Dear Linda,
I was just surfing the web after a long day at work looking for someone or something to validate what I do: Being a mother to a one year old and working fulltime at the same time.
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. . . being in a management position in the demanding hospitality industry, I do find that here in the United States there is little effort being made to encourage parttime or flextime positions in the coporate world. Coming from Europe, where there are goverment regulations protecing working mothers/fathers, I see many of my friends oversees being able to keep their jobs and yet spend more time with there childen than I can. I am insterested to find out from you what your thoughts are on this, and if there is any movement from working mothers asking our goverment to allow for more flexibility in the workforce?

Getting from the Government

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A Little from Linda

Dear Getting,

There are several mothers' organizations with policy agendas such as you describe. One, Moms Rising, was just started by the women from Moveon.org, the liberal internet organization. Others include Mothers and More and Mothers Movement Online.

As I say in Get To Work, women have been trying to get help from business and the government for almost forty years. The U.S., unlike Europe, has moved steadily to the right since 1968 and certainly since 1980, and almost all levels of government are controlled by Republicans at this point. So, unlike Europe, I see no help in sight. Continuing to press the conservative U.S. government for help is okay, I guess, but NOT A SUBSTITUTE for women acting as much as they can individually to improve their lots, and that is what my book is about. Otherwise, wishing for help where it is not forthcoming is the same as doing nothing.

L.