where i've been :

Report on the Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity
of Pregnant and Birthing Women

Mothers' movement leaders call for immediate ceasefire in
the "mommy wars"

Work-life:

More of same: New study finds U.S. lags behind other developed nations in ensuring decent working conditions for families

Report highlights characteristics of lower-wage workforce, need for flexibility in low-wage jobs

Survey suggests executive women are at leading edge of adopting successful career strategies

More notable news and commentary on work-life and working families

Public policy:

You are not on your own:
Economic Policy Institute's Agenda for Shared Prosperity Initiative calls for a new generation of social and economic reform in America.

New resource stresses link between social spending, children at risk

Selected news and commentary on public policy and the
progressive agenda

Mothers & mothering:

Mothers on top:
Selected commentary on women in leadership and the motherhood factor

Do parents spend enough time with their children? Plus more news and commentary on motherhood and mothering

Women & men:

Women and marriage; federal fatherhood initiative; more

Elsewhere on the web:

Other notable news and commentary

Report on the Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity
of Pregnant and Birthing Women
January 18-21, 2007, Atlanta, GA

Although I've been trying to rein in my conference-going habit, I packed my bags and flew off to the four-day Summit on the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women last month. I'm glad I made the trip. Organized by National Advocates for Pregnant Women, the summit was simply one of the best and most enlightening women's conferences I've ever attended. The quality and scope of discussion over the weekend -- and the remarkable diversity of activists and experts who participated -- should serve as a template for every event focused on women and social change from this point forward. (It was also the only women's/motherhood summit or symposium I've attended where numerous babies and young children were welcome and visible in conference sessions -- child care was also provided). While the inevitable tensions cropped up about the abortion debate -- although most of the speakers described their reproducitve politics as "pro-lives" -- the emotional tone of the summit was generally one of generosity of spirit and a willingness to work across difference. Yet the themes that dominated the weekend's presentations and discussions also raised critical questions about advocating for mothers' rights -- both for activists from the reproductive health and human rights end of the spectrum, and for new and established organizations pushing for mothers' and caregivers' workplace and economic rights.

The event opened with an all-day pre-summit coalition training facilitated by Be Present, Inc. Be Present has developed an innovative training model based on a commitment to diversity and "a process that builds community well-being on the strength of self-knowledge rather than the distress of oppression." The end product is pretty cool. Lillie P. Allen, executive director of Be Present and a founder of the Black Women's Health Project, explained that in order to build effective coalitions for change, every activist has to figure out how stand in the personal and political meaning of her own history, and learn how to move forward from there. To engage in this process with a few dozen dedicated social activists would be intense. To participate in a day-long workshop with over one hundred women with very different stories and concerns was mind-blowing. (Be Present offers trainings in around the U.S. -- visit their web site for more information.)

The days that followed included a full slate of plenaries and sessions on maternity and reproductive health care and pregnant and birthing women's civil and human rights (to find out more about the speakers and topics, check out the 2007 Summit program). In an inspired move, NAPW executive director Lynn Paltrow asked every presenter to share something about his or her or his own reproductive history. Each person who spoke had a range of experiences to share -- some joyful, some complicated, some heartbreaking -- bringing into sharp focus the reality that a woman's relationship to her reproductive potential cannot ever be reduced to the simplistic formula of sex-pregnancy-abortion or sex-pregnancy-baby.

While friends from the reproductive justice movement were among the speakers and conference-goers, many of those who attended and presented in the sessions were from the midwifery and safe-and-supported birth movements. (The actual terminology these advocates use is "normal" birth -- as a substitute for the discredited term "natural" birth -- but applying the language of normalcy to specific birthing practices and outcomes is equally problematic.) There was the occasional bit of weirdness -- such as folks waxing on about orgasm during childbirth and the sensuality of breastfeeding (sorry, I was too busy having my vagina and nipples torn to shreds to get much of a thrill). But I did not anticipated was that the majority of maternity activists who spoke up -- who were all exquisitely attuned to structural and cultural pressures that affect the health well-being of pregnant and birthing women and newborns -- seemed relatively uninterested in social and economic conditions that detract from the well-being of parenting women. When one safe-and-supported birth advocate enthusiastically praised breastfeeding as "the gold standard" -- by which she meant at least six months of exclusive breastfeeding, and extended breastfeeding thereafter -- I expected her to follow up with something along the lines of "…so that's why we need a minimum six months of paid childbirth leave and policies to protect the breastfeeding rights of working women." But, no.

I came away with the distinct impression that healthy birth/healthy baby advocates conceive of pregnancy and childbirth as the defining events in the trajectory of women's reproductive lives. I saw little evidence of consciousness about how broader systemic conditions shape women's reproductive and economic destinies before and after the onset of maternity, particularly if child-rearing is conceptualized as part of the continuum of reproductive life. The summit included an excellent session on pregnant and parenting women's rights in the workplace (with Cynthia Calvert of the Center for WorkLife Law and other supersmart legal and public policy experts), but unfortunately, it was the least well attended of any of the sessions I visited over the weekend.

Perhaps the best way to sum this up this disconnect is by relating an encounter I had in the hotel elevator. Another summit participant glanced at my nametag and said, "Oh, my roommates and I were just talking about YOUR movement." Wait a minute, I'm thinking -- I thought this was OUR movement. I thought, you know, all these complicated issues about non-motherhood and motherhood and mothering are a package deal. You can't really separate supporting the health and humanity of pregnant and birthing women from supporting the health and humanity of parenting women because, well… we're talking about exactly the same women. Right?

Of course, the gap in consciousness cuts both ways. I was a little disappointed to discover I was the only grass-roots activist from the economic justice side of the mothers' movement at the summit, particularly since many common issues (like health care and who is considered a legitimate mother) were up for discussion. To be effective organizers, we need to set priorities. But perhaps it isn't necessary or helpful to think and talk about mothers' rights in a way that chops up women's lives like an oversize squash that's too big for one pan. The practical solutions may vary depending on the particular circumstances of a woman's life, but the baseline issues -- the right to reproductive self-determination and social and cultural recognition of women's full humanity and human rights -- are always the same.

Here's my idea: We get everybody together in a big room -- reproductive justice activists, VBAC proponents, maternity rights advocates, the doula, midwife and safe-and-supported birth crowd, our friends in the LGBT community, middle-class mothers and mothers in marginalized communities, mothers of color and allies, formerly incarcerated and substance-abusing mamas, young and older moms, women's and reproductive health care advocates, abortion rights organizers, breastfeeding supporters, work-life policy wonks, public health experts, legal activists, and a bunch of people who want to do something about the disproportionate opportunity costs and economic insecurity of motherhood -- plus anyone else who makes the connection and wants to show up. Then we all start talking to each other. And we don't stop talking until we've figured out a continuum strategy for policy reform to support the health, humanity and economic security of women throughout the complete span of their reproductive lives.

After that, we get to work.

Judith Stadtman Tucker
Editor, The Mothers Movement Online

National Advocates for Pregnant Women
www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org

Related articles:

On the Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, Creating a true 'culture of life'
Lynn M. Paltrow, San Francisco Chronicle, 19.jan.07
"For the past 10 years, the term 'culture of life' has been little more than window dressing for the hundreds of laws that limit access to abortion -- or advance the interests of fetuses, as if they existed separately from the pregnant women who carry them. The time has come to have a real conversation about what our country could be doing to support maternal, fetal and familial health, and to value motherhood and child rearing."

Midwives Decry Fearful Trend in Birthing Practice
Melinda Tuhus, Women's eNews, 29.jan.07
C-sections are being performed in the U.S. at a rate that far exceeds international recommendations. A clash over the high rate and related issues has broken out between professional groups for midwives and obstetricians.

Child Care Void Hinders Help for Addicted Moms
Kara Alaimo, Women's eNews, 31.jan.07
Lack of child care partly explains why the majority of women with substance-abuse problems aren't getting treatment, officials say. In New Jersey, researchers found that nearly half of the women who abuse drugs and alcohol are mothers.

Incarceration Nation
Silja J.A. Talvi, The Nation, 22.jan.07
"A record number of more than 200,000 women are now doing time behind bars--an estimated 80 percent of whom are mothers. Analysis by the Women's Prison Association has shown that female incarceration has jumped 757 percent since 1977."

Punishment For Pregnant Women
Lynn M. Paltrow, AlterNet, 18.jul.06
A proposed law would prevent pregnant women from smoking. Could a law requiring women to breastfeed be far behind?

Blogging on the summit from Bitch, Ph.D.:

Join This Organization 19.jan.07

Blogging on the summit from Amanda Marcotte at Pandagon:

NAPW Summit, end of the 1st day 19.jan.07

Blogging For Choice and beyond choice 22.jan.07

Criminalizing pregnancy outcomes 29.jan.07

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Mothers' movement leaders call for
immediate ceasefire in the "mommy wars"

On January 31, leading mothers' rights advocates gathered at a press event in New York City to demand an end to the media-driven "mommy wars." Announcing that "the notion of mothers battling each other is media-hype used to generate ratings, sell books and command misplaced attention," representatives from the National Association of Mothers Centers and the Mothers Ought To Have Equal Rights initiative urged reporters to "move beyond the false rhetoric of the "Mommy Wars" and focus on real problems in need of real solutions," such as "maternal profiling" in the workplace and the wage gap.

The panel -- which included Linda Lisi Jurgens and Rhonda Kave of NAMC, with Ann Crittenden and Valerie Young speaking for the MOTHERS initiative -- emphasized that mother's private struggles with work and family responsibilities are connected to larger social issues, including the failure of U.S. lawmakers to implement public policies that reflect the realties of the twenty-first century workforce. "The 'choices' for all moms are inadequate because the systems are not in place to make it possible to earn a decent living while taking care of children or elderly parents," the group explained.

One of the more interesting anecdotes of the day came from Rhonda Kave, who recently returned from a Mothers Centers International conference in Slovakia. After her presentation in Bratislava -- which included a slide disclosing that the United States is one of only five countries that do not provide paid childbirth leave (along with Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland) -- several women approached Kave to make sure they had not misunderstood her remarks. "They thought there must have been a mistake," Kave reports. "They couldn't believe a country as wealthy as the United States would lack such a basic provision."

NAMC/MOTHERS also reported that the organization has collected 5,000 signatures on an online petition calling for a "Ceasefire in the 'Mommy Wars'," which was circulated in collaboration with MomsRising.org. "We want to end a war we never signed up for," said Linda Jurgens. Instead of resorting to sensational and inaccurate reporting on mothers who just can't get along, "the media ought to address the larger societal issues that affect mothers and working families." Other groups contributing to the discussion at the lunchtime event included NOW, Mothers & More, MomsRising, and the Mothers Movement Online. The event was held at the Women's Media Center.

National Association for Mothers Centers
www.motherscenter.org

Mothers Ought To Have Equal Rights
www.mothersoughttohaveequalrights.org

Related articles:

'Mommy Wars': It's time for a real cease-fire
Courtney Martin, Cincinnati Enquirer, 4.feb.07
"A coalition of activists, mothers, and journalists who call themselves the "mother's movement" thinks so. National organizations like the Women's Media Center, MomsRising, and The Mothers Movement Online are calling for a "ceasefire to the mommy wars." They want American mothers to re-vision the problem; it is not mothers making bad choices, but mothers with no good choices available to them."

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More of same:
New study finds U.S. lags behind other developed nations in ensuring decent working conditions for families

A 2007 update to the Work, Family Equity Index (released by the Project on Global Working Families at the Institute of Health and Social Policy at McGill University) reveals that the United States lags behind all high-income countries, as well as many middle- and low-income countries, in providing paid childbirth-related leave, workplace protections for breastfeeding mothers, and family-friendly working time regulations. Yeah, I know -- so what else is new? However, this brief report (15 pages) is particularly valuable as a capsule summary of the health and social benefits of breastfeeding protections, paid childbirth leave, paid sick days and working time regulations that allow parents to be more involved in children's education and after-school time.

Some of the more depressing findings of the study:

• Of 173 countries studied, 168 offer guaranteed leave with income to women in connection with childbirth; 98 offer 14 or more weeks of paid leave. The five countries that do not provide paid childbirth leave are the United States, Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.

• 66 countries provide some period of paid paternity leave to fathers.
  The U.S. is not one of them.

• 107 countries protect working women's right to breastfeed, and in at least 73 of these countries breastfeeding-related breaks are paid. The U.S. does not guarantee the right to breastfeed -- even though the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends six months of exclusive breastfeeding for all infants.

• At least 145 countries provide paid sick days for short- or long-term illnesses, with 136 providing a week or more annually. More than 79 countries provide sickness benefits for at least 26 weeks or until recovery. The U.S. provides a maximum of 12 weeks of unpaid leave for serious illness through the FMLA, which does not cover all workers. Nearly half of all private sector workers in the U.S., and 76 percent of low income workers, do not have the right to a single day of paid sick leave.

• 137 countries mandate paid annual leave; 121 countries guarantee two weeks or more each year. The U.S. dose not require employers to provide paid annual leave.

• At least 134 countries have laws that fix the maximum length of the work week. The U.S. does not have a maximum length of the work week or a limit on mandatory overtime per week.

• While only 28 countries have restrictions or prohibitions on night work, 50 countries have government-mandated evening and night wage premiums. The U.S. neither restricts nor guarantees wage premiums for night work.

• At least 126 countries require employers to provide a mandatory day of rest each week. The U.S. does not guarantee workers this 24-hour break.

"There is an enormous payoff to improving working conditions -- from lowering long-term family poverty to improving population health and education and increasing their associated economic and social benefits," the study's authors conclude. "The data does not support the concern that good working conditions lead to job loss; none of these protections is associated with higher unemployment rates on a national level."

McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy
www.mcgill.ca/ihsp/

The Work, Family Equity Index:
How Does the United States Measure Up
Jody Heymann, Alison Earle and Jeffrey Hayes, Global Project on Working Families, February 2007. 15 pages, in .pdf

McGill study: U.S. protections for working families worst of all affluent countries
McGill University, press release, 1.Feb.07

Also:

2004 Work, Family Equity Index
Where Does the United States Stand Globally?
Jody Heymann, Alison Earle, et al, Global Project on Working Families
(60 pages, in .pdf)

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Report highlights characteristics of lower-wage workforce,
need for flexibility in low-wage jobs

A new report from Corporate Voices for Working Families summarizes the findings of recent research and employer surveys on the characteristics of lower-wage workers and the benefits of implementing workplace flexibility for this rapidly growing sector of the U.S. labor force. Although lower-wage workers are less likely to have discretion over their work schedules and working time than professional and managerial workers, workplace flexibility has an even greater positive impact on job satisfaction, work-life spillover, mental health and employment security for lower-income employees than for higher earners. "The presence or absence of flexibility may be more critical for lower wage workers than other employees because the lack or absence of even the least amount of flexibility can mean the difference between keeping or losing one's job, economy security or poverty," the Corporate Voices report concludes. Yet many employers do "not regard flexibility as an option for low wage employees," and some business owners and managers are "unsympathetic" to low-wage employees' need for flexibility.

The Workplace Flexibility for Lower Wage Workers report includes information about key differences between the composition of the low-wage and higher-wage workforce (the lower-wage workforce is more diverse and contains more young workers, more minorities, more women, more single parents and more single-earner families) and higher- and lower-paid jobs (lower-wage workers experience more mandatory, unscheduled overtime and are far more likely to have irregular schedules and work non-standard shifts). Noting that there are both perceived and real barriers to implementing flexible work standards for many kinds of lower-wage jobs, the report also offers examples of best and promising practices that allow lower-income employees greater control over their work schedules and hours.

Corporate Voices for Working Families is a non-partisan, non-profit corporate membership organization created to bring a private sector voice into the public dialogue on issues affecting working families.

Corporate Voices for Working Families
www.cvworkingfamilies.org

Workplace Flexibility for Lower Wage Workers
October 2006. Full report.  44 pages, in .pdf

Related articles:

Living in America’s Fringe Economy
Howard Karger, AlterNet, 29.dec06
Millions of Americans live on the margins of the American economy, depending on the likes of payday lenders and pawnshops, who charge excessive interest rates and superhigh fees for their services.

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Survey suggests executive women are at leading edge of adopting successful career strategies

A 2006 survey of 400 executive women refutes press reports that talented women are managing their family responsibilities by turning away from full-time careers. While the survey -- which was given to women who attended a leadership conference at Simmons College School of Management -- is not based on a random sample and does not reflect the experience of working women overall, the results suggest that women executives and managers are succeeding in demanding careers by adopting a variety of flexible work arrangements and are modeling an effective new way of work.

According to a team of researchers from Simmons College, scholars and management writers have long noted the need for a new career paradigm. "This new paradigm advises individuals to consider themselves 'self employed' and to think of their careers as a series of projects; employees, acting as 'free agents,' are 'in business for themselves,' performing work that the organization has 'outsourced' to them." The model of the self-defined career has been proposed as a replacement for the "work is primary" or "ideal worker" paradigm, in which employees are expected to prioritize work commitments over family responsibilities in exchange for professional advancement and job security.

Although changing social and economic conditions have rendered the ideal worker model obsolete, there remains widespread cultural resistance to women's efforts to push the envelope of career norms. As the authors of the Optioning in versus 'Opting Out' issue brief point out, women's adoption of flexible work arrangements is rarely viewed as career self agency. "Being on the leading edge of shifting the career paradigm, women have found their ambition and commitment questioned by both the press and decision makers inside organizations. …Instead, their decisions to work part-time, put boundaries around workload, or temporarily not work at all … are seen as deficient, invalid, and wrong. This judgment is evidenced in the language used to describe their choices: 'opting out,' 'off-ramping,' and following 'mommy tracks' and 'scenic routes'." Women, these labels imply, are just not dedicated enough to make the necessary trade-offs to succeed in high-demand careers -- forget the fact that most U.S. jobs are no longer designed for the world we actually live in.

90 percent of survey respondents had used some form of flexible work arrangements (FWA) during the course of their careers, although use was slightly lower for younger women. Women's use of FWA also varied across industry (reported use was highest in technology, non-profit, medical and finance industries). Overall, the Simmons survey found that executive and managerial women were far more likely to use flexible work arrangements to maintain full-time careers (48 percent), rather than to limit employment to part-time (2 percent). Only 18 percent of the women survey reported having voluntary periods of non-employment -- a far smaller proportion than found in other research suggesting that as many as one-third of highly-skilled professional women manage motherhood by "opting out" of their careers.

While the Simmons survey found no significant earnings penalties for women who used flexible work arrangements, they concede that the age of the ideal worker is not quite over yet. "In many organizations, FWAs are still used at great expense to an employee's influence, reputation, and promotability. Senior management must take radical steps to shift the very culture of those organizations: re-examining the definition of the 'ideal' employee, especially the definition of commitment, and challenging norms around when work gets done…and where work gets done."

While the findings of the Simmons survey cannot be broadly applied, the four-page issue brief summarizing the survey findings is packed with important observations and ideas about women's role in speeding up the evolution of workplace culture.

Simmons School of Management
www.simmons.edu/som/

Optioning in versus "Opting Out":
Women Using Flexible Work Arrangements for Career Success
Mary Shapiro, Cynthia Ingols, and Stacey Blake-Beard, Simmons School of Management, COG Insights Issue Brief #25, January 2007.
(4 pages, in .pdf)

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More notable news and commentary on
work-life and working families

Focus On Our Families
Jared Bernstein and Jodie Levin-Epstein, TomPaine.com, 22.dec.06
Why have lawmakers been so loathe to embrace helpful work-life legislation?

Time on Your Side: Rating Your Boss's Flexible Scheduling
Sue Shellenbarger, WSJ/CareerJournal.com, 25.jan.07
"With employers from big law firms down to the local pizza joint promoting "flexible schedules," how can you size up these pitches? This column sets forth a new way to tell how well an employer is managing time. I see companies in three stages, from the least employee-friendly to the most. My yardstick is based on three measures: How much control do employees get over their time? What is the employer's purpose? And is flexibility being allocated fairly?"

Faking Corporate Support for Women
Martha Burk, Common Dreams, 7.feb.07
Women should be extremely wary of what they read about "good" companies if the information is put out by any organization that stands to profit.

Checking in, or on?
Software lets parents do more monitoring, but is it too much?
Maggie Jackson, BostonWorks/Boston Globe, 11.feb.07
"Keeping track of the kids isn't just a matter of poking your head out the back door anymore. In an era of highly scheduled and relentlessly mobile families, working parents now have virtual eyes and ears."

Part-Time Position Evades British Mother
Miranda Irving, Women's eNews, 12.jan.07
After stepping out of her career to have children and follow her spouse abroad, Miranda Irving is having trouble finding a suitable spot in the workplace. She and other British mothers face a bleak part-time employment landscape.

Not Afraid of the F-Word: A Feminist in Command
Emily Amick, AlterNet, 3.jan.07
Feminist Linda Hirshman on women in the workplace, why men should be forced to take parental leave, and the ethics of abortion up until birth.

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You are not on your own:
Economic Policy Institute's Agenda for Shared Prosperity calls for
a new generation of social and economic reform in America.

Pledging to address "the growing gap between America's promise and its problems," the Economic Policy Institute has launched the Agenda for Shared Prosperity, an initiative combining expert economic analysis with proposals for progressive policy reform, including policies to increase the economic security of working families.

The ten-point agenda includes assuring health care coverage and retirement security for all Americans; fair trade policies; rewarding work with a fair wages and protecting workers rights to organize unions; increasing the number of good jobs and strengthening the nation's infrastructure by investing in public works; responsible energy policy; promoting policies to assure workplace flexibility, inlcuding paid family and sick leave; greater investment in early childhood education and care; ensuring that every American has access to world-class, lifelong education and job training; rebuilding the social safety net to ensure that work is always a pathway out of poverty, and that people unable to work do not live in privation; and restoring the nation's commitment to equal opportunity for all. In other words, EPI's Agenda for Shared Prosperity is the economic policy roadmap to a caring society.

An overview of the Agenda and information on how to receive updates about related publications and events is available on the initiative's web site.

The Agenda for Shared Prosperity
www.sharedprosperity.org

The Economic Policy Institute
www.epi.org

Also from EPI:

Talking Past Each Other
What Everyday Americans Really Think (and Elites Don't Get) About the Economy
David Kusnet, Lawrence Mishel, and Ruy Teixeira, December 2006
"In many important ways, the utterances of political and governmental elites on both sides of the spectrum -- conservatives and liberals -- do not reflect the ways that everyday Americans think about the economy." Full text of book (64 pages in .pdf), introduction and related reports are available.

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New resource stresses link between
social spending, children at risk

Based on key indicators of children's well-being, a new book and web resource from the Every Child Matters Education Fund concludes that America's children are faring better in "blue" voter states than in "red" ones. "Not all the blue states show good numbers on child wellbeing outcomes, nor are all the red states' numbers bad," admits Michael Petit, author of Homeland Insecurity: American Children at Risk. "It's clear, however, that the anti-government/ anti-tax policy approach predominant among the red states has not worked for many children. A new policy approach, relying more on public investments, is necessary to produce better outcomes in the health, education, and protection of children."

Although Petit's overlooks other important factors in children's well-being -- since children do well when their parents do well, economic and employment conditions in the states have at least as significant an effect on children's outcomes as health, education and welfare spending -- Homeland Insecurity presents interesting mash-up of national and cross-national comparisons on U.S. children's health and health care coverage, incidence of child abuse and neglect, child welfare spending, juvenile and women's incarceration, child poverty, and tax policy and social spending.

Unfortunately, Petit's no-holds-barred attack on the conservative plot against social spending makes Homeland Insecurity a not-very-good tool for swaying average folks on children's issues -- and I say this as someone with a high tolerance for anti-conservative polemic. However, the data Petit presents comes from reliable sources and is organized into attractive, easy-to-read graphics, and may be useful for state and local activists if used separately from the text. The full text and graphics are available online as separate chapters (in HTML) and as a free .pdf download.

Disclaimer: I felt obliged to inlcude a write up of Homeland Insecurity because it has received coverage in the mainstream and alternative press and relates to a topic of interest to many MMO readers. However, my personal opinion is that Petit's book, while sincerely concerned with the welfare of children, represents progressive politics at its worst and is more harmful than helpful to the movement. Every Child Matters represents itself as a child advocacy organization, but there's a suspicious void of information on the organization's web site. Something is happening here, but what it is ain't exactly clear.

Every Child Matters
www.everychildmatters.org

Homeland Insecurity…American Children at Risk
Index page with links to related content.

Related articles:

Our Children's Homeland Insecurity
Michael Petit, TomPaine.com, 6.feb.07
"Do we know how to reduce child poverty and the other social ills afflicting millions of children and families? We do."

Health of Children in Red States Suffers
Dan Childs, ABC News, 25.jan.07
"Children living in red states -- those in which a majority of the citizens voted Republican in the 2004 presidential election -- may be worse off in terms of health than those living in states that voted Democrat, according to a new book."

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Selected news and commentary on public policy
and the progressive agenda

Sick leave tops state labor agendas
Christine Vestal, Stateline.org, 4.jan.07
"In the United States -- the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee paid sick days for all workers -- businesses voluntarily provide sick days for about half of all workers. But for the other half – about 59 million workers – missing work because of the flu or a minor injury means lost wages and sometimes a reprimand or dismissal."

Minimum Wage Rises, Sky Does Not Fall
Barbara Ehrenreich, AlterNet, 23.jan.07
A visit to Washington state, which has the highest minimum wage in the country, reveals a booming economy with none of the problems Big Business had been warning about.

Business Leaders Charge That Women Are Missing From Minimum Wage Debate
Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, 8.feb.07
Women-owned businesses are growing at twice the national average. Most minimum wage workers are women. Yet women business leaders have been largely ignored in the public debate over minimum wage, with business typically represented by businessmen and lobbyists making baseless claims that raising the minimum wage will cause harm. (Press release.)

States think big on health reform
Daniel C. Vock, Stateline.org, 28.dec.06
"While Massachusetts is hailed as a trailblazer, even states with less ambitious goals are setting out to repair the country’s broken health care system. …States are expanding medical coverage for the working uninsured, rewarding patients who develop healthy habits and prodding private industry to offer greater health benefits."

Women Give Checkup to California Health Plan
Molly M. Ginty, Women's eNews, 21.jan.07
Millions of women stand to gain from Gov. Schwarzenegger's plan to make sure all California residents have health insurance. But it's not necessarily a cure-all for those who run small businesses or are in middle- to low-income brackets.

Medicare for All: The Only Sound Solution to Our Healthcare Crisis
Guy T. Saperstein, AlterNet, 16.jan.07
Our $2 trillion healthcare industry is not only unhealthy, it is unsustainable. Why universal Medicare is the way to get universal healthcare without collapsing the system.

What does it Mean to be a Politically Active Citizen if No One is Listening?
Paige Doughty, Common Dreams, 19.jan.07
"The political action with which my generation is most familiar is point and click. It goes something like this: receive a barrage of 'email alerts' in your inbox, follow the link to the pre-written letter to your congress person, enter your email address and click to send. Wash your hands after a hard day of work. You are a political activist and you didn't even leave your house! This is a paltry excuse for action."

A Parable For Our Times
Bill Moyers, TomPaine.com, 22.dec.06
"It’s incredible how far we have deviated from even the most conservative understanding of social responsibility. For a generation now Goldwater’s children have done everything they could to destroy the social compact between workers and employers, and to discredit, defame, and even destroy anyone who said their course was wrong. Principled conservatism was turned into an ideological caricature whose cardinal tenet was of taxation as a form of theft, or, as the libertarian icon Robert Nozick called it, 'force labor.' What has happened to us that such anti-democratic ideas could become a governing theory?"

George Lakoff on Family Values
Rockridge Nation, 15.feb.07 (YouTube Video)
Framing guru George Lakoff discusses progressive and conservative conceptions of family values, and what they mean to American politics. "All progressive thought centers on the idea of caring about people and being responsible," Lakoff explains in this interview. "Workers are seen as resources for making profit… the idea of a sane, healthy family life is not seen as a national goal."

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Mothers on top:
Selected commentary on women in leadership
and the motherhood factor

Memo: Nancy, Hillary Are More Than Elected Moms
Lisa Nuss, Women's eNews, 24.jan.07
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton have been surrounding themselves with nurturing connotations, Lisa Nuss observes, and casts the same light on some high-profile male politicians as well.

To grandmother Pelosi's house we go
Debra J. Dickerson, Salon, 8.jan.07
More power to the first female speaker for using her grandkids as props. "Pelosi proves that women can have it all. Just not all at once. And also that motherhood doesn't have to calcify your spirit, your brain, your looks, your intellect or your drive."

How 'mamisma' can change politics
Harriet Rubin, USA Today, 29.jan.07
"How can a female candidate in America tap the desire for change and avoid tripping on the stereotypes of gender prejudice?...She'll have to draw consistently on her "mamisma," not machismo. (After all, there are already too many alpha male Democrats in play.) And I'm not talking about machisma or female ferocity."
Editor's advisory: severe puke factor, read at your own risk.

Pelosi: What Difference Will a Woman Make?
Gloria Feldt, AlterNet, 9.jan.07
If Pelosi is as smart as we think she is, she will spend less time cultivating "Blue Dog" Democrats and recognize fellow progressive women as her greatest asset.

Queens of the Hill: Women Move to Leadership Positions in Congress
Clara Bingham, AlterNet, 11.jan.07
Women will not just be represented in the new Congress -- to a remarkable extent, they will be running the place.

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Other news and commentary on motherhood and mothering

Do Parents Spend Enough Time With Their Children?
D’Vera Cohn, Population Reference Bureau, jan.07
"Recently published research concludes that today's U.S. mothers and fathers spend at least as many hours caring for their children each week as parents did four decades ago during an era that in the popular imagination was a golden age of family togetherness."

Hello Sandwich
Susan Ito, Literary Mama, dec.06
"Am I salami, turkey or cucumbers with goat cheese? All I know is that I am in the company of 44% of American women who care for both aging parents and children under 21. I live with my 84-year-old mother, my husband, two daughters, aged 16 and 12, and two dogs, one puppy and one geriatric. We are the Sandwich Generation."

Bashes for little darlings get bigger and bigger
Sharon Jayson, USA Today, 16.jan.07
"But today, many parties are themed events with elaborate decorations, cakes and goody bags filled with loot to take home. Commercial party sites have sprung up to fuel the party panic among middle- and upper-class parents." Mentions new parents action group, Birthdays Without Pressure.

A Frank Mother-Son Conversation on Drugs
Marsha Rosenbaum and John Irwin, AlterNet, 13.jan.07
One mother shares the advice she offered her son on drugs before he entered high school. Eight years later, as a college graduate, he tells how successful the advice was.

Baby makes 3: How kids rattle friendships
Sue Kidd, MSNBC/Newsweek, 10.jan.07
Childfree pals often feel dumped just when new moms most need support

What's the real measure of a 'good mom'?
Victoria Clayton, MSNBC, 10.jan.07
Judging mothers has turned into a popular American pastime, many say. "Experts and moms themselves say society holds mothers everywhere up to unfair, unrealistic standards."

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women & men:

Women and marriage; fatherhood initiative; more.

U.S. Women May See Independence in Singlehood Run
Rivers and Barnett, Women's eNews, 31.jan.07
Recent headlines have noted the growing singlehood of U.S. women, and the stories haven't all been celebratory. But Caryl Rivers and Rosalind Barnett say that single women no longer have the cards stacked against them and their status is sticking.

New Fatherhood Initiative Leaves Some Dads in the Cold
Amy DePaul, AlterNet, 31.jan.07
The Bush Administration's new initiative to improve fatherhood in America raises questions about how best to strengthen families: by encouraging parenting skills or by promoting marriage?

Why Fixing the Media System Should Be on the Feminist Agenda
Jennifer L. Pozner, Women in Media & News/AlterNet, 11.jan.07
If we truly care about women's rights and social justice, we must simply roll up our sleeves and tackle corporate media's failings, while strengthening independent media.

Feminism Brings Benefits to All -- Men Included
Neil Chethik, AlterNet, 22.jan.07
Why Nancy Pelosi's achievement is a victory not only for our daughters and granddaughters but also for our sons and grandsons.

Biden Wants Legal Brigade for Domestic Safety
Allison Stevens, Women's eNews, 11.jan.07
Sen. Biden is drafting a bill to encourage lawyers to work on behalf of domestic violence victims. The bill would also create a network of 100,000 legal volunteers.

Straight and In the Closet on Valentine's Day
Julie Enszer, AlterNet, 14.feb.07
One woman challenges readers to go the whole day without revealing the gender of their sweetie.

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Other notable news and commentary

Bush's Baby Einstein Gaffe
Timothy Noah, Slate, 24.jan.07
"President Bush paused briefly to pay tribute to a few everyday American heroes …but whoever chose Julie Aigner-Clark, founder of the Baby Einstein Co., should have done a little more research. …What is Aigner-Clark's achievement? She got rich marketing videos to infants. No one told the president, I presume, that this profit-making scheme ignores advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics that children under 2 years of age shouldn't watch TV."

'The Overachievers':
A Look at High School Competition Misses the Bigger Problem -- Underachievers
Knowledge@Wharton, 10,jan.07
"For all Robbins' claims to be describing a national trend, it's crucial to keep in mind that this "trend" exists for a small minority of high school students, and that these students are in turn those who have the highest expectations for college and career. While it's important to understand this trend, and important, too, to consider how the teens caught up in it might be affected -- even damaged -- by it, it's also important to understand that we can't get a clear picture of what's going on in American high schools if we don't take other, broader educational trends into account." (Free registration required.)

Talking About the Problem
Kayt Sukel, Literary Mama, jan.07
"Protect the children. It is a mantra we hear a lot these days from both parents and legislators. Many laws to help prevent sexual crimes against children are too quickly passing across the country all in the name of “protecting the children.” But are they actually doing so?"

Transforming Fear into Power: The Politicization of Child Sexual Abuse
Ingrid Drake, AlterNet, 7.jan.07
Politicians trying to gain points are pushing laws to "get tough" on child sexual offenders. But a new movement has a better idea -- work with offenders instead of ostracizing them.

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