Mom's Rising in the New York Times...

This is the organization that is supporting a new Family Leave Insurance Act Bill in Oregon. 

I Am “Mother of the Year”

By LISA BELKIN

I have been named Mother of the Year! You can see the news coverage for yourself right here.

I guess I should add the small detail that this is a plug-in-your-name-here type video that has been making the rounds in the past day or so, created by MomsRising.org. You can create one too, to honor your favorite Mom as Mother’s Day nears, by going here and entering her name.

I am happy to share the honor.

MomsRising.org was founded three years ago by Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbinder, with the goal of “creating a more family friendly America.” The group is an impressive work-in-progress, a test of the potential of the internet for grassroots organizing. The video, while a cute way to bring a smile, also has a message. The “news scrawl” is aimed at drawing attention to the fact that women with children earn less. It reads:

Moms in this country are way undervalued – Mothers make 73 cents to every dollar an equally qualified man makes at the same job – Single mothers make only about 60 cents to a man’s dollar – Those two facts, it should be noted, really suck – especially because men aren’t making much these days either – Over a lifetime mothers are paid anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million less than men doing the same work due to gender wage disparity. That’s a ridiculous “Mommy Tax.” A full quarter of US families with children less than 6 years old live in poverty – Well duh, all these other statistics would lead to this likely outcome – Motherhood is one of the hardest full-time jobs that does not come with Social Security or health benefits – It does however come with a lot of labor as well as love.

Have you paid a measurable economic price for being a mother? Is that society’s problem or a personal choice? And what can be done to change it?