Parenting, blogs, and feminism

I recently wrote a piece for The Nation about the disconnect between mom activists/bloggers and young feminists, and I sent the link to Jessica and Courtney to get their thoughts.  Both of them disagreed—that they actually saw a lot of overlap between feminist blogs/community and parenting issues.  And it’s true. Feministing does post on these issues, such as here , here and here .

Yet, all of the mombloggers I talked to, feminist/activist/political or not, felt very separated from the young feminist community and discussions around it.  Blogs and orgs I mentioned in my article, like Sistas on the Rise and Hip Mama , as well as ones I didn’t, like MOMocrats and PunditMom , don’t often, if ever, get linked to on sites like Feministing, Feministe , and Broadsheet . (In fact, MOMocrats wrote me a letter telling me that my own omissions proved my disconnect theory even more.  Point taken.)  MomsRising shows up from time to time , but not in the context of reproductive rights, an issue that needs to be associated more often with economic parenting issues (e.g. maternity leave, daycare) if we want to have real choice.

I certainly didn’t mean for my piece to single out Feministing and feminists as the culprit for this separation.  It also has a lot to do with what the media focuses on when they talk about feminists—namely sex, reproductive justice, and body image—and by contrast what kind of mombloggers Oprah’s producers choose to feature on the show—not the feminist/political ones, to be sure.

I know that young women and feminists care about these issues.  My article (and Feministing) proves that. I also know that there are feminist/political moms out there.  Still, parenting organizations who are under the media’s feminist radar but instituting real change need to align themselves with younger feminist blogs and organizations that get more face time. And vice versa.  They should be linking each other, Twittering each other, and inviting each other to conferences.  There needs to be groups like the MOMocrats that includes and speaks to non-moms, too.  Young women need to not only comment on, but be engaged with these issues—and connect them to issues of abortion and birth control. It’s always hard to take action on issues that don’t directly affect you, but childless young feminists need to secure their futures.

In short, I think moms and feminists need to work together more.  What do you all think?