Venus Rising

ProfileIssue: cancer 07

Joan Blades Helps Mothers Find Their Voice at MomsRising.org

Joan Blades and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, recently founded www.MomsRising.org with the goal of  “…mobilizing mothers and all who have mothers across America as a cohesive force for change.” In just under one year, MomsRising has grown to a membership of 120,000 people, which makes it one of the fastest growing networks of its kind. Named Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine in 2003, Joan Blades has a long, successful history of grassroots organizing for political and social change, including the creation of www.MoveOn.org.

So why start a virtual forum for political and social change for such an unlikely and unruly group like moms? According to MomsRising, “One study found mothers are 44% less likely to be hired than equally qualified non-mothers, and are offered an average of $11,000 lower starting salaries. Another study found women without children make 90 cents to a man’s dollar, mothers make 73 cents, and single mothers make about 60 cents to a man’s dollar.” If these numbers are accurate, clearly work still needs to be done to make sure that women and mothers are able to support themselves and their families, and now, with a mother/grandmother in office as Speaker of the House, the time may be right to gain some momentum on these issues.

The question remains though, with kids to take care of, and in many cases, full time jobs to go to, when do mothers have time to make any headway with Washington lawmakers? Since mothers don’t always have flexibility in their schedules to go out and get involved in politics, perhaps gathering in a virtual forum like MomsRising, will enable them to “organize” as a group every time they get on the internet. "...MomsRising offers easy entry into citizen advocacy," states MomsRising.com.

Joan is also the author of "Mediate Your Divorce" and an organizer of and a contributor to MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country: How to Find Your Political Voice and Be a Catalyst for Change.

Joan received her BA in History from UC Berkeley in 1977 and her J.D. from the Golden Gate University School of Law. She was an attorney in Alaska and California and taught mediation at Golden Gate University. She met her husband, a computer programmer, when the two were playing recreational soccer in the 1980s. She was a member of the board at Berkeley Systems and its Vice President of Marketing. Joan created many of the box designs for the early Berkeley Systems products such as Stepping Out and After Dark based on her original collage-art. Since May 2005, she has also been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. She lives in northern California with her husband and two children.