Podcast: Mojo Mom and Pundit Mom

What a week! The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first major legislation signed by President Obama. My friend Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner was in the Oval Office representing MomsRising.org during the signing. Way to go! This law is a major victory, even though it's just one step on the road to truly ensuring equal pay for equal work.

My guest Joanne Bamberger, author of the fantastic blog Pundit Mom, and I talked a lot about these issues in today's new Mojo Mom Podcast:

Amy and Sheryl are still empathizing with today's kids and their challenges with technology, as they grow up in a world where they have to "look good" online as well as real life. A recent Facebook experiment got Amy and Sheryl thinking about these issues.

Then one of our favorite bloggers stops by, Joanne Bamberger, aka Pundit Mom. Amy and Joanne have a lot to talk about with President Obama's first week in office, including his first major act, signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law.

By the way, we hope you'll listen to the podcast to find out how you can enter our next iPod Nano giveaway, to happen February 1 and at least once more before the new edition of Mojo Mom comes out on April 7. Enter now and you'll be eligible for all our upcoming giveaways.

Listen to the podcast now:

Opportunity to move Fair Pay NOW

Hi Mojo Mom readers: I am having a very busy day, and this important message came in from MomsRising, so I am going to repost it here--

From MomsRising.org,

How cool would it be for Fair Pay to be one of the first things that that President-Elect Obama signs into law? It could actually happen!

We just heard that the House is set to vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act this week, and the Senate could vote as early as next week! Turns out that while the economic security package is tied up in negotiations, there is a rare window of unscheduled open time to pass long-needed bills. Congress is thinking action…and thanks to the incredible advocacy of MomsRising members and our aligned partners over the past year, Congress is thinking fair pay!

Tell Congress to not to miss this open window to pass Fair Pay!

After you send your letter, forward this email to your friends so they can contact Congress too! Especially during these tough economic times, women need equal pay for equal work to ensure self-sufficiency and dignity.

Background about this issue: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act are important steps to making sure that women are paid what they are worth. These pieces of legislation would make it easier for women to recover lost wages from bosses who discriminate and by requiring the federal government to be more proactive in preventing and battling wage discrimination.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would improve protections for workers under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by allowing individuals to better fight pay discrimination, strengthening penalties for violation, compelling employers to explain wage gaps, and developing training for women and girls about salary negotiation.

Though they had strong support in the House, both of these bills were held up in the Senate. But the tide is turning and Fair Pay is a priority in this economic crisis. Together, we can pass these bills that will provide women the tools they need to gain equal pay for equal work.

Congress is meeting this week to vote on this bill, and the Senate could take it up as early as next week. And it's not a moment too soon--believe it or not, a recent study found that pay discrimination costs the average women $434,000 over a forty year period of time.1 Now, more than ever, women and families need the economic security brought by Fair Pay for equal work.

Tell Congress to pass Fair Pay today!

Thank you for all you've done to fight for Fair Pay -- we're in the home stretch now.

--Katie, Kristin, Joan, and the MomsRising.org Team

P.S. If you haven't seen the video of Batgirl fighting for fair pay yet, be sure to check it out. [Note from Amy: Yes, we have been fighting this battle since the 1960's!]

P.P.S. Innovative win-win solutions to work and family issues are more accessible than most of us realize. This weekend The New York Times highlighted one such innovative opportunity: babies at work!

For more information: Lifetime Losses: The Career Wage Gap

Batgirl fights for Fair Pay (check out the video)

It's a hectic day. I just got through reading through the penultimate round of Mojo Mom copyedits for the new edition. So I just have enough brainpower left to share this must-see video, courtesy of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner on MomsRising.org. She is wondering if you know how Batgirl, fair pay, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce mix.



I just have to point out that the Batman TV series ran from 1966-1968...before most of us were born. And Batgirl's problem is still our problem 40+ years later. Find out more about a simple step you can take to support fair pay. It could be worth $434,000 for you to get involved.

Pundit Mom's questions for "maverick" Sarah Palin

Yesterday I got the Soccer Mom Myth newsletter in my email box, and the authors asked whether the term "maverick" would resonate with women as well as it does with men, given that one of the definitions of maverick is an unbranded calf, cow, or steer, esp. an unbranded calf that is separated from its mother.

What an ironic identifier of rugged American individualism as applied to a mother of five!

Lots of Moms have questions for Sarah Palin, and Pundit Mom came up with an excellent list that she wrote as a blog posting on MomsRising.org, An Open Letter to Sarah Palin from Working Moms.

Starting with....

1. If you're elected vice president, what are you going to do to help all the other working mothers in America? You know, not all of us have the kind of support system of family and friends you do to take care of our kids, but we still have to work so we can afford food for the table, gas for our cars and the after-school day care arrangements because most of us don't have nannies....

So go read the whole post!

Read Ellen Goodman's column on the Fair Pay Act

The last week was a busy one for me as I had an intense training in California.

The night I landed in San Jose, the Senate blocked the advancement of the Fair Pay Act, aka the Lily Ledbetter Act.

I had emailed and talked to MomsRising friends about it, and I just now realized that I hadn't blogged about it!

I highly recommend that you read Ellen Goodman's new column, "The backward plight of the working woman." As much as I already knew about this bill, Goodman put it into perspective in a way that inflamed true outrage in me.

[Lily Ledbetter] was just 26 when Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed to enforce equality in the workplace. The old stalwart - equal pay for equal work - is so universally accepted that we choose to believe it's not just a law but a fact of life.

Our gal Ledbetter, however, worked for two decades in the not-so-female-friendly ranks of Goodyear. Only when she neared retirement did an anonymous tipster slip her a reality check about her paycheck. It turned out that as a female supervisor, she was earning less than her male counterparts. She was paid on average 79 cents for every male dollar, a figure suspiciously close to the national wage gap.

Ledbetter sued Goodyear and won. But Goodyear appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which decided 5-4 that she had to have sued within six months of her first unequal pay. That basically means that if employers can hide unequal pay for six months, they are scot free.

Goodman continues, An unequal paycheck is a thief that keeps on taking. Even in retirement, Ledbetter is still, in her own words, "a second-class worker" with a pension and Social Security check that carry Goodyear's bite marks.

The House of Representatives passed the Fair Pay Act to rectify this situation, stating that an employee could sue up to 180 days after the latest unequal paycheck.

Then last week the Senate failed to advance the bill. It received a majority of votes, 56 to 42 but needed 60 votes to clear a Republican procedural hurdle and move forward.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both voted for the bill. John McCain did not return to Washington to vote, which meant he effectively voted against it.

Here is a complete roll call that can tell you how your Senators voted. Please let your Senators know how you feel about this important piece of legislation.

MomsRising.org has a petition you can sign in support of the Equal Pay Act.

I've been in a number of interesting discussions with other feminists lately, and the Ledbetter Act is an important example of how many actions we have that we can all work on together. All women risk receiving unequal pay based on gender discrimination, and we need to flex our collective muscle to get this crucial law passed.