New York Mothers Take on Family Paid Leave
According to a recent Healthline piece, the stats aren’t good. For 40 percent of women don’t qualify for the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This is unpaid leave, and for paid there, as many know, there is no federal paid maternity leave.
Enter the power moms. The Chamber of Mothers is a collective movement to focus America’s priorities on mothers’ rights. Their first goal is to secure federal paid family and medical leave.
The Chamber of Mothers has shared in their first statement, “The movement for a federal paid family and medical leave program has existed for decades, and due to the tireless work of a diverse coalition of advocates, it’s now poised to secure America’s first-ever national paid leave policy. However, paid leave is at risk of being cut from the final legislative package – which is why we need to mobilize more voices than ever before to demand that Congress delivers for women.”
Let’s Get Loud
Author and journalist Alexis Barad-Cutler, one of the founding mothers of Chamber of Mothers, shared with New York Family, “Now is the time to GET LOUD about making paid leave a national policy and keeping it in the Build Back Better recovery package. If we don’t rally mothers around this issue in a serious way, this could potentially die down and get cut from the package. We don’t need another hot button issue to get angry about on social media every year. We need a groundswell that results in real change on Capitol Hill. The Chamber of Mothers is that coalition for change, creating a collective power source to amplify and support the advocacy groups that have been doing this work, and to focus the lens on mother’s stories in a way that has not been done before. Paid leave is not only about mothers, but we have to talk about the specific kind of recovery that mothers’ bodies require after birth, because that recovery is bloody, messy, inconvenient, and raw. We are not going to fit into a politician’s neat little four-week package.”
How you can help
The Chamber of Mothers is partnering with the paid leave advocacy movement and organizations such as Paid Leave for the U.S. (PL+US), to channel mothers’ outrage into a groundswell on Twitter and Instagram to keep paid federal leave in the Build Back Better bill. This major social push will provide wind in the sails of movement leaders within the Paid Leave for All coalition, groups like Paid Leave for the U.S. (PL+US), MomsRising, Family Values at Work, National Partnership for Women & Families, Caring Across Generations, and Zero to Three, among others.
Campaign details
Today (November 17th) starting at noon, the coalition along with other mothers are creating a social media disruption across Instagram and Twitter, calling people to join the Chamber of Mothers and demand federal paid family and medical leave in the United States.
How to participate
- Post THIS IMAGE on Wednesday 11/17 on Instagram and Twitter and tag @chamberofmothers.
- Use the caption: Dear Congress, We can’t #BuildBackBleeding. We need federally protected paid family and medical leave. @SenSchumer #SavePaidLeave #ChamberofMothers.
- Tag 3 accounts to share the image and caption to spread the message.
- Sign up to join the Chamber at chamberofmothers.com and encourage followers to do the same and contact their senator paidleave.us/email-your-moc
As the Chamber of Mother’s states, “Today’s immediate goal: To stop the feed and make everyone pay attention to mothers’ needs. We want to put Congress on notice that we are paying attention, we are angry, and we are ready. Our first action items as a coalition is to assemble, and secure federal paid leave. Once assembled, we will work with advocacy groups, companies and Congress to tackle every issue that’s holding modern mothers back from being whole. ”
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