Home  About  In the News  Publications  Blog  Join  Donate  UW-Madison chapter launch Announcements National Expo: July 11th Hyde Park Summit: August 14-17 Essay Winners Announced in The Nation On Campus Iowa Chapter Holds Forum Zach Hindin in the GW Hatchet Coverage of the Johns Hopkins Chapter Launch > More "It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things." — Teddy Roosevelt    MoveOn.org founder fights for mothers > Roosevelt Home > In the News > MoveOn.org founder fights for mothers Your name: Your email: Recipient's name: Recipient's email: Message: Blades draws attention to pay gap, maternity concerns By Adam Sowlati 10/17/06 When doting children think of their mothers, many give flowers, cook dinners, buy chocolates or send cards. Few think of politics. But Joan Blades, co-founder of the liberal Web site MoveOn.org, insisted that moms merit the same political attention that unions and religious groups do in a speech last night organized by the Roosevelt Institution. “This is an attempt to put focus on an issue that does not get media attention,” Blades said, arguing that a free market economy doesn’t provide an ideal workplace for mothers. The free market, she said, does not allow women to take time off for maternity leave, creating a need for governmental intervention. As part of her presentation, Blades screened her documentary, “The Motherhood Manifesto,” which chronicles institutional bias against women in the corporate world and single women’s limited employment prospects. The film offers several possible remedies, including raising the minimum wage, legislating guaranteed paid sick days and allowing paid maternity or paternity leave for part-time workers. Like the Web site she co-founded, which was one of several political action groups that weighed in heavily on the 2004 presidential election, the documentary was not without opposition. When the documentary showed a mother bottle-feeding an infant, one audience member objected, saying that breast-feeding should have been depicted because of its benefits to infants. Blades recently founded the advocacy group Mom’s Rising to increase awareness about the struggles mothers face in society, and she stressed that aiding mothers is not an issue of partisan politics. “We wanted to bring up issues that cross political lines,” Blades said. “It’s going to take a massive amount of citizen support to get things to happen. Our best shot is massive organization of people to make these changes.” Blades said over 55,000 people have signed up in support of Mom’s Rising, far short of the three million members that MoveOn.org boasts. Williams said she hoped the documentary would spark a public interest by screening “The Motherhood Manifesto” on PBS and in film festivals. Blades also referenced MoveOn.org in her remarks, saying that the group is currently lobbying for digital voting machines that create paper ballots. Click here to read the article from The Stanford Daily's website.   The Roosevelt Institution is a nonpartisan, nonprofit national think tank devoted to bringing students' policy ideas to the policy process. The opinions expressed on this site are exclusively those of its members. DC Headquarters: Roosevelt Institution / 2100 M St NW Suite 610 / Washington, DC 20037 || (202) 833-1359