Reader Responds to Bias Against Moms

Last week, the SF Weekly posted an article about how MomsRising is fighting the "bias" against mothers:

Mother’s Work

Some working moms face job discrimination, while others encounter barriers to success. They're all potential activists for the new grass-roots group, MomsRising.

MomsRising wants to address the obstacles faced by working mothers up and down the socioeconomic spectrum and push legislation to eliminate them. The barriers vary: Some women struggle to keep their jobs while managing pregnancy or child care, while others feel they've been knocked off the leadership track by inflexible work schedules or bias against mothers. Their reactions, however, are strikingly consistent. When women can't be both model employees and stellar moms, they feel frustrated and defeated, and often blame themselves. Rowe-Finkbeiner says they're turning their anger in the wrong direction: "We argue that when this many people are experiencing the same problems at the same time, it's a societal issue, not a personal failing."

This week, a reader responded in a letter to the editor:

Where's Dad?:

While I enjoyed Eliza Strickland's "Mother's Work," [Dec. 6] I found it one-dimensional. Often, the reason employers do not want mothers as workers is because — quell surprise — they don't work as much as childless workers or men.

Unfortunately, due to pervasive sexism, women still take the brunt of child care, usually working 10 more hours a week on housework/child care than fathers (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics). The missing part of Strickland's equation are fathers — where are they? Why aren't they picking up their kid when she's sick, or teaching them yoga? There's a reason her article is called "Mother's Work" not "Parents' Work."

Besides, it's unrealistic for mothers to expect they would get the same pay and prestige for doing a worse job than other employees. I'm sorry, but you just can't be as good a lawyer working 40 hours a week as you can working 60.

Having children in this day and age is a choice: to expect that that choice should not affect your career is delusional.

I'm beginning to wish that a blog could give a standing ovation.

Read comments to this post on Childfree News.

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Respect the Personal Lives of Employees Without Offspring

Corner Office: Child-Free Workers

These situations are at the center of workplace skirmishes that threaten to erupt into full-scale warfare, because most employers will only give this worker the time if Max is her son, and employees without children resent that.

“Our company says it wants to help balance the demands of work and personal life,” might say one of your child-free employees, “but they seem to think that personal life is the same as children. I’m tired of watching the parents walk out of here at 5 to pick up their kids while the rest of stay here and work. It isn’t fair.”

This is a highly emotional issue. Parents argue that juggling work and family is tough. They face child-care crises, doctors’ appointments and family situations that require them to take time off. They say their co-workers don’t see the time they work at home after the kids are in bed. Besides, they argue, someone has to raise the next generation.

Parents in the Workplace

Fair enough, say those without children, but we’re tired of feeling that our personal lives don’t matter. Such an employee might say: “I get asked all the time to help out so someone can go to his kid’s soccer game, or whatever. And I do it. But when I ask them to return the favor so I can do something that’s important to me, they’re always too busy.”

Class Discussion

The video of my presentation to the class will be uploaded here. I presented starting at 1:38 Tuesday.

Our class uses the question tool - a means by which the stdents in the class submit and vote on questions to the presenter. I didn't get to address all the questions during my presentation, but posted the discussion here.

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New Podcast on Workplace Benefits Project

Thanks to Chris the Fixed Kitty for her first of two podcasts on the subject. The podcast is this week's edition of her regular podcast Adult Spaces.

The podcast will be added to the project website by the end of the day; keep watching the site for updates.

An article by Jerry Steinberg, founding "non-father" of No Kidding International has been added. As special thanks to Jerry - he rolled his car this week, and we send him our best wishes for recovery.

Lastly, an article by Teri of the Purple Women and Friends blog has been incorporated into the site as well.

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New Michigan law makes it illegal for men to leave pregnant women

So, essentially, if you're in a relationship with a pregnant woman, you can't leave her, because that would be considered trying to coerce her into having an abortion. If she's physically abusive, or if you think the kid's not yours, or if you've had a vasectomy and know the kid's not yours, you're still on the hook.

You can find an Op-Ed piece in the Detroit Times here:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061130/OPINION01/611300306/1008

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Cafeteria Plans Project Launches -

Visit the new website for the first project - workplace equality.

Now here is where you come in - what do you think about cafateria plans? Is equality of benefits something the childfree should be working for? Does your company offer them - are you even 'out' as a childfree person at work? Comment on this post to weigh in.

As always, the offer below stands - you are welcome to participate in the equal pay project as much as you like in whatever form you see fit. We are also looking for contributors to this blog as it concerns this and future projects of Childfree Issues.

Thank you!
Laura Ciaccio

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Action Alert: Anti-Birth Control Advocate Appointed Head of Government Family Planning Programs

For those of us who care about choice...

The New York Times calls it a "family planning farce." Syndicated columnist Cynthia Tucker says it's proof that President Bush is continuing "his dogged resistance to reality."

As unbelievable as it sounds, the president has chosen someone who doesn't believe in birth control to be in charge of all the federal government's family planning programs. The New York Times describes Eric Keroack best, saying he's "a doctor affiliated with a group vehemently opposed to birth control and someone nationally known for his wacky theory about reproductive health."

They don't know Planned Parenthood if they think we'll just shake our heads, issue a mild protest, and let it go. We have to take a stand.

We've got to make sure every person in America knows what a ridiculous and dangerous step the Bush administration has taken.

Act right now to sign Planned Parenthood's "This Man Doesn't Believe in Birth Control" protest petition. Go to: http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/keroackpetition2/7duu339qtexkx3?

Starting today, Planned Parenthood is going to plaster the country with" This man doesn't believe in birth control" messages. We're going to reach out far and wide, from coast to coast.

We're going to ask Secretary Leavitt how he can possibly ask for family planning advice from a man who long served as the medical director of A Woman's Concern, a chain of so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" that believes the provision of contraceptive drugs and devices is "demeaning to women."

And by the time we're done, people all across the nation will know what an outrageous step the Bush administration has taken by placing hundreds of millions of federal dollars - meant to provide access to birth control and reproductive health information - in the hands of the leader of an extreme anti-birth control organization.

____________
Jerry Steinberg
Founding Non-Father of NO KIDDING!
The international social club for childless and childfree couples and singles
www.nokidding.net; info@nokidding.net

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Request for Contributions -

If you're reading this, it is probably because I or someone else asked you for your contribution to this project. I welcome any and all views and perspectives - no matter which side of the issue you are on. Post your thoughts here - I would be happy to add you to the list of posters if you want to do more than comment. Better yet - e-mail me your creation - be it an essay, article, podcast, YouTube video, graphic or whatever!

The deadline for the project is December 9, so please try to get submissions in by the 7th. If you can't make it by then - no worries! I'll happily include it, as I plan to continue this project specifically, and ChildFree Isses generally, as a personal project.

So here is the description of the project as posted on my course blog:

My project is beginning to take shape. I am sending out a plea to various leaders in the childfree community and asking them to contribute. Although I still have a ways to go, the prototype for the website is here.

The plan is to make the website a collection of information and opinions on cafeteria plans - including sample letters to employers and letters to the editor, arguments on both sides (and responses), the podcast series posted below, and hopefully a discussion via its companion blog.

The blog, Childfree Issues, will hopefully have a mandate to carry on after it serves as the launching place and forum for this one. The idea is to collect discussion on advocacy issues in a single area. While there are great social organizations such as No Kidding already out there, and much discussion on these issues on various childfree discussion board, hopefully this can create a centralized launching pad for more advocacy.

In this vein, I have asked various leaders of No Kidding to participate - including those in Canada who might add an international perspective to what is now a domestic project. Hopefully we will be able to craft this separately, so as not to create a conflict of interest with the group's purely social mandate.

I have also sought, and received assistance from the creators of what I see as the best childfree-related internet projects. This includes Adult Spaces - a podcast that addresses all sorts of childfree issues, UnScripted - the Childfree Life, a high-quality zine with articles about all sorts of topics of interest to the childfree, Purple Women - a team blog with contributions from a range of childfree women and their friends, and the Childless By Choice Project - a massive research project leading to a documentary and a book.

I lost a week due to a death in the family, and was forced to tighten up - I had originally planned to 'play' with different media and create a compilation of different media for the final project. The fact that collaboration is encouraged makes this much easier, and more fun.

Thank you!
Laura Ciaccio

Episode 5

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Episode 4 - class project

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Episode 3

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Episode 2

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The first project for Childfree Issues will be employee benefits. Find out why and how in our new podcast series:

Episode 1

Introduction

Welcome to Childfree Issues - the companion blog to Childfree News. While the idea behind Childree News is simply to post, comment on, and discuss news items, the aim of this space will be to discuss the issues that we face as a community with an eye toward advocacy.

Those wishing to contribute should email laura@childfreenews.com to be given posting access. As always, comments on each week's post are welcome.

This will be a multimedia project, combining posts, podcasts, and video. Submissions of those materials are also welcome.