When I was in the third grade, my mom gave me a button to wear to school that said “I’m a mini-feminist.” Yes, it was the 1970s. And yes, I got teased. When I came home from school in tears, my mom explained that wearing the button was an important way to speak out for equality.
That simple lesson had a profound impact on my life: not only did I wear the button on my book bag from that day forward — I also have dedicated my professional life to the fight for equality for women.
Now, in the second year after becoming a mother myself, I am struck more than ever by how far we have left to go, and in particular, by the clash between our reverence for and idealization of the institution of motherhood, and our nation’s laws and policies. No matter how you look at it, we are quite simply not a mom-friendly nation.
Here are just a few examples:
- Although the federal provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave after child birth, there is no requirement for paid parental leave. In fact, in one recent of 190 countries, the U.S. was one of only three countries (along with Papua New Gunea and Swaziland) that failed to offer paid leave, and we are alone among developed nations in failing to provide it;
- More than do not have paid sick leave to care for sick children. Only 61 percent of private-industry workers have any at all to care for sick children or other family members. This problem is particularly acute for . As Joan Williams has put it, such workers are often “.”
- , "women are half of all U.S. workers and mothers are the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of American families." But despite this fact, there is a persistent pay gap between women and men that only increases when women become mothers—a phenomenon known as the ;
- Low-income women who are full-time moms are demonized as “welfare queens,” and our nation has like the “family cap” that penalize such women for having children;
- There is a stark lack of options for affordable, quality child care that is as cash-strapped states make cuts to early childhood education programs;
- The states have unleashed an onslaught of restrictions on abortion and birth control that will result in women being .
Geez, this is depressing. Someone get this mom some chocolate, fast!
There has been some progress for women’s equality in recent years—the 2009 enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored employees ability to have their day in court for ongoing wage discrimination, and more recently, the enactment of the new heath care law, the Affordable Care Act. The health care law has protecting the rights of nursing mothers covered by federal wage and hour laws to reasonable break time and a private location to “pump” breast milk on the job.
But we need to go much, much farther. We need real pay equity in the workplace, and must . We need paid parental leave and a guarantee of paid sick leave that covers caring for sick children or other family members. We need to ensure that every woman who becomes a mother does so by choice, not through coercion or lack of legal and accessible options.
We cannot hope to achieve full equality for women until our nation’s policies recognize the value of caregiving work, and adapt to the reality that pregnancy, childbirth, and caregiving are a part of the lives of many women in the workforce. And until all women have a meaningful choice whether to become mothers in the first place.
We clearly have a long way to go. So yes, by all means, get your mom that chocolate. But why not also honor her — and all moms — by working toward lasting change? No matter how you do it — be it wearing a button, calling your elected representative, or volunteering — on Mother’s Day, speak out for equality.
P.S.: Celebrate the amazing moms you know with , the brainchild of the fabulous women at !
Learn more about women’s rights: Subscribe to our newsletter, , and .
Learn More About the Issues on This Page
-
News & CommentaryDec 2024
Civil Liberties
We Need to Know More About State Supreme Court CasesWe Need to Know More About State Supreme Court Cases
State Supreme Courts interpret laws that impact some of the most intimate parts of our lives. Communities have a right to know what’s on the docket. -
Press ReleaseDec 2024
Civil Liberties
New ACLU Report Reveals Most State Supreme Courts Fail to Meet Key Transparency MeasuresNew ACLU Report Reveals Most State Supreme Courts Fail to Meet Key Transparency Measures
NEW YORK — Nearly half of all state supreme courts across the country fail to regularly post new cases they are considering, with only six meeting four key transparency measures already implemented by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a new report published today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The report identifies significant steps that state supreme courts should take to inform the public about their cases, which have only grown in importance as the federal judiciary has become more hostile to protecting core rights and advocates have turned to state protections and state court litigation in response. Based on an analysis of the practices and policies of the highest courts in each state, including D.C., the report “Scorecard for State Supreme Court Transparency: How Does Your State Stack Up?” ranks each state supreme court in five tiers based on compliance with four key transparency measures. These measures include posting new cases online in a timely manner, providing timely information about legal issues presented by cases, making dockets accessible and free for the public, and making merits briefing accessible and free for the public. “State courts regularly hear — and are the final word on — cases affecting abortion rights, voting rights, criminal justice reform, and more. Yet, in many instances, the highest state courts do not provide meaningful public access to information about cases affecting the rights and liberties of millions of people. We urge state supreme courts to bring more transparency to the critical work they do,” said Julie Murray, co-director of the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative. “In the face of a federal judiciary increasingly unwilling to protect core rights and an incoming administration that threatens to exacerbate that problem, state courts are an important defense for our liberty. They should be leaders in transparency, too,” said Bridget Lavender, Skadden Fellow with the Initiative. The report emphasizes that state courts “play an outsized role” in many parts of the law, but their ability to “guard our liberties depends in significant part on whether those courts adopt transparent processes.” It further highlights that state supreme courts have led the way on enormously consequential decisions in recent years. In particular, some state supreme courts have recognized the right of same sex couples to marry, and did so long before federal courts. They have also declared the death penalty unconstitutional under state law despite contrary federal law, protected access to reproductive health care as a right even as that right was being stripped away at the federal level, and provided more robust protection to people subject to unreasonable searches and seizures. The report urges state supreme courts to take action to improve their transparency practices, taking notes from the courts that have already implemented these measures. It notes that regularly posting new cases and the issues they represent, and providing timely access to dockets and merits briefing allows the public, the press, and the legal community to track cases as they unfold, identify cases with statewide consequences, and understand what’s at stake. -
Press ReleaseNov 2024
National Security
+2 Issues
ACLU Urges House to Kill Bill that Could Give Trump Admin Power to Crush Dissent and Go After Political EnemiesACLU Urges House to Kill Bill that Could Give Trump Admin Power to Crush Dissent and Go After Political Enemies
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union strongly urges the House of Representatives to vote NO on H.R. 9495, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, which would grant Donald Trump and his handpicked secretary of the Treasury power to investigate and effectively shut down any tax-exempt organization — including news outlets, universities, and civil society groups — by stripping them of tax-exempt status based on an unilateral accusation of wrongdoing. “Passing this bill would hand the incoming Trump administration a dangerous new tool it could use to stifle free speech, target political opponents, and punish disfavored groups,” said Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU. “The freedom to dissent without fear of government retribution is a vital part of any well-functioning democracy, which is why Congress must block H.R. 9495 before it’s too late.” While there is a 90-day “cure” period in which a designated nonprofit can mount a defense, it is a mere illusion of due process. The government may deny organizations its reasons and evidence against them, leaving the nonprofit unable to rebut allegations. This means that a nonprofit could be left entirely in the dark about what conduct the government believes qualifies as "support," making it virtually impossible to clear its name. Last month, the ACLU and a diverse array of over 130 other tax-exempt organizations — including human rights, reproductive health, and immigrants’ rights groups — wrote to Congress urging them to vote no. The letter also explains that the groups do not oppose the provisions in H.R. 9495 that relate to preventing the IRS from imposing fines and penalties on hostages while they are held abroad. Indeed, these provisions have already passed the Senate on their own, and if the House of Representatives were to pass a version of this bill that did not include the text of H.R. 6408, it could be sent immediately to President Biden for his signature. -
News & CommentaryNov 2024
Civil Liberties
Donald Trump Will Return to the White House in January. The ACLU is Ready.Donald Trump Will Return to the White House in January. The ACLU is Ready.
Starting in 2016, the ACLU filed more than 400 legal actions against Trump and his administration. As Trump returns to the White House, we’re ready to return to the courts and Congress to fight for our civil liberties.