Paid Family Leave

May 11, 2010

I can't think of a better way to say this. I had a truly crappy Mother's Day this year. I think Anna Jarvis would understand. Inspired by her own mother's life, she started a campaign in 1907 to recognize mothers for their contribution to society. She was successful in making Mother's Day a...

MomsRising Together

Katrina Alcorn

Paid Family Leave

May 7, 2010

As the Vice President and Political Director of the Women's Campaign Forum (WCF), I'm obviously a believer in electing more women to public office. However, as a first-time mother with a 7 month-old baby girl, my commitment to increasing women's political leadership has never been stronger. Sure, I...

MomsRising Together

Erin Cutraro

Paid Family Leave

April 13, 2010

"If we got even two calls from our constituents about this letter, that would make a huge impression on the Senator," a Senate staff person recently told us. She was referring to a letter circulating in the halls of the Senate that, if only a handful of Senators sign it, could have broad reaching...

MomsRising Together

Katie Bethell

Paid Family Leave Paid Sick Days Open Flexible Work

April 6, 2010

The White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility has generated an energetic buzz in work family advocacy circles across the nation. As a longtime advocate for family friendly workplaces, I am thrilled by First Lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama's keen interest and commitment to build and...

MomsRising Together

Netsy Firestein

Paid Family Leave Paid Sick Days Health Care Family Economic Security Open Flexible Work

April 2, 2010

"Many folks don't have access to any kind of family leave policies whatsoever, no flexible working arrangements, many people don't even have a paid sick day. So they are struggling…scrambling to make things work…As we all know, here today, it just doesn't have to be that way. It doesn't have to be...

MomsRising Together

Katie Bethell

Paid Family Leave

March 30, 2010

Parental leave with pay when a child is born or adopted is an important support for working families, yet most US private sector workers do not have this benefit. Human Rights Watch ( www.hrw.org ), a nongovernmental human rights group, is interviewing parents in the US about their experiences with...

MomsRising Together

Janet Walsh

Paid Family Leave

March 12, 2010

The European Union Commission has proposed a new directive, to be voted on in March, that would make maternity leave compulsory for the first six weeks after a woman gives birth. You read that correctly -- compulsory. As in, women would be forced to stay home, regardless of their own wishes, if...

MomsRising Together

Yelizavetta Kofman & Astri von Arbin Ahlander

Paid Family Leave Childcare & Early Education Environmental Health Open Flexible Work Food!

March 12, 2010

...At some point, of course, I realized I wasn’t happy. I was trapped. I had money, but not time. It was like being surrounded by food, and dying of thirst. It turns out that there is a way out of this mess. There are people all over this country–both women and men–who have made a conscious decision to value their time more than their money. Against the formidable current of popular culture, they have decided that this may be the only life they will ever have, and they’re going to live it fully.

MomsRising Together

Katrina Alcorn

Family Economic Security Paid Family Leave

March 12, 2010

About the Campaign: We're thrilled to be working on Paid Family Leave with MomsRising members and our partners in Oregon. On April 8, 2009, we had an awesome kick off at the Capitol to introduce the Paid Family Leave bill. The event included a press conference featuring Sandwich Mom (a mom in wacky...

MomsRising Together

Katie Bethell

Paid Family Leave

March 1, 2010

Women now comprise about half the US workforce, according to a major story in the December 30 issue of the Economist . In other words, half our workforce bears all our children. Anyone who wants a child of one's own must recognize that somewhere, a woman will bear that child and will likely nurse...

MomsRising Together