The marvelous mom movement

Raised in an era that told them, "You can be anything you want when you grow up," many young women are realizing that, thanks to social structures still in place from the era of their grandmothers, "anything you want" couldn't be further from the truth.

Sure, they graduated from college. They were hired for good jobs. They moved up in those jobs. They had kids. They went back to work.

And that's where the trouble began.

They were passed over for deserving promotions. They weren't paid competitively with their male counter-parts. They went part-time to take care of their kids. When the company downsized, "part-time" ceased to be an option.

They got mad, and then they got organized.

According to a recent New York Times article, in the style and candor of MoveOn.org, a group whose premise it is to bring together working Americans and give them a political voice, groups of working mothers throughout the nation have rallied to create MomsRising, a mother's advocacy organization.

"In many ways, these groups are repackaging issues that have been around for almost 50 years and have proven intractable despite the efforts of legions of activists, lawyers and elected officials," the article states. "But what MomsRising has done, the organizers say, is frame its concerns as family and economic issues, which resonate for a younger generation of women. (They say they will include fathers later.)"

Thank god.

Too long have I discussed the blatant injustices of workplace gender and economics politics with student peers, both male and female, only to be met with blank, cynical stares that are followed up with depressing statements such as, "Well, I guess that's just the way it is."

And too long have women simply accepted their plight as "it's just the way it is," while taking a flagrant hosing at the office.

Using strategies not unlike those used by the Democrats to rally previously stratified support in recent elections, according to it's Web site MomsRising.org, the group advocates for paid maternity and paternity leave, open and flexible work, independent TV ratings systems and safe, quality after-school care for children, universal child healthcare and realistic and fair wages.

Through blogs and online petitions to state legislatures, MomsRising spreads an eerily-early-feminist message stating that, while some women may be content with being treated as second-class citizens in the workplace, numerous others are tired of taking these violations of their equality laying down.

MomsRising even created a documentary to spread awareness regarding the obstacles facing working mothers titled The Motherhood Manifesto, which was shown to a Washington D.C. crowd including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy.

The movement promoted by MomsRising gives me hope for numerous reasons.

As one of many young girls who was told, "You can be anything you want to be," only to realize from latter-day admissions from my mother that "anything you want" becomes severely compromised with the decision to have children, the growing awareness of the problems faced by working mothers ensures that if and when I decide I have children, my employers may be more enlightened to my needs.

Additionally, one hopes that advocacy groups like MomsRising will provide a sustainable check to employers that promise fair work and wage standards in writing, while failing to uphold them in practice.

Just as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth brought global warming to the undeniable forefront of national attention, so too should works like The Motherhood Manifesto be shown to convince detractors that say that workplace and social inequality "is just the way it is."

That way, someday, we can all tell our daughters, "You can be anything you want to be," without a hint of sarcasm or regret.

Reach columnist Maureen Trantham at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.