Mom-mentum Advocacy eNews
Tuesday, February 17, 2015


 Greetings!

I swear if there is one more snow day this year I am going to go nuts. I am on my last nerve. I want my kids in school during the day, not trooping in and out of here with wet snow clothes draped over every single piece of furniture. If I don't have an intelligent conversation RIGHT THIS MINUTE I will lose my mind. Oh, look -- It's the Mom-mentum Advocacy eNews! What a relief. Sanity saved!

Best wishes,
Valerie Young
Your (Wo)man in Washington
Article1
DC DISPATCH - WILL PAID SICK DAYS GO THE DISTANCE?

Last week saw the introduction of the earned sick days bill, the Healthy Families Act, 

under which US workers would be entitled to 7 paid sick days if their workplaces had at least 15 employees. If the operation was smaller, the law would offer 7 sick days but they would not be paid. Women's champions Senator Patty Murray and Representative Rosa DeLauro sponsor the legislation, and they want your members of Congress to co-sponsor it and get it passed. 

 

Earned sick days turn out to be something of a silver bullet -- they stop the spread of disease, make recovery faster, cut health costs, and boost the business bottom line, according to this fact sheet from the National Partnership for Women & Families. As if that weren't enough, making paid sick days a basic workplace standard would fight income inequality, according to this blog from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn.

 

   

Article2
FAMILY FRIENDLY MY FOOT

If I had a nickel for every time I heard the phrase "family values" in politics, I'd be as rich.... as my male counterpart! We sure talk the talk in the US, but we don't do any of the walking.  Work yourself into a lather with 5 Appalling Facts About Maternity Leave. Then, while you're still simmering, take a look at 9 things I wish I'd known before I became a stay-at-home mom. Think we still do right by those who do everything for others? Think again. Sure, we love being mothers.  And yes, it is still work.

Article3
GLOSSY MAGAZINES GET REAL  

Have you noticed more articles about women, politics and money in mass media journalism? Here's an example -- Glamour just published We Rate the States: The Best (and Worst) Places for Young Women. Where you live will impact your paycheck, your happiness, your health, and even your age when you become a mother, based on data from those smart women at the Institute for Women's Policy Research. My fave fact: "What's more, women in New York don't start families until age 27 or 28, but the average woman in Wyoming has her first baby at 23-significant since, says Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard University, the pay gap generally grows as women get older because of 'children, end of story.'"

Article4
DADS WANT WORK FAMILY BALANCE   

 

Suddenly dads are getting in the game -- or really, the public dialogue about work and family care. I went to a great policy briefing at the Center for American Progress on Men, Fathers, and Work Family Balance and blogged about it here. Days later, one of my sheroes, Nanette Fondas, a Harvard Business School Ph,D. and mother to five, wrote in HuffPo: "The fathers who spent relatively more time with their kids also experienced significantly more work-to-family enrichment... they felt that work improved their home lives; ... Also, they did not view caring for children as a source of stress, so families benefitted even more from the dads' availability and attitude."

 

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The Democratic party may make care issues part of their platform going forward to the next election. According to the New York Times: "The emerging Democratic agenda is meant to appeal to parents.The policies under discussion -- paid family leave; universal preschool; an expanded earned-income tax credit and child tax credit; free community college and perhaps free four-year college in time -- are intended both to alleviate the burdens on middle-class families and to expand educational opportunity for children. The result is a thematic platform addressing some of the biggest sources of anxiety about the future of the middle class." 

 
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