So, there’s an election coming up this November.
A big one.
And whether you are blue, red, or purple, the fact of the matter is that as parents, we face real challenges today. From health care, to family leave policies, to problems with our schools, American parents face real difficulties.
I don’t want to use this brief column to advocate any specific party or candidate, nor even to advocate for one policy over another. But I do want to use this small space to advocate one thing– that we make sure we understand what’s really at stake for parents.
In The Motherhood Manifesto, co-authors Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner outline those stakes in a series of moving narratives and startling facts. This book goes beyond the “mommy wars,” showing that it doesn’t really matter whether you chose to stay at home with your children or go out into the workforce–or even if you don’t have the opportunity to make the choice. While it has a clear political agenda and never wavers from that agenda, what this book does uncover is some of the more startling facts about parenthood in America.
With the exception of Australia, the U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t offer workers paid leave with the birth of a child. In forty-five countries, fathers are given the same paid leave as mothers. While we spend more on health care per person than any other country, we still rank 37th in infant mortality. It’s information like this that can help those of us who are comfortable understand what’s at stake for everyone.
The book is an engaging examination of the problems we face as parents and as a nation, but even if you don’t agree with its author’s politics, it provides information. Now is a time when we need information like no other–no matter what side of the aisle we identify with.
We all have our stories of how we’ve struggled as women and mothers. We all have ideas about what policies can help solve those struggles, but without information about the lives of others, we only have half the picture. Pick up the book, check out the website, and make your own decisions.
by Lisa D.
Photo graciously provided by the Fair Use doctrine, some rights reserved
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5 responses so far ↓
Kelly Damron // Aug 12, 2008 at 12:47 pm
In the UK they offer women time-off when they are undergoing fertility treatments. Their health care system is so much more advanced than ours. They seem to care more about the quality of life for their employees too.
In the US we could reduce the rate of infant mortality with one easy change – insurance coverage for fertility treatments. This would reduce the occurrence of twins & high-order multiples… – I’ll get off my soap box now.
Steve // Aug 14, 2008 at 4:27 am
How is the need for information, understanding and wisdom more urgent now than at any other point in history?
And generally speaking, if one does not agree with the political agenda of an author, the information provided by that author isn’t given much consideration. There are not many books that can have an agenda and inform across the spectrum.
Forgive me if in a time of illegal wars and subversion of the Constitution I feel that Americans should have priorities greater than securing more leave when they elect to have children.
Lisa D. // Aug 14, 2008 at 7:02 am
while I agree that wars and other civil liberties problems are indeed grave and need to be addressed, part of what this book shows is that if we address those so-called “important” issues without addressing the inequality women–especially women who are mothers–continue to face, then everything else is really moot. This is about more than men and women securing more leave to have kids– it’s also about women STILL making less than men, about women who can legally be paid less or denied benefits if they are married or have children, about the fact that our laws still make it legal to discriminate against mothers–and parents in general. To me, that seems an important part of subverting the Constitution. Or is equality and civil liberties only important when we’re not dealing with families??
Steve // Aug 14, 2008 at 7:43 am
You’re certainly welcome to throw in pay discrepancies or other gender-specific discrimination as examples of unforgivable practices in our society. However, if we’re going to go beyond the challenges posed to all parents (regardless of gender, which seemed to be the original tone of your column) then why should we stop there? Shouldn’t we also include race discrimination, poverty and the excessive concentration of wealth, the destruction of the global climate by unregulated industry, sweatshops, healthcare for all individuals (not just families), and a litany of other extremely important issues? Clearly, they’re all crucial to the security and well-being of our society.
All that said, I don’t think you have any hope of addressing these pressing issues in a system where we’ve permitted the government to become dishonest and violate the laws of the land. There are rules and balances within a democratic system so that leaders must be responsive to the will and needs of the people. Illegal wars and outright violations of the balance of power means that the system is corrupted and our leaders have no need to respond to the public will. I think it’s a mistake to make a priority of domestic social and economic issues in a time of egregious violations of the public trust.
Equality and civil liberties are obviously important when we’re dealing with families, and I don’t think I suggested anything to the contrary. How you construed my opposition to wars (fought by mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters) and the violation of civil liberties (personal security and freedom for you and your children) as not in the interest of families is beyond my comprehension.
But it was you who chose to bring emphasis to the issue of family leave in a discussion of “what’s at stake for everyone.”
Lisa D. // Aug 14, 2008 at 3:50 pm
The funny thing is that I totally agree with everything you say– I absolutely agree that we need to deal with the issue of this war and intrusion into our civil liberties. I totally agree that war is a family values issue. It’s not that I don’t think that they are part and parcel of the issues facing families. What I do take exception to is the idea that women’s issues, especially, should come second to those other issues. I don’t, for instance, think that we need to fix the other stuff before we get to issues that face women and families. Those issues don’t rank second– they inform a whole host of issues like poverty, racial discrimination, classism, and the like.
You seem most irritated about my inclusion of family leave, but the demand for non-discriminatory policies for parents is only one part of this book. And I still believe that it does effect everyone. If women and parents are at a disadvantage economically, it does matter to the health of the democracy.
So yes– address the other issues. Please. But I’m not willing to sit around and wait for the big boys in Washington to clean up the mess before I advocate for family-centered initiatives.
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