You Gotta Love Michelle

Being back at work this week has reminded me why I like work and why I hate work all at the same time. I love being around smart, talented people and learning new things everyday. Oh, and that paycheck's kinda nice too. Yet I hate getting ready for work, battling traffic, work-related stress, battling traffic all over again to get home and then arriving home exhausted and spent and yet still having to jump right into my primary job of being mommy.

When it comes to the struggles of working moms, Michelle Obama says it best.


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I love it when she says she's losing her mind trying to do it all. I know I certainly am.

Speaking of working moms, all of the major women's/moms organizations -- Momsrising, 9 to 5 Association of Working Women, National Partnership for Women and Families and the National
Organization For Women -- are gearing up for action. Congress is set to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act this week in the House and next week in the Senate. Both are critical to ensuring equal pay for women and for making sure that those that suffer from pay discrimination can take action against their employer. Take a minute, click here to read more about it and click here to send your congressman a note to urge them to vote for these important bills.

You Gotta Love Michelle

Get the Led Out for Ledbetter

Remember this post (another thriller where I whine about not having enough time to right all the wrongs of the world)? Well, the National Partnership for Women and Families (another fine organization I forgot to mention in my last post) informed me today via email that the Senate is set to vote on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act this week.

An excerpt from the email:

Your voice is needed — today! The Senate is scheduled to vote this Wednesday on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

E-mail your Senators now and urge them to vote “YES” for fair pay for working women. Then forward this e-mail to your friends, family, and co-workers.

Why is this important to you? Women in the United States are still paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to their white male counterparts — more than four decades after Congress outlawed wage discrimination based on gender. For women of color, the numbers are even starker — African-American women earn 63 cents and Latinas earn 53 cents for every dollar paid to white men.

Outraged? Tell your Senators to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

What are you waiting for...click here and email your Senators before Wednesday!

Get the Led Out for Ledbetter

Go Read This

Here's a lesson in balance (or laziness). Rather than expend my own energy and brain cells (of which I have none left to spare) by enthralling you with my own musings, I'm going to direct you to this fabulous post by one of my favorite bloggers. So glad she's back from the playa. I was getting tired of looking at the palm trees on her blog, wishing I was on my own playa.

In her latest post, Mom-101 confirms what us Dems have known all along. Despite all their rhetoric about family values, Republicans are not so much about valuing families.

Read her post, then while you're at it, go to this site and download a free voter guide. It'll give you a great list of questions to ask yourself about the family-friendliness of the candidates you're considering. It's time we elect someone who will do right by those of us trying to earn a living, raise a family and maintain our sanity all at the same time. Our kids may be almost grown by the time we get another shot.

Go Read This

Become an Email Activist

I don't consider myself to be politically active. I have an opinion, of course, and I vote, but I've never contributed time or money to a political campaign. Lately I've been dipping my toe into the world of email activism and I gotta say, it feels pretty good.

I started through my day job. I work for a major cancer organization and as a cancer survivor, I have a personal stake in many of the issues that my employer advocates (increased government research funding, smoke-free communities, etc.). Then, as a frustrated mom trying to find a better way to balance a successful career and a thriving family, I stumbled across (hallelujah!!!) Momsrising.org, a movement dedicated to advocating for a family-friendly America. (My peeps!!!) Both organizations make email activism so easy. You get an alert, click on a link, fill out an online form, hit send and voila!, you've taken a stand on an issue and let your voice be heard.

I'm so surprised that more women don't actively engage in email activism on a regular basis. Every time I forward one of my email alerts to my super mommy friends network, it's usually met with a resounding silence. Maybe they don't realize that being an activist these days doesn't have to mean burning a bra or staging a march. Or maybe, as PunditMom muses in this post on Work It, Mom!, politics just isn't everyone's thing. Or it could be (and I think this is the real reason), as PunditMom points out in this post, that we're too nice to stir the pot and don't realize what a powerful force we can be when we do put our opinions out there.

I realize that changing the world isn't the first thing on everyone's to-do list, but we absolutely HAVE to get in this game. The stakes have never been higher for us as Moms and as Americans. It really doesn't take much effort or money (and if you don't believe that, check out THIS post from PunditMom). I've seen bills in Congress succeed and fail due to pure public pressure. If you don't want to devote your life or your blog to changing the political tide, start small like me. Sign up for some email action alerts at Momsrising.org, NOW or Congress.org. It takes all of ten minutes. If changing the world isn't reason enough, here's one more. Just like many of us have found with this blogging thing...giving yourself a forum to be heard feels friggin' great!

Become an Email Activist

(I'm) Down With Gloria Steinem

Ever since I joined the working mom ranks, I've been pissed at Gloria Steinem. I don't know the woman. I don't even know much about her. But for a long time in my mind she represented a failed experiment that has been the bane of my existence for the past seven years.

Wasn't it she and her feminist pals that espoused women having successful and dynamic careers like our male counterparts? Wasn't it their movement that inspired that #%@! "I Can Bring Home the Bacon" commercial that indoctrinated us as little girls and misled us all to believe we could, "Have it all?" What were they thinking? Did they not think through the ramifications of adding children to the mix? Did they not realize that women would continue to carry the burden of childrearing and that it would be simply impossible to compete with our male colleagues in the workplace and still give our children the full attention they deserved, leaving an entire generation of women to feel like complete failures?

Realizing that my anger was somewhat irrational and likely misplaced, I decided to educate myself about my nemesis and the feminist movement she ignited. As I searched the Internet, I came across a fascinating history of the women's rights movement. I was surprised to learn that the women's movement began way back in 1848 when a woman named Elizabeth Cady Stanton wondered why women did not enjoy the same freedoms as their husbands in the New World despite suffering the same risks and sacrifices to earn those freedoms. Since then, the movement has progressed slowly but surely -- from earning the right to vote, to drafting the ERA, to winning Roe vs. Wade -- incrementally improving the lives of women. It is clear from this history that each time we make gains in the women's movement, it is thanks to "a small group of people questioning why human lives were being resticted."

Gloria's contribution came when, in 1963, Betty Friedan published, "The Feminine Mystique," a survey that documented the oppression of average American women due to limited life options. This led the way for Gloria and her co-horts to champion equal rights, reproductive rights and sexual liberation. Thanks to their efforts, we now enjoy things like birth control and free choice to pursue a career. But these gains are only another incremental step toward fully realizing Elizabeth Cady Stanton's dream of women enjoying the same rights and freedoms as men.

Fortunately for those of us who feel the restrictions of working motherhood in the 21st century, the next wave of the women's movement is upon us. Today's New York Times article rightly points out that the proliferation of mommy blogs has sparked the modern mommy movement. Groups like Mothers & More and MomsRising are gaining traction and the Internet is making it easier than ever for us to jump on the bandwagon. Rather than blaming Gloria and the activists that came before her, we should borrow a page from their handbook. The only way to advance the female cause is to let our voices be heard and ask the tough questions. To quote my new friend Gloria, "Power can be taken, but not given. The process of the taking is empowerment in itself."

(I'm) Down With Gloria Steinem

Up With Moms

Well, folks, here it is -- ANOTHER blog written by yet ANOTHER mom. The one millionth and first.

Based on my very unscientific research, there seem to be two kinds of mommy blogs in the blogosphere. The vast majority are those that chronicle the highs and lows of mommyhood. These mommy musings connect with the very core of our being, illuminating the craziness common to all of our lives. The political mommy blogs are a small but growing minority that are gently encouraging moms to embrace the political process to make important changes that could vastly improve our lives. These moms have realized that if we marshall our voices, moms can be one of the most powerful forces in this country.

So what kind of mommy blog will this be? Actually, a hybird -- a hybrid with a focus. Through this blog I hope to share some thoughts and observations that will inspire you to not only better balance your life, but to help bring a better balance to our society.

Let's face it -- being a mom in today's world is crazy making. We're all just one science project away from completely losing it. Part of it is the nature of the job. Just keeping up with our children's ever-changing physical, emotional, social and intellectual needs is a huge deal. But then pile on the pressure we feel to be the perfect mother, wife, friend, neighbor and/or professional, and we've set ourselves up to fall short of our own expectations. We all pretend we've got it under control and yet, secretly we're all overwhelmed, exhausted and (often, though not always) miserable.

But it's not all our fault. Despite the fact that my generation of women were told that we could "have it all," corporate America never got the memo. Most companies do not take the needs of our nation's moms -- flexible work schedules, affordable childcare, paid maternity leave -- into account (see Elizabeth Vargas' fabulous 20/20 report on work and motherhood by clicking here). And this isn't just a mommy issue. Our husbands are rewarded financially and emotionally by spending more time at work than with their families. If they had more flexibility and less pressure to work, maybe they would be more amenable and available to help us out at home. Corporate culture is just not family friendly and this, folks, has got to change.

The great news is that it can all change, but -- here's the kicker -- it will only get better if we do something about it. The everyday stuff is pretty easy to change. All it takes to make our lives a little more manageable is caring for ourselves almost as much as we care about our families and thinking through some of our day-to-day, minute-by-minute choices. Changing our society will be a bit more complicated. It'll take getting involved and speaking up. It will mean taking a stand. Fortunately, the stars are aligning and I believe momentum toward that change has already begun. All we'll have to do is jump on the bandwagon. But if we sit on the sidelines, the world will continue to kick our collective butts.

In the spirit of balance, I'll only be posting weekly or bi-weekly at most. Looking forward to "chatting" with you again soon.

Up With Moms