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It sounds to me like the American media has decided to clamp onto the “Mommy Wars” thing like a chihuahua on a cuff … you know, SAHMs vs working mothers, duking it out over who’s the better parent and just what sort of birthday party meets the present criteria in suburbia.
This article is one of those blathers about blather being blather because it’s blathered about … if you get my meaning.
Basically, the topic appears to be a media-created ember, only still glowing because fanning the flames is an easy way to generate column inches.
This story gives more depth and may explain the trend.
The exaggerated “mommy wars” and the imaginary “opt out revolution” make for sensational copy in women’s magazines and titillating airtime on talk shows. Unfortunately for working parents everywhere, it also makes for one giant distraction from the real issues.
Unlike catty women, the unrest associated with inadequate health care coverage, meager parental leave policy, and inflexible workplaces in this country is very serious. For example, the United States is one of only five nations in the world that doesn’t require paid maternity leave. The others are Australia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea.
Shouldn’t that be the office gossip rocking the water cooler and the stuff of bold font headlines plastered across every newspaper in this nation?
The debate inspired me to look around a bit, however, and I’ve found some terrific places for women to hang out, read, learn, contribute, share, and work toward making the world a better place, SAHM or not.
How about MomsRising: Working together to build a family friendly America, for starters?
The site has blogs, hot issues, products, stories, groups to participate in, and at the moment even a petition drive going on:
Stop Discrimination Against Mothers!
“Do you have kids?” “How many do you have?” “Are you married?” You can be asked these questions during job interviews in Pennsylvania, and in dozens of other states, and it is perfectly legal for mothers to be denied employment based on their answers…AND IT HAPPENS ALL THE TIME! This month we’re focused on Pennsylvania, which has bill to stop hiring discrimination ready to go. Help make history first in Pennsylvania, and then across the nation by building momentum to end discrimination against mothers! Please sign on to the petition to support the women of Pennsylvania.No matter where you live, your petition signature is very helpful–it puts the Pennsylvania legislators on notice that the nation is watching.
The Women’s Media Center has been set up to, ” … assure that women and women’s experiences are reflected tin the media just as women are present everywhere in the real world; that women are represented as local, national and global sources for and subjects of the media; and that women media professionals have equal opportunities for employment and advancement.”
They present a lot of information and follow stories for and about women all over the world.
Also check out Mothers Movement for articles like:
Why we need time to care: The gap in U.S. family policy
I’ve come to understand caregiving not only as a core social and economic issue, but also as a deeply ethical practice. Not because caring for others requires exceptional self-sacrifice — under more equitable conditions, it would not — but because caregiving is one of the few activities of contemporary life that routinely grounds us in our humanity.
And:
Love: How do you know?
I’m occasionally accosted by well-meaning mothers and treated to the dewy-eyed question: Don’t you just LOVE being a mom? I yearn for the day when some stranger will say, “How’s it going? It’s hard isn’t it?” I yearn for that honest companionship and the sense that I’m not the only one who feels like this…or rather that I’m not the only one who doesn’t feel the way I think I should feel.
So, now we just need to get the mainstream media to focus on issues rather than projecting some hissy-fit slap fight as the relationship between mothers.
