Blog

This time of year, there’s a lot of talk about what moms need – and unfortunately, not enough action – so we figured we’d offer a little bit of help.

1. Paid Leave. Moms have a lot of people to look out for – their children, their partners, their extended families – and most importantly, themselves. Paid leave would lighten the load by ensuring that working moms could take the time they need to care for the people they love – and keep their jobs without being penalized by their employers.
2. A Raise. More than 50 percent of moms with kids are the breadwinners of their families. Meaning their wages supply the majority of their families financial support. Moms need better pay, and opportunities for better-paying jobs.
3. Ending the Motherhood Penalty. Speaking of better opportunities, let’s stop taking away opportunities from moms just for choosing to have children. Wage gaps widen thanks to the motherhood penalty, making everything mentioned above worse.
4. Affordable Child Care. Moms need quality and affordable child care so they can go to work and feel confident their children are cared for. Child care workers are overwhelmingly women of color, so these investments can also make their jobs better.
5. The right to decide if or when to parent. Moms should be able to choose to become a parent and how large their family should be. Judges and politicians have no business making reproductive decisions for other people.
6. An End to the Maternal Health Crisis. The U.S. has one of the highest rates for pregnancy related deaths in the developed world. The crisis is most acute among Black women. Four in five of those deaths are preventable.
7. Health Care. Moms need comprehensive affordable health care that includes reproductive health, postpartum care and whole woman care.

1. Irregular Work Schedules. On-call work and last-minute scheduling play havoc with workers’ lives – especially moms. This forces moms to make and break child care plans regularly. And the worst part – if work is suddenly canceled after they report to work, they don’t get paid.
2. Flowery Speeches. Those who do the least to make moms lives better, talk the most about the sanctity of motherhood. If mothers are so sacred – pay them a living wage.
3. Unsolicited Parenting Advice. Write a book, post to social media or tell it to your best friends. But don’t offer unsolicited parenting advice. Working moms need a raise and a break – they don’t need your advice.