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.

A A A Comments By Eliza Strickland Wednesday, Dec 6 2006

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In response, Rowe-Finkbeiner says she believes a fair number of women are staging "offline" events using the MomsRising DVD and not necessarily coordinating through the Web site. Blades notes that the Internet is only one form of communication; the word about MomsRising can also spread by phone, over a neighbor's fence, and at playgrounds. There's no way to quantify those actions, however, and the group's effectiveness with the huge numbers of working mothers in the trades and service industries remains to be proven.

One thing that MomsRising can ensure, though, is that if a woman can find time to be pissed off about the unreasonable demands and unfair choices she's confronted with, she can find time to participate in the group's campaigns. "That's one of the reasons for having an online, armchair model of activism," says Rowe-Finkbeiner. "I have a laptop on my kitchen counter, and often do my political activism while cooking dinner, and watching my two kids, and my puppy."

Paul Trapani

Joan Blades says she believes that working moms can become a potent political force.

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This, then, may be the modern feminist's new look. She has a diaper bag and a breast pump, a laptop next to the blender, a bellyful of thwarted ambition, and a level of outrage that is only beginning to become obvious in mainstream American society. It's somewhat surprising that no one saw the mothers' movement coming: After all, who hasn't cowered before the power and moral authority of an angry mom?