Call To Action

Most women become mothers during their lives. All mothers spend enormous amounts of time, energy and resources caring for their children. Most mothers also do some type of paid work at some point during their active parenting years, modifying their participation over time to meet their own needs, the needs of their children, and the needs of their families. On Mother's Day, for a single day of the year, cards, flowers and breakfast in bed make the work of mothers visible and appreciated for a moment.

Yet for the other 364 days of the year, the work of caring slips into invisibility. In the GDP, it's invisible. In the Social Security system, invisible. To the IRS and the Bureau of Labor statistics, invisible. We are a country in which paid work is valued above all else, and since it is mothers who do the overwhelming majority of unpaid caregiving work, it is mothers who are paying the price. Mothers face a wage gap far greater than the wage gap for women without children. Mothers spend an average of 11.5 years out of the workforce caring for others, decimating their retirement savings and increasing their risk of poverty. The scarcity of and exploitation of part-time workers speaks volumes about how much society cares about mothers' ability to both maintain their economic security and fulfill their responsibilities as caregivers.

Over time women have won access to the paid workplace but mothers have not yet won social change that truly acknowledges the contributions of our unpaid care work to both the economy and society. Our society cannot hope to address women's needs without addressing mothers' needs. And society will not address mothers' needs until mothers get involved.

Click here to view the Mothers & More POWER Plan, a list that details the changes Mothers & More wants to see in public policy, private practice and cultural attitudes and how the organization will contribute to the effort of securing social and economic equality for mothers.