MOTHERS Book Bag

Interviews with Shari MacDonald Strong

• As part of the MotherTalk blog tour*, Dewey from The Hidden Side of a Leaf interviewed author and editor, Shari MacDonald Strong about The Maternal Is Political and how she put the book together. June 9, 2008

• A Powerful Movement Puts Mothers at the Helm of Social Change by Courtney E. Martin of AlterNet, August 8, 2008

*In interest of full disclosure, Anne-Marie Nichols, the MOTHERS Book Bag blogger, works for Mom Central, who recently took over MotherTalk. Before that Anne-Marie was one of the MotherTalk reviewers. The blogosphere can be very small at times.

MOTHERS interviews Amy Richards

We recently had the opportunity to interview Amy via email about her book Opting In: Having a Child Without Losing Yourself.

MOTHERS: Amy, could you briefly describe how the "mothers movement" is different from the "women's (i.e. feminist) movement?

Amy: Both the mothers movement and the feminist movement are political movements -- to the extent that they are trying to correct social injustices or propose new directions that are inclusive of communities previously shut out of or not prioritized within mainstream society. Both movements also prioritize women and women's experiences. I think where they differ is that while feminism is a multi-issue movement, the mothers movement is prioritizing issues affecting mothers. And perhaps because of the existence of the mother's movement, I think that feminism has slacked on prioritizing mothers. Historically, feminism did a much better job of focusing on the rights of mothers and perhaps it's due to the success and independence of the mothers movement that they are allowed to slack.

MOTHERS: What work/life policies do you think could most open up the full range of opportunities to mothers, and others who parent?

Paid leave seems to be at the top of most people's list. As is, paid leave is left to the discretion of the employer and though if often is in their best interest, without government encouragement most employers opt not to take this initiative on their own. I also think that we have to redefine work to being about "goals accomplished" not necessarily about "hours worked." As is, we emphasize the latter and thus often prolong our days merely to prove that we can or to complete that task. Employees who are given flexibility in determining their work days are often as productive--if not more so, if in part  just to prove that they can be. Employees should be incentived not exclusively with more important titles and more money, but with more autonomy.

A MOTHERS interview with Riane Eisler

MOTHERS Council Member Valerie Young had a chance to interview Riane Eisler via email. Here's our interview with the author.

Q: What is "caring economics"?

Riane: Caring economics gives visibility and value to the most important human work -- the work of caring and caregiving. There's lots of talk about valuing families and caring for children, but present economic policies and practices fail to include caregiving work when it is done in households as "productive work." Not only that, professions that do not entail caregiving are uniformly paid more in the workplace that those that do.

So plumbers (the people to whom we entrust our pipes) get paid 5 to 10 times more per hour than childcare workers (the people to whom we entrust our children). Once we take the real value of caring work into account, we can meet the goal of economics: promoting human well being and development, starting in childhood. We can also change the shameful fact that in our rich nation, according to U.S. government statistics, women over the age of 65 -- most of them caregivers or former caregivers -- are twice as poor as men of the same age group.

More on Off- and On-Ramping

Interviews with Sylvia Ann Hewlett

• Sylvia Ann Hewlett discusses Off-Ramps and On-Ramps on ABC News
• Listen to Sylvia Ann Hewlett discuss "Extreme Jobs" on the HBR Ideacast
• Flex Appeal: Tired of Seeing Overburdened Moms Head for the Exit, Companies are Finding New Ways to Be Family-Friendly, by Virginia Bakaitis, November 12, 2007
• Opening the On-Ramp for Women by Stephen Kotkin of The New York Times, August 5, 2007
• Going off and on career path costly to women, says study, Seattle Times, August 5, 2007
• The hidden brain drain by Emily Wilson of The Guardian, June 4, 2007
• Work-life balance, The Financial Times, May 22, 2007
• Women, don't get on the work 'off-ramp' after childbirth by Marcia Heroux Pounds of TC Business Journal, May 18, 2007
• Trading Places: Researcher Sylvia Ann Hewlett on the challenges confronting at-home moms who want to revive their careers by Daniel McGinn, Newsweek Web Exclusive, September 18, 2006
• Career Track Challenges for Women: An Interview with Sylvia Ann Hewlett by Elizabeth Wilcox at Monster.com

More on Bernie Horn and Framing the Future

• Click here to read what people are saying about Framing the Future on the book's website.
• Book Review: Bernie Horn's "Framing the Future" by SusanG at Daily Kos, January 13, 2008
• Interview with Bernie Horn of the Center for Policy Alternatives Progressive Politics - The 2008 Election and the Center for Policy Alternatives by Georga Hackworth at Associated Content, January 16, 2008
• Debating Health Care, Finally by Bernie Horn at TomPaine.com, March 07, 2006
• Bernie Horn talks with Culture Shocks about his book, January 10.2008 (link to podcast at lower right side of page)

Interviews with Miriam and Andi

Podcasts

• The Glen and Helen Show: Advice for Daring Girls at Politics Central
• Motherhood Uncensored (Kristen Chase) - An Interview with the Authors at BlogTalk Radio

Blogs

• The Daring Book for Girls - Exclusive Minute With Manic at Manic Mommy

TV

• Andi and Miriam get interviewed on NBC's The Today Show

Political Cartoon

• Inspired by book comes "Hilary Rodham Clinton's The Daring Book for Girls" by Daniel Kurtzman at About.com

Interviews and Press: Mothers on the Fast Track and Mary Ann Mason

• Mary Ann Mason on why moms have such a hard time getting ahead - San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 2007
• New book outlines discrimination against moms - UC Berkelely News, June 12, 2007
• Mommy Careerist: New Book Offers Advice for Academic Mothers on the Fast Track - The Chronicle of Higher Education (need paid membership or day pass)
• The Parent Rap: A conversation with Mary Ann Mason on why babies matter (PDF) - The Graduate, UC Berkeley
• When Are the Easiest Years With Kids? - The Juggle at the Wall St. Journal, April 11, 2007
• Birds and Bees and Babies: The Mother-Daughter talk for the 21st century - OUPBlog, Oxford University Press, May 11, 2007
• The Working-Mom Quandary - BusinessWeek, June 4, 2007
• The Double Shift: Managing Careers and Families - The Pennsylvania Gazette, January 19, 2004

The Feminine Mistake - Media Reaction, Reviews and Interviews

Commentary and Reviews

• Women's Work: A journalist warns women that once they leave the career track, they may never get back on - Reviewed by Rachel Hartigan Shea, April 15, 2007 at the Washington Post
• Do stay-at-home moms risk their futures by opting out of the rat race? Diane Glass and Shaunti Feldhahn debate, April 12, 2007 at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• "The Feminine Mistake" In her new book, boomer Leslie Bennetts warns younger women of the perils of dumping fulfilling careers. I agree, but why are women always told they're doing something wrong? By Joan Walsh at Salon.com
• The Wives of Others: Are stay-at-home mothers putting themselves—and feminism—at risk? By Rebecca Mead, April 16, 2007 at The New Yorker1
• 'Feminine Mistake' is a hard sell on financial autonomy By Leslie Cauley of USA TODAY
• A True Feminine Mistake By David Blum, April 17, 2007 at The New York Sun
• Get Back to Work Review by Eugenie Allen, May 6, 2007, New York Times Book Review
• Will you regret staying home with your baby At Glamour.com
• The Feminine Mistake - When Leslie Bennetts urged women to stay in the workplace after starting a family, she outraged millions of Americans By JC Sutcliffe at The f-word - Contemporary UK feminism
• And Career Makes Three: Mothers don't have to opt out. And they don't have to feel guilty about it, either By Linda Tischler in the May 2007 edition of Fast Company magazine

Interviews

• The Feminine Mistake: An Interview with Author Leslie Bennetts By Caitlin Bergmann at iVillage.com
• The Feminine Mistake - an interview with Leslie Bennetts by Cindy Krischer Goodman at her blog, The Work/Life Balancing Act,

Interviews with Karenna Gore Schiff and Excerpts

Interviews and Excerpts:

• Author interview at Bookreporter.com (February 10, 2006)
• Online at the Washington Post - transcript (February 27, 2006)
• Stepping Out of "The Magic Circle": Nine Women Who Changed Modern America (excerpt of the book at MSN.com)
• An Interview with Karenna Gore Schiff by Jack Rightmyer at the Daily Gazette (March 12, 2006)
• Dad's defeat helped light the way for Gore Schiff by Bob Minzesheimer of USA TODAY (February 6, 2006)
• Karenna Gore Schiff at KLRU: TexasMonthly Talks (video clips)

Interviews with Carol Evans and Excerpts from the Book

Excerpts & Interviews:

• Working moms: You can do it all! In her new book, ‘This Is How We Do It: The Working Mothers’ Manifesto,’ Carol Evans writes about women who balance careers and motherhood from the Today show, May 8, 2006 (video interview of Carol Evans - click on button on left column)
• Working Mother's working mom-in-chief by Heather Salerno at The Journal News (April 22, 2006)