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About |
Who is MAW? | Feminist Moms? | What Does MAW Do? |
Issues Affecting Mothers
Who Are We?
We are mothers who have chosen to be the primary care givers of our children and believe that the ability to exercise this choice without the threat of social or economic penalties is part of the struggle for equality. We believe that the work of caring for our children, for our families (however we define them) and our communities must be recognized, respected and valued. We maintain that until the unpaid work done by women in the home and community is understood and valued as work there will be no real equality for women.
Why an Organization and Magazine
for Feminist Mothers?
Traditional right wing groups offer us support only within narrow ideological parameters. The feminist movement continues to remain uncomfortable with the idea of a mother caring for her children at home. It has seen such a choice as potentially threatening to the limited gains women have made in the public sphere in the last thirty years. MAW meets the unique needs of women who believe that the decision to remain at home with their children for some period is an affirmation of feminism, and who still face the isolation and stigma of this choice in today's society.
What Does MAW Do?
MAW offers mothers an opportunity to reduce their isolation, network with other women, and develop their abilities to create changes on both personal and political levels. MAW provides a support network through our public workshops, discussion and book groups, and various organizational committees. We also provide resources and materials for anyone interested in running a workshop or discussion group in their community. Through our national quarterly magazine HomeBase we voice the love and humor, isolation and politics of our experiences as mothers and as women.
MAW works to compile resources, provide information and advocate on social, economic and political issues concerning mothers from a feminist perspective. MAW addresses such issues as child care, economic security, rights and access to social benefits, gender equality in public policy, and the measurement and valuation of unpaid work in Canada's national accounts. Through our research, policy development, and advocacy- addressing both policy makers and the public at large, as well as participating actively in the women's movement- MAW seeks to make the contribution of mothers visible and valued.
Issues Affecting Mothers
Equality
We believe that an integral part of achieving equality for women is the freedom to define for ourselves the role of motherhood, the conditions of motherhood and the environment in which our children are born and raised.
We need not give up nurturing and care giving, but work to gain greater control of our lives in ways that will not divide us or reinforce inequalities of race, economics or gender.
Family and Family Caregiving
While family remains the basic unit of Canadian society, the social definition of family continues to change. MAW affirms the diversity and multiformity of contemporary families and maintains that it is essential to the equality of women that we strive for a sharing of responsibilities, work and resources within families. From society we demand family policies that concretely support the work that we do as care givers to nurture and sustain our families.
Child Care
MAW supports recommendations for an accessible, publicly funded system of day care as part of a comprehensive child care policy. For any child care policy to be truly comprehensive however, it must support the needs of mothers in both the paid and unpaid workforce. MAW maintains that this policy must recognize the choice mothers make as primary care givers of their children as an alternative within the child care system and not separate from it.
Contact MAW for more information.
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Mothers Are Women 1989 - 2003 ©