If you’ve had a kid in high school, you know this. If you have a little one, you’ll know it soon enough. It’s the lunchtime ritual. When that noon bell rings, the teenagers come barreling out of their classrooms, divide up, and head to their group’s designated spot to eat lunch. Well, maybe they actually eat something, but mostly they just hang out together. When they look back on their high school days, it’ll probably be these lunch spots and the memories formed there that they remember most.

We have launched new blog that is crossposted at The HuffintonPost.com. It is about consciousness raising and culture change. Very few Americans realize that there is deep bias against mothers in this country and that we are undermining family's ability to care for children. I began to understand this a few years ago when I learned that equal pay for equal work is just as big a problem today as it was 40 years ago. I was shocked! Women without children now earn 90 cents to a man's dollar, mothers earn 73 cents, and single mothers earn about 60 cents to a man's dollar. A study done last year revealed that a mother is 79 percent less likely to be offered a job when all other factors -- including resumes, education, and job experience -- are equal. Ever wonder why there are so many women and children in poverty? Every wonder why there are so few women in leadership? Since over 80 percent of women become mothers I would say that women have a long way to go before they have equal opportunity in this country. Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner and I wrote The Motherhood Manifesto and launched www.MomsRising.org in 2006 and FamiliesRising.org in 2007 with policy and culture change in mind.

Doctors agree that breastmilk is best for infants, but their own licensing board isn't following doctor's orders. Sophie Currier recently learned that when it comes to supporting breastfeeding, many of our leaders--whether they are in the medical establishment (as in Sophie's case), business sector, or elsewhere--still don't "walk the talk." You see, Sophie was denied breast pumping breaks during her nine hour medical licensing exam. She's not alone. Even in this day and age when the medical evidence is clear that breastfeeding is best for infants, women are regularly denied the time and location to pump.

Today on All Things Considered, NPR featured a moving piece about the two sides of Hurricane Katrina evacuees relocating in Houston. Some of the 90,000 people who have resettled in Houston are doing well; two years later, others have still not found security. Mothers in particular seem to be suffering. Lorenthia Richardson is a former nursing students and store manager who is sharing an apartment with three female relatives and their 14 children. NPR reporter Wade Goodwyn's summary of Richardson's situation caught my eye: "Richardson knows how to dress and act for the professional world. That's not her problem. Her problem is that she is a black, single mother from New Orleans. For two full years, Richardson has been unable to land a job, despite more than 50 separate attempts."