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In This Issue
DC Dispatch
And while we're on the subject of FRD
FDA Questions Infant Formula Claims
Parental Joy A Myth? Not So!
Mothers, In Memoriam

Mile For Mothers

Walk a Mile in Mom's shoes

Mile for Mothers

Saturday

April 30, 2011

 

On the Boardwalk in Long Beach, NY

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We are proud to say our inaugural Mile for Mothers event last year brought 300 people together to walk a Mile in Mom's Shoes.  The "Buzz" has already begun for this year and many people are eager to participate in many ways. We hope you can join us in person or virtually.
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 We cannot do this work without YOU. 

For just $35 a year you will get discounts to conferences, free webinars and access to members-only discounts and resources. Your tax-deductible donation will also provide programs and support for the caregiving work mothers perform.  

JOIN the NAMC, the parent organization of MOTHERS, and make a difference for MOTHERS in concrete ways!

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How can one gift make thousands of women happy?
 
A portion of each purchase of a
Signature Mothers' Center Bracelet by Jewels For A Cause goes to the National Association of Mothers' Centers. Makes a wonderful gift for your mother, aunt, best-friend and for yourself. 

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Mothers' Center & New Mom Signature Bracelets
 
A great gift idea.

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 April 5, 2011

Greetings!

Welcome to spring.  This edition of the MOTHERS Enews is full of news on family responsibility discrimination, what's really in infant formula, readers' reactions to "parental joy" a piece in the last issue, and the passing of a major maternal theory pioneer, Sara Ruddick.  We hope you enjoy it, and invite your comments at [email protected].  Don't forget to check in with us regularly on Facebook, and follow Your (Wo)Man in Washington on Facebook and Twitter.  Happy spring!

 


Best, 

The mothers of MOTHERS .


P.S.  You can follow Valerie Young,   Follow us on Twitter Visit our blog Find us on Facebook and share our posts with your FaceBook friends. 

 

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DispatchDC Dispatch - Pregnancy Discrimination at Work

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Caregiver issues have been getting some serious attention at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the place to go if you face discrimination at work.  Pregnancy discrimination complaints have increased by about one third since 1997, and exceeded 6,000 last year.  One reason for the sustained increase is the number of women entering and staying in paid employment, before, during and after childbearing.  Another could be the very slow adaptive process of employers to a far more diverse workforce. Looking at EEOC data regarding charges filed, one wonders if both employers and pregnant employees are still on a learning curve, both discovering that workplace practices once accepted as normal are now, in fact, impermissible.   Even though women now make up an equal share of the workforce, many women can remember when getting pregnant was grounds for immediate dismissal without exception.


Much of the discrimination experienced by pregnant women is explicit and blatant.  Recent cases provide plenty of examples. Click here to find out more.
 

 FRDAnd while we're on the subject of FRD....

The experts in family caregiver discrimination at the Center for WorkLife Law report that low wage workers have a lot to lose in an unfair workplace.  Looking after children or older relatives can put a single mother on a cycle of winning and losing entry-level jobs, never earning above minimum wage or establishing financial security.  "Among the problems low-wage workers face is that their jobs often come with too few hours, leading them to juggle multiple jobs. Those jobs can come with unpredictable or inflexible schedules. Not only that, low-income families are less likely to have access to paid sick days or unpaid family or medical leave, the report concludes. Private employers are not required to provide sick days or vacations, except in San Francisco, Milwaukee and Washington." The National Law Journal article about the report can be found here.

FDAFDA Questions Infant Formula Claims

baby bottleBreastfeeding has a lot to recommend it, not the least of which is its free cost.  Formula companies want to compete, and may be overstating their case when they say their product is as nutritionally valuable as breastmilk.  The Food and Drug Administration is taking notice, and will soon start evaluating the veracity of formula labels and mothers' understanding of them.  Women's Enews report is here

HighCostParental Joy A Myth? Not So!

The "High Cost of Parenting" item in our last MOTHERS Enews prompted feedback from readers in North Carolina and Kentucky.  Researchers claim that parents exaggerate the joy they derive from their children to offset price of raising and schooling them.


"Utter hogwash!" wrote Chelia.  "The researchers never take into account feelings of pride and attachment that many parents feel for their children. They are only looking at a relationship from an economic standpoint. Are we really that shallow? How many parents would give EVERYTHING up for their children? These researchers set out to prove their point. And they did."  Another mother let us know that maternal satisfaction is no myth, and needs no exaggeration, inspiring her to write a whole post on her own blog.  "I believe, just as I would guess most all parents do, that giving birth to and nurturing this fragile human life - is not only a worthwhile task - but is the most important job and privileged responsibility to which we will ever commit ourselves. .... through raising children we determine the future of America."  You can find Ginger Garner's complete thoughts on the topic here.

 motherMothers, In Memoriam

Sara RuddickSara Ruddick has passed away.  She was a pioneer in the study of motherhood and development of the field of maternal scholarship.  Here's an excerpt from her obituary in the New York Times:  Ms. Ruddick, a professor of philosophy and women's studies for nearly 40 years at the New School for Social Research, developed an approach to child-rearing that shifted the focus away from motherhood as a social institution or biological imperative and toward the day-to-day activities of raising and educating a child. This work, she argued, shaped the parent as much as the child, giving rise to specific cognitive capacities and values - qualities of intellect and soul. Doing shapes thinking, in other words.  Earning a Ph.D. from Harvard in the early 1960's, when few women did, she insisted that motherhood need not be a gender-specific activity performed only by women.  The complete obituary is here.