Tonight
we continued our series on maternity and work, focusing on mothers who work
outside of the home. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2012
labor force participation rate for all mothers with children under the age of
18 is just over 70 percent. Ryan and Cheryl joined guests and working mothers
Rae Mulligan and Bonnie Silvestri to dig a little deeper into what the
experience of being a working mother is really like. Rae Mulligan grew up in
Sarasota, Florida and graduated from the University of South Florida with a
degree in Women’s Studies and Sociology. Rae has worked at Northern Trust as
the Food and Beverage manager for over 14 years and is currently working on a Master’s
Degree in Hospitality Management. Strongly committed to family, equality and
the community, Rae is a Committee member of several different non-profits
including Equality Florida, Planned Parenthood and the Glasser/Schoenbaum Human
Services Center. She currently lives in Sarasota with her husband, Mark and 2
1/2 year old daughter Piper. Bonnie is a faculty member at
University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee in the College of Arts and
Sciences, where since fall 2007, she has taught Constitutional Law, Women in
Law, and Special Topics courses, including a service learning course called “Ending
Homelessness: How Can We Work Toward Social Change?” Additionally, she is
the advisor to the Social Justice Initiative at USFSM, which engages students
in community service projects to raise social consciousness. Previously, Bonnie
practiced law in New York, where she served as the first executive director of
the Judicial Campaign Ethics Center of the New York State Unified Court. Today
she lives in Sarasota, Florida with her husband Mike and daughter Daphne.
Rae and
Bonnie each shared with us how they became working mothers, and discussed the
experiences of arranging maternity leave, going back to work, being newly
postpartum in the workplace, and organizing child care. They each shared with
us the complex range of emotions they experiences along their journey,
including joy, guilt, pride, and stress. We delved into examining how support
for new mothers in the workplace can have a deep impact on families success and
happiness, and Rae and Bonnie discussed ways in which they had been support, as
well as places where they could have used more support.
We
closed our discussion by looking at the impact that gender has on how outsiders
view family member’s work choice. Ryan and Cheryl discussed the idea of the “do
no wrong” father, whose choices are praised as heroic whether he stay at home
or provide for the family financially. On the other hand, we noted that women
seems to be able to “do no right” facing scrutiny whether they stay at home or return
to paid labor. We also discussed strides which have been made as a whole to
create more gender equity in families, as well as the importance of equity in a
family where both parents are working.
TONIGHT’S TIP: End right by starting right—keeping all of
your prenatal appointments helps ensure a healthier ending.
BIRTH IN THE NEWS:
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