoming numb to the possibility of leading our lives in a different
and more satisfying way. We fall prey to the myth of the quick fix;
we lose our capacity to imagine a better world, and our patience
with the painful reality that meaningful change -- particularly
on a societal scale -- takes time, and lots of it. Perhaps I'll
remember this summer as my philosophical summer, or maybe I'll just
remember how much I enjoyed the laziness of it.
I suspect my present
preoccupation with the value of slowing down and paying attention
is closely related to my gut sense that things are going to heat
up for the mothers' movement in the very near future. Earlier this
month, the National Organization for Women
adopted its first comprehensive resolution on mothers'/caregivers'
economic rights since the organization passed a Homemakers' Bill
of Rights in 1978. The successful passage of the 2005 resolution
was the result of the dedication and hard work of NOW-New Jersey
activists with input and encouragement from leaders of Mothers &
More and the National Association of Mother's Centers. And, yeah,
I helped out a little bit, too. Needless to say, this is great news
for feminist mothers (and fathers) who think about social change.
A special
report on the history of the NOW Mothers'/Caregivers' Economic Rights
resolution and details about how to get involved in your state
appears in the feature section of this edition.
Jane
Lazarre, author
of the acclaimed motherhood memoir, The Mother Knot (1976),
has devoted much of her life's work to exploring -- often through
the lens of her own motherhood -- the personal and political, love
and work, finding a true voice, and the real and imposed boundaries
of race, gender and privilege that separate us. Lazarre was gracious
enough to agree to an interview with the MMO and responds eloquently
to questions about motherhood, creativity, social justice and the
past and future of the women's movement. As a mother of adult sons,
Lazarre's insights and body of work remind us that our motherhood
always matters -- our immediate obligations and perspectives may
change over time, but motherhood never stops informing who we are
and what we want from the world. Read
the interview, "A sort of perfection," in this month's
edition.
On a similar note, two
recent studies suggest that regardless of their political leanings,
the ethical outlooks of women voters and religious activists in
the U.S. are strongly influenced by their experience and self-identification
as caregivers. Even women voters without children were
likely to report that "caring for others" is their most
important role in life. MMO's summary of the findings with links
to the reports and a selection of related articles leads this month's
Noteworthy
section. Also in the current edition of Noteworthy: A new UK study finds that fathers' depression during a child's post-natal
period effects pre-schoolers' developmental outcomes, the U.S. government
continues to misinform the public about teen reproductive health
and sexuality, the usual assortment of links to relevant research,
news and commentary on work-life issues and reproductive rights,
and a short list of interesting essays and reader responses on what's
become of feminism from Salon.
In the Essays
section, you'll find a wonderful piece by first-time contributor
Nandini Pandya
on why we're asking the wrong questions about women and achievement.
And in Books this month, we have a
scathing
review of Mary Eberstadt's Home-Alone America by regular
contributor Shawna Goodrich, as well as a full review and excerpt
from The
Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream by sociologist
Phyllis Moen and psychologist Patricia Roehling. Moen and Roehling
examine the ties between the career mystique -- which they
describe as "the expectation that employees will invest all
their time, energy and commitment throughout their 'prime' adult
years in their jobs, with the promise of moving up in seniority
or ascending career ladders" -- and the feminine mystique,
and suggest that the solution to the nation's time/gender/income
inequality/caregiving crisis will require a direct challenge to
the legitimacy of the career mystique and the inflexible roles,
routines and regulations sustained by it.
Last but not least: The
MMO received an unprecedented number of reader comments on last
month's coverage of the fathers' rights movement, and I'm sorry
to say some of the mail was not very nice. I've since learned from
other writers and activists that this deluge of uncomplimentary
and occasionally threatening remarks is something of a right of
passage for anyone who dares to suggest the fathers' rights agenda
is not as harmless as its proponents make it out to be. But the
letters can speak for themselves; all
are published verbatim, with a short editorial introduction,
in this month's Letters.
As is the tradition,
the MMO is taking the month of August off. I'll be on the road with
my family and continuing my leisurely meditations on time to work/time
to care and the future of the mothers' movement. But September is
coming soon, and we'll be back to our mid-month publication schedule
with an issue on Motherhood and Identity. In the meantime, keep
an eye out for the launch of mamazine,
an exciting new web publication for politically-aware mothers that
aims to fill the niche between HipMama
and Brain,Child.
As always, the MMO welcomes
submissions of essays, commentaries, reviews, and articles from
new and seasoned readers. You can find more information about content
guidelines and download the editorial calendar from the submissions
page. The submission deadline for the September issue is August
25th, and submissions for our October issue on "Motherhood"
versus "Mothering" are due on September 25th.
Embarrassing
technical glitch du jour:
It was recently brought to my attention that the email link on the
MMO eList subscription page was not always working. The problem
has been resolved, so if you tried to sign up for free updates announcing
new content on the site before June 15 and have not received one
yet, please try again.
Thanks once again to
all our past and present contributors, and to the ever-growing web
of friends and supporters of the MMO who've been spreading the word
about the site. The road to social change may be long and rough,
but it's always good to know we're not going it alone.
In solidarity,
Judith
Stadtman Tucker
Editor, The Mothers Movement Online
editor@mothersmovement.org |