by Joan Blades, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner
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Product Description
Motherhood in America is at a critical juncture. As women’s roles evolve, more women than ever are in the workforce and more children than ever are raised without a stay-at-home parent. At the same time, public and private policies that affect parenting and the workplace remain largely unchanged. The result is that parents, and mothers in particular, struggle to balance the needs of their children with the demands of their jobs. Some believe that mothers should balance parenting and career. Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe Finkbeiner dare to argue otherwise. In The Motherhood Manifesto, the authors argue that it’s time for broad change in America’s attitude towards working mothers. In both public and private sectors, radical shifts are needed to make parenting and the workplace compatible. The Manifesto identifies and demolishes the obstacles facing working mothers today, and proposes concrete solutions.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A Call for Progress, 2008-11-19
This book is a call for progress. It includes realistic situations, but I felt like something was missing from it. Perhaps the tone was too radical for my liberal taste, as I would have preferred more from the other side. But the book is definitely pro-family in that it's manifesto includes a lot of points that benefit families. Maternity and paternity leave, flexible leave time, healthcare, childcare, realistic and fair wages, television options, etc.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Organized, Comprehensible Guide to Mothers' Rights, 2008-10-21
This book is inspiring to future mothers, new mothers, and grandmothers. It's neatly organized into six sections, all of which give the reader a quick insight into both the problem and the solution for that area. The best part of the book is that it offers simple solutions to widespread issues, such as paternity leave, flexible and part-time work schedules, afterschool programs, responsible childcare and more! I recommend this book to every future mom to understand the obstacles in this nation for parents. I recommend this book to every new mom to understand that all parents are in that same boat with you. I recommend this book to every advocate to recognize simple and affordable changes we can make in our nation to raise our children better. This book is not just for moms. It describes a plan to make a better America for everyone.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Ideas...No Way to Realistically Accomplish , 2008-06-29
Reading this book made me really, really, unbelievably sad...but then, all books of this nature tend to do that to me. I am of two minds on this one...part of me really liked it, but the rest of me loathed it. I do think that probably all women who are in their early twenties, at the start of their career track and considering "having it all" (the career, the husband and the kids) should read this, because there is a harsh reality that comes with being a mom (or dad) AND working full time...and the alternative of one parent staying home requires sacrifices that are just as great (unless you're lucky enough to have a spouse that actually does make enough to support this...and fewer and fewer do anymore). Reading something like this would have been a real eye opener for me ten years ago...and I probably would have made different choices than I did in having our children...I went into it blindly, thinking it would all work out because we decided to undertake parenting as a joint venture, but the reality is quite different than what one might think. Parenting is expensive and hard...but mostly the expense is hard to deal with (the rest has its rewards and is therefore easier to take).
The book stresses that families NEED two full time working parents to make ends meet and doesn't seem to take into account people who choose to do with less (like one car instead of two, second hand instead of new, ect...) to have one parent stay at home and the other work full time...but the reality is that for the way most people live and the wages they can realistically pull down, both do need to work just to make a basic living wage with no bells or whistles. What got my dander up is that the book proposes that mothers WANT (or need) so much and they should get it just because they are mothers and it's the right thing to do...without any REAL ideas on how these changes could be brought about realistically. The reality is that unless you already are at a job (that has a family friendly staff) you're probably not going to be able to negotiate flex time or bring your kid to work (and how many single, or non parent people...or even parent people) WANT someone's kid at work all the time (or even occasionally)...I know when I worked, I hated it when people brought their kids in to hang out while they worked...it's disruptive even when the kids ARE well behaved...and most aren't.
The rest of it, well there are so many women (and men) out there who are vehemently opposed to any type of benefits for parents, because, well, how dare mothers or fathers demand (and get) benefits that singletons wouldn't get...and why should they have to pay for or support parents and their evil spawn...there is such a backlash against mothers out there that I am seeing seething out there these days...I don't see the manifesto being well received by men or women in general...and especially by those who have chosen not to have children. In some ways I can understand this, as ALL people parents or not, deserve to earn a living wage, have healthcare and all that stuff too, and I can see where the idea of implementing universal child health coverage would get the dander up in single people or childless couples, the same way paying taxes for schools they don't need and will never use does NOW. The same people that don't want to pay taxes for your kids to go to school, certainly won't want to pay taxes for your kids to have universal healthcare coverage.
Overall, I think it's a good book, but the reality of DOING what this book suggests is just mind-bogging. I don't see it happening anytime soon...my advice, unless you have a fantastic support system of child friendly family and friends...or a super high paying job that you're guaranteed not to lose in the next twenty years...seriously reconsider having children. Without one or the other (or, even better, both) becoming a parent will be a significant financial drain and you really will have a hard time properly parenting your kids...just read through the child care section in this book or talk to a few minimum wage working mothers with kids in substandard daycare situations if you don't believe me. Oh, yea...and I'm serious about the child-friendly part of my above statement...just because they are your family and friends doesn't mean they will actually want to help you or support you in your parenting emotionally or by offering supplemental child care and babysitting. Heck, we had a few friends that refused to socialize with us after our daughter was born...SOCALIZE, not watch our kids, just come and have dinner or play games or hang out...yea, that's right, you might actually LOSE friends by having kids because there ARE people who don't want to deal with them at all and/or who feel that somehow they'll be roped into helping with the rugrat...it does happen. I give the book B-...great ideas but I don't see the ieas here being easy to implement or widely accepted.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Some Good thoughts, but..., 2008-03-07
THE MOTHERHOOD MANIEFSTO is a good introduction of key points necessary to improve lives of mothers and children and families, both in the workplace and at home. Blandes and Rowe Finkbeiner present the following as a part of a 'Motherhood Manifesto' - key items that mothers and anyone who care about them should agree on to improve the lives of mothers and families:
M: "Maternity/Paternity Leave"
O: "Open Flexible Work";
T: "TV You Choose and Other After-School Programs"
H: "Healthcare for All Kids"
E: "Excellent Child Care"
R: "Realistic and Fair Wages."
Blandes and Rowe-Finkbeiner write in easy, clear prose (some may find it a bit too basic). They support the need for the 'manifesto items' with engaging examples of how mothers and families both struggle without the above elements, and how mothers, families, and businesses have made things work once one or more of the above 'manifesto items' are implemented. They also substantiate their claims with many references.
The book is a good introduction for those who are new to the topic. For those who are already engrossed in the issue, the book does not present anything truly new. As someone who has been interested in women's issues for years, this book really did not present any exciting new information.
The book definitely has its biases. Most importantly, in many ways, the book doesn't address the roots of the problems facing not only mothers and families, but society as a whole.
I couldn't help feel somewhat sympathetic with those 'evil' CEOs and others, who prefer to hire men and single women versus mothers. If we want to live in a society where we value profits and efficiency, pay the cheapest prices for products, do not want to pay our taxes, and want all kinds of luxuries, we pay for this by having absurdly low minimum wages, lack of benefits (especially for part time work) and in general a whole host of family unfriendly policies. Our institutions, all things being equal, will prefer to hire single women and men to mothers (noting that mothers perform the vast majority of child care duties).
Looking at the Point of View of the CEO who wants to maximize profits and efficiency, would you prefer to hire someone (all things, such as qualifications and skills, being equal) who leaves for months of family leave, sick leave (for taking care of those sick kids) and has to run home early in the evening to get kids out of day care, or would you prefer to hire someone who can work without all these interruptions?
Ultimately, we can't keep the kind of society we have (have corporations maximize profit, and businesses maximizing efficiency, expect to pay low low prices at our nearest Walmart for all kinds of goodies, and not want to pay taxes) AND have a truly family friendly society. We as a society have to determine what we really want for ourselves, our families, and our businesses, and make some hard choices.
While the Manifesto Items presented by Blandes and Rowe Finkbeiner are a good beginning, they should only form the beginning of a much deeper trend to change society as a whole so we value women (mothers and non-mothers), families, and children as they deserve to be valued. Profits and efficiency, fed by a consumptive materialism, will have to take a lesser role. Unless we realize that we can't have our cake and eat it also, mothers and families will continue to get the short end of the stick.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
read this book, 2008-03-02
A very important book. I agree that some issues were overlooked, but I think that for a simple manifesto format they covered the important basics.
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