Warm regards,
The National Association of Mothers' Centers (NAMC) provides programs that empower mothers, fathers and caregivers to find solutions that work for their families, their work lives and their personal lives. |
 DC Dispatch
 Lots going on in the nation's capital, while the cherry trees get pinker and fluffier day by day. The State Department released an International Women's Day declaration, stating that global peace, stability, and prosperity depend upon the advancement of women's rights around the world. Fighting gender violence, promoting women's economic and political participation, and integrating women into peace efforts around the world are officially part of US foreign policy. Of course, we think they ought to be part of our domestic policy as well!
The Caring Economy Campaign hosted a Congressional briefing about the value of public funding in pre-K programs. Family and women's advocates have been pushing better quality and access to child care and early ed for decades. President Obama's proposal of universal pre-K in this State of the Union address has put a spotlight on the idea, so the timing was perfect. If you want to know why public investing in pre-K is smart public policy, take a look at this fact sheet from the National Institute for Early Education Research. If you want to understand why the Caring Economy Coalition offers you a better way of seeing the value of family carework, take a look here.
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Women at War: Sexual Assault in the Military
A Senate hearing put the emotional testimony of survivors of sexual assault in the military on the record, and the handling of such claims by the authorities came in for some harsh criticism by some US Senators, particularly Kirsten Gillibrand of New York. Here's a bit of the national news coverage, and a 4 minute video of Senator Gillibrand at work. Now that nearly 20% of our armed forces are female, and that women are serving on the Armed Services committees in Congress, finally the subject is getting the attention it deserves. The issue was catapulted onto the media radar by the documentary The Invisible War. See if it's playing at a theater near you. |
Moms Organize Around Gun Control
 Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense In America(formerly One Million Moms for Gun Control) organized a day for its members and supporters to visit legislators at the US Capitol on March 13 to talk about gun control. They report over 200 mothers participated and persuaded lawmakers to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines and require background checks for gun purchase, among other measures. A Senate committee has approved an assault weapons ban sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but the bill faced great opposition. The assault weapons ban portion was dropped a few days later, for fear that its inclusion would doom the success of the rest of the bill. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, and a self-described "typical mom in the grocery store", gave a radio interview about her new role as an unanticipated grassroots mother/activist. |
Can a Budget Be Gender Neutral?
In the battle of the budgets, Senator Paul Ryan put forward a proposal which, among other things, makes federal food assistance (SNAP) and health care for the poor (MEDICAID) into block grants and repeals the President's health care reform law. Do you think women might suffer more from cuts, given that they are the majority of Medicaid and SNAP recipients, and protected from being charged higher health care premiums under Obamacare? Block grants take federal money and hand it to the states, to dispose of as they wish. Each state, then, can impose its own eligibility requirements and change the benefits. When the federal government administers these programs, they provide more help for more people. Bryce Covert in The Nation outlines "What Paul Ryan's Budget Means for Women".
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Paid Sick Days
Who has paid sick days? Seattle. San Francisco. Washington DC. Connecticut. Portland, Oregon may soon join that list. The City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that would allow workers to earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours of paid sick time per year, if their employer has at least six employees. Our friends at Family Forward Oregon were major players in the effort, which got heavy push back from small business and pro-business advocates. Paid sick days were not quite as successful in Philadelphia. The City Council passed the bill, on a vote of 11 to 6, but the Mayor is expected to veto it, as he did a similar bill two years ago. It would require 12 votes to override that veto. The paid sick days movement is building in Maryland, but no vote in the state house yet.
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