Pushing the Motherhood Cause
Group Works to Give Busy Women a Voice on Family Issues

By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 13, 2007

They are moms with office jobs, moms with toddlers, moms with weekends that hustle them to birthday parties and scout meetings and supermarkets. No one has much free time, yet on this Saturday morning, they gather at Kim Love's home in Silver Spring to consider a political movement.

They settle into living-room couches and chairs as Love serves brunch and turns on "The Motherhood Manifesto," a documentary she promises will not take long. "I'm sure we all have soccer practice to get to," she says.

So begins another "house party" -- largely unnoticed in the political world, but one of hundreds that have been hosted in recent months in 37 states and the District. They are an outgrowth of MomsRising.org, founded a year ago to bring mothers together as a force for change in public policies that affect their everyday lives.

More than 90,000 people have registered, galvanizing around six main issues: family leave, flex time, health insurance, child care, fair wages and children's activities, such as better after-school programs. Their proposals are not new, but together they create a "motherhood" agenda that has attracted a fresh enthusiasm.

"They have struck a nerve, or maybe they have just sharpened the debate," said Love, 37, who said her generation of friends is consumed by the tug between work and family. "Literally, these issues are all we ever talk about."

Said Kristen Kiefer, a mother of two in Manassas: "The reality is that, no matter what your situation is, everyone struggles with this."

This nascent mothers' movement sealed its first legislative victory last week. In Washington state, MomsRising members vigorously lobbied for paid family leave for working parents. Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) signed a measure Tuesday making the state the second, after California, with such a mandate.

"The Washington state experience shows moms truly can make a difference, and that is thrilling," co-founder Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner said, recalling the effort: 14,000 e-mails to lawmakers, hundreds of telephone calls, 600 hand-delivered cookies and a mass display of decorated "onesie" infant leotards.

The group's documentary will air today on more than 30 PBS stations, including at 9 p.m. on the District's WHUT.

U.S. mothers have long organized, starting in the 1850s with Anna Reeves Jarvis, who called attention to poor conditions in Appalachia, said Stephanie Coontz, a history professor at Evergreen State College. But in modern politics, since the 1970s, motherhood issues have been associated mostly with conservative women's groups that have pushed for women to stay home with their children, she said.

MomsRising stands out for its working-mother focus and also as an example of new-style, online community organizing. Co-founder Joan Blades also helped launch the liberal group MoveOn.org -- "the great success story of Internet politics," said Michael Cornfield, who wrote a book on the topic.

The group may revive debate on family-friendly issues that have idled in recent years, said Ronnee Schreiber of San Diego State University, who studies women and politics. With Democrats in control of Congress, she said, "I think it could go somewhere."

MomsRising says it is nonpartisan, but more conservative women's groups say they are not likely to embrace its platform. "We have a fundamental disagreement on what the role of government is," said Michelle Bernard, president of the Independent Women's Forum.

Bernard also takes issue with the statistics MomsRising cites. In considering the wage gap, for example, she said, "it's not as large as they say it is, and it is not uniformly because of discrimination. It has a lot to do with the career choices."

For Love in Silver Spring, activist mothering is an idea whose time had come. A senior staff member on Capitol Hill for 10 years, she now works from home as a consultant.

On busy days, after her young son goes to bed, Love finds herself getting to her e-mail after midnight, and she likes the idea that MomsRising lets her know what is happening -- and how she can weigh in. Sometimes, she will dash off a quick missive to a lawmaker or sign an online petition. "We all care," she said, "but the irony is, none of us has time to devote more than 30 minutes a week."

The six friends she invited to her house party were graduate school buddies from Georgetown University. Four are employed; two stay home with their kids.

On that April morning, they watched as the documentary unfolded with a dramatic story of discrimination in hiring mothers and with statistics about unequal pay.

It had salary comparisons: Women make 90 percent of what men receive. But mothers make only 73 percent of what men get -- and single mothers 60 percent -- the film asserts, based on a Columbia University study.

Then came a comparison of family-leave policies: The United States lags behind most of the world, the narrator said, and its lack of benefits puts it in a class with several third-world nations, a statistic based on a Harvard University study.

Several women gasped.

The film said the No. 1 reason highly paid women leave the workforce is to spend time with their families. It went on with stories about child-care problems and family health-care calamities.

When it ended, the conversations began.

One woman observed that the documentary included dire stories of women for whom paid leave and health care would make a big difference.

"We have a two-tiered society," another said. "We have those things, and many people don't."

The women wanted to know more about the sources of the statistics. One wanted more conservative voices.

Someone brought up health care. Why, she asked, don't people see the long-term savings that would come with funding health care for all children?

Some volunteered their own stories: about an employer that said no to a four-day week, another that expected full-time work in part-time hours, another that kept telecommuting unofficial, almost secret.

"You actually still have to push these things," one woman lamented.

Love encouraged everyone to get involved. As mothers, she said, "we don't have time, which I think is the key reason why we haven't seen more changes."

A Multi-Platform Movement

The mothers' discussion is some of what Blades and Rowe-Finkbeiner had in mind when they started MomsRising.

Blades, 51, a mother of two in Berkeley, Calif., is a trained mediator who became an activist when she and her husband, Wes Boyd, founded MoveOn.org.

Rowe-Finkbeiner, 38, is a mother of two in the Seattle area who has been active in state politics and authored a book called "The F Word: Feminism in Jeopardy." Her husband is a former Republican state Senate majority leader.

Their collaboration came after Blades read Rowe-Finkbeiner's book manuscript and was struck by statistics about wage gaps. "I wasn't aware," she said. "Most people think that women are on an even playing field."

Together the women created the organization, the DVD and a book, "The Motherhood Manifesto: What America's Moms Want and What to Do About It," published last May. They say 500 to 1,000 people sign up weekly.

There are no dues to join MomsRising, but e-mails to members include a request for donations. The group does not have a political action committee.

The MomsRising documentary was first shown on Capitol Hill in the fall in an event that brought in Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Edward M. Kennedy and Christopher J. Dodd.

But Blades and Rowe-Finkbeiner want their group to cross political lines and have held discussions with the Christian Coalition and other groups.

As Blades sees it, many mothers have viewed their problems balancing work and family as the result of individual choices. MomsRising suggests the problems are systemic, deeply ingrained in the culture of U.S. business and government.

Among the solutions it cites: paid family leave, incentives for companies to offer flexible schedules, better pay and benefits for part-timers, health care for all children, affordable child care, and "living wages" and benefits for child-care workers.

MomsRising also backs reforming television rating systems, unbundling cable television packages and more funding for after-school programs.

"We have a 1950s support structure -- with 72 percent of mothers in the labor force," Rowe-Finkbeiner said. "It's time for our policies and programs to catch up with our modern economy."

As its issues come up -- recently, the federal Healthy Families Act, which mandates paid sick days -- the group sends out what it calls "e-outreaches." In 48 hours, MomsRising members sent 16,873 e-mails to their lawmakers asking them to co-sponsor.

Following its success in Washington state, the group is supporting paid-family-leave bills in Oregon, New Jersey and New York. And it has plans for dads -- including a Father's Day campaign to bring more of them into the fold on activism.

Creating a Single Voice

Nine days after the Silver Spring party, there's another in Arlington County.

This time, the host is Erin M. Fuller, a 35-year-old mother who heads a national association of female business owners. Her eight professional friends arrive to wine, spring rolls, bruschetta and brie.

They are a noisier group, talking through the "Motherhood Manifesto" documentary and similarly shocked by the U.S. ranking on maternity leave policies.

"Are you serious?" one woman asks.

Later, the documentary focuses on a conservative business owner named Jim Johnson, who says flexible work schedules have made his workers more loyal and reduced turnover.

"Let's clone Jim Johnson," one woman proclaims.

"Jim Johnson for president!" says another.

Fuller reflects: "It's a brilliant repackaging of issues. They're so common-sense. Why are we unwilling or unable to create an environment where it's not so stressful to raise a family? The things they have listed are not up for debate, in my opinion."

Days later, one of her friends, Janet Shih Hajek, a lawyer with a son who is almost 2, now pregnant with her second child, was still impressed.

"You just get so bogged down -- did my son take his naps today, and what did he eat, and how did he poop? . . . You're not necessarily thinking about the wider world."

But, Hajek said, "if we were to speak with a single voice more often, I think change would happen more often."