From Your (Wo)manInWashington blog
MOTHERS changing the conversation @ www.MothersOughtToHaveEqualRights.org

Kelly Coyle DiNorcia uses her degrees in neuroscience and education to out-maneuver two small children, care for an astonishing variety of animals, and run an ice hockey organization with her husband. She thinks “work life balance” is a lie and spends  her time careening from one extreme to the other.

If your daily roundtrip commute to work is around 40 miles then you are spending approximately $2,000 per year on fuel.  AAA estimates that the hidden costs of car insurance, oil changes, annual depreciation on your car purchase, etc. add a whooping $3,000 more to your annual costs. In addition, you are pumping approximately 20 pounds of CO2 into the atmosphere per gallon of gasoline during your daily commute.

Editor’s note: This was originally published at Role/Reboot.

October is annual National Work & Family Month. Who knew? A 2003 U.S. Senate Resolution declared this to be the month of “encouraging workplaces to pause…and reflect on the progress already made on the journey to work-life effectiveness, to celebrate and then raise the bar moving on to even more pervasive progress.”

Though it’s admirable to encourage employers to reflect on the issues of work/life balance and workplace fairness, I’m not popping the cork to toast progress just yet. From a worker’s rather than an employer’s perspective, National Work & Family Month seems like an opportunity to recalibrate where work/life issues are headed.

Every October, National Work and Family Month gives me flashbacks.

When I became pregnant, I was a manager at a high-tech company. My job was at least fifty hours a week and, given a recent merger, would now include coast-to-coast travel. With my husband working crazy hours as a new associate at a law firm, we knew something had to give.

No problem, I’m a valued employee. I’ll just propose a part-time schedule for myself. So I did my homework and put together a proposal to go part-time based purely on business reasons. Doing my best to hide my queasy stomach, I flew to the East Coast and met with my new boss. I pointed out the advantages of having me part-time on the West Coast and hiring someone else part-time on the East Coast: lower travel costs, someone available in person in both locations, and the ability to hire two people with complementary skill sets and experience for the same money.

By Ashley

On October 1, 2011, I sat on the bathroom floor of the LSAT test center pumping milk for my 5 month old son. I felt dirty, embarrassed, stressed, and alone. Things no one should feel as they are in the midst of taking one of the most important exams of their life. An exam that is key to gaining entry into a profession that fights for and defends the rights of all individuals to compete on an even playing field so they can live up to their full potential.

A few months before signing up to take the LSAT, I called the organization that administers the LSAT, the Law Schools Admissions Council, and asked if I could get an additional 15 minutes added to the break time provided, and be given a private place to pump breast milk. LSAC denied my application because breastfeeding is not considered a “disability.”

By Galen Sherwin, Staff Attorney ACLU Women’s Rights Project

Women should not be forced to choose between breastfeeding their babies and pursuing a legal education — right?

Wrong — at least according to the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), the organization that administers the LSAT.

This summer, our sister organization, MomsRising, contacted us about one of their members, Ashley (she prefers that we use only her first name), a new mom who was planning to take the LSAT in October. Ashley had asked for additional break time so that she could pump breast milk for her 5 month old son during the test. (It typically takes half an hour to pump, but the LSAT only has one 15 minute break during the test). Her request was denied — when she initially called to request this accommodation, she was told she would either have to take the test under standard procedure, wean her baby in time for the October 1 test date, or opt to take the test at a later time when she was no longer breastfeeding. Seriously.

This past Saturday, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) completed its 16th Biennial Convention. where we recommitted ourselves to those priorities that are so critical to working women and their families.  The highest priority at our founding convention 37 years ago and now is JOBS!  But when we talk about jobs we mean decent jobs at union wages, with union negotiated benefits and at union negotiated salaries: Jobs that will support a decent standard of life for women and their families.

Today labor and women are the focus of the twin attacks by the right wing – that are committed to taking back our hard won rights – whether in the form of reproductive rights or our right to a voice in the work place thru the collective bargaining process.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ”there are only two ways to bring about protection for workers…. legislation and unionization.”

On the occasion of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to October 15, MomsRising is celebrating Latina mothers across the United States, ¡Con Mucho Gusto! (With great pleasure.) With a population of 50 million in the United States (1), Latinos have and will continue to contribute to our country in a myriad ways to our economy, our children’s education, and our culture. When Latino families thrive, we all benefit from their contributions whether through taxes to our economy, volunteer hours at our children’s schools, or multicultural events.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, MomsRising is hosting a blog carnival — ¡Con Mucho Gusto! — to recognize the many contributions of Latino parents who strive every day to make a better life for their children and to strengthen our country as a whole. We also want to renew our promise to help Hispanic families attain the American Dream as part of our mission to achieve economic security for all families in our country, to help all children acquire a healthy start in life, and to end civil and human rights abuses in the name of immigration enforcement.

President Obama recently laid out his new “American Jobs Act” before Congress in the hope of revitalizing our economy, putting the willing to work and finally ending one of the Nation’s longest and worst recessions.  With unemployment at a startling high–and making only marginal, if any, improvements monthly–the country has one thing on its mind…JOBS.

The White House put much time and effort into outlining the effects of the Jobs Act for all demographics, including a fact sheet devoted exclusively to the effect on women and the economy.  Still it is hard not to wonder if, during this hoped for recovery from what is widely coined the “mancession,” we will again need to remind the Nation to “remember the ladies.”