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Greetings!
The forces that shape mothers' lives are far more apparent in mainstream media these days, or at least the media I monitor. NPR has started a new series entitled "The Changing Lives of Women", and Terry Gross of Fresh Air interviewed New Republic author Jonathan Cohn about his article, "The Hell of American Day Care". Sheryl Sandberg, of Lean In fame, goes global, taping a radio program in England on BBC Radio 4 "Women's Hour" program. It's a full time job just to keep up, let alone get on top of all this good stuff!! But I'm not complaining....
Also in this issue:
Remember, you can always get the latest on motherhood and how public policy makes it harder than it ought to be by following Your (Wo)Man in Washington on Facebook, #WomanInDC on Twitter, and signing up for the blog. Please share this email with your friends, too. World domination is only a few clicks away...
Warm regards,
Valerie Young, Your (Wo)man in Washington
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. |
 Every Working Mother's Nightmare
 Pop quiz - How do we care for the number one national treasure this country has, our children? Surely we have made certain that each and every child has a safe environment geared to his or her development, utilizing the latest research with nurturing, qualified staff. Wrong! According to The Hell of American Daycare, "We're not thinking about, 'Wow, we have this need out there. We need trained professionals to help fill it,' " he says. "We're thinking, 'Oh yeah, someone's got to watch the kids. Let's pay 'em like baby sitters." If we had accessible, first-rate and affordable day care, would some of the controversy surrounding working mothers fade? Would moms feel less guilty? Read the article, or listen to the NPR interview. |
Leaning In Goes On and On and On
My interest in this whole "having it all" discussion is waning, and I'm more motivated than most to be paying attention. Here's a subversive view of the whole issue from a feisty Australian at DailyLife.com:
Under our current model of supposedly post-feminist society, can women have it all? No. Why not? Because a) we're not living in a post-feminist society and the systems of patriarchal oppression that have historically exploited women as resources are still very much in operation across much of the world; and b) the matter of women's liberation is still thought to be a concern for them alone, with the demands that any efforts to secure it be done not just independently of men but with the absence of impact on them entirely. The question therefore isn't 'can women have it all?' but 'how are women systemically denied equality and who's benefiting?' Gender inequality wasn't created by women and their unreasonable ambitions. It's vital that we shift the focus of women's oppression back to its beneficiaries rather than perpetuate the kinds of meaningless conversations that imagine these things are perplexing problems for women alone to solve.
Them's fighting words! You can hear Sheryl Sandberg make her case - again - in this 14 minute radio interview from the BBC. |
You Talkin' To Me?
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The Three Minute Interview - Christi Corbett, Rocket Scientist
 Christi Corbett is a senior researcher at the American Association of University Women (AAUW) where she researches issues of gender equity in education and the workplace. She recently co-authored AAUW's latest research report, Graduating to a Pay Gap: The earnings of women and men one year after college graduation, which revealed how women earned less than men only a year after graduation, with identical degrees, majors, and experience. Before coming to AAUW, Christi was an aerospace engineer. She lives in the Washington DC area with her husband and two pre-school age sons, and is a very smart cookie. Take a look at her interview here.
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"When you tally who hold the positions of power, it becomes clear that women mostly don't. According to the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics, 
