How the Media Treats Mothers and Caregivers Economic Rights Issues

Since before June Cleaver, the media have promoted a non-threatening, idealized model of the "good" mother. The media have never really addressed issues important to mothers and caregivers through informed reporting. Instead, they stage "cat fights" that pit stay-at-home moms against mothers who work outside the home. Responding to this inaccurate, incomplete reporting is one platform activists can use to raise awareness about the real barriers and challenges caregivers face, as well as the work that needs to be done to improve the lives of all families.

What role does the feminist movement play in the work/family conflict?

Anti-feminist forces would like you to think that feminism is to blame for the work/family conflict in women's lives. The truth is that married mothers' workforce participation started increasing in the 1940s in response to economic and social changes. Between 1950 and 1970, the number of U.S. children with employed mothers more than doubled—from 16 to 36 percent. Between 1970 and 2000, the number of children with employed mothers again doubled, to 70 percent.

A combination of structural factors contributed to the influx of mothers into the paid labor force, including women's greater employability due to higher levels of educational attainment and the rapid growth of jobs in "pink collar" and service sectors. Our nation also achieved historic increases in children's school enrollment, freeing mothers from child care responsibilities for a substantial portion of the work day. In addition, men's increased employment insecurity due to significant industrial and manufacturing changes and stagnating wages increased the need for two wage earners in the family.

The rising number of households headed by single mothers also contributes to the need for women to work outside the home. These changes are noted in "Unfinished Work: Building Equality and Democracy in an Era of Working Families" (edited by Jody Heymann and Christopher Beem, 2005). While a feminist outlook may have inspired many women to seek self-fulfillment through rewarding work outside the home, the vast majority of U.S. mothers seek outside employment out of financial necessity.

Does media coverage really matter?

Media stories on women, work and family often are incomplete, as they report only on the experiences and attitudes of small or elite groups of mothers. Reporters often use these small groups to convey their stories as common to all mothers. As Evelyn Murphy, author of "Getting Even," explains, "The media plays a huge role. Stories that feature only highly educated, high-earning women give the public the impression that these women represent all working women."

Typically, reporters fill out trend stories on women, work and family with anecdotal evidence, "expert" opinions, and findings from insignificant, inconclusive or speculative studies, all of which are presented as fact. "As statistics tell us that women are getting more college degrees, more MBAs, more MDs," writes media critic Caryl Rivers, "the more intense becomes the message that this is all a terrible mistake, that only by returning to traditional lives can women find true happiness. It's the media's main message to women, and it gets played over and over again." ("Selling Anxiety: How the News Media Scare Women", 2007).

According to investigative journalist E.J. Graff, "The media peddle stereotypes about everyone, including women. These sorts of unexamined stereotypes are like computer viruses: once they're clicked on, they start to dismantle women's careers, which then require a painful amount of time and effort to rebuild." (Interview by Jennifer L. Pozner, "The Tax on Being Female: 23 Cents per Hour and Counting", Women's Reviewof Books Vol. 23, No. 3, May/June 2006).

Instead of reporting real news about the problems working families face today, the media have created a series of cultural narratives emphasizing individual women's life situations to overshadow the reality that women's life options are shaped by social and economic forces beyond our individual control. Media-generated narratives have a profound influence on how the challenges for mothers and caregivers are viewed by the public.

For example, many people accept that the gender wage gap results from different voluntary choices men and women make about work and family, and media coverage reinforces this myth—making it more likely that employers, voters and lawmakers will dismiss evidence that sex discrimination and family-unfriendly policies and working conditions are major contributing factors.

The underlying, unspoken themes of mainstream media coverage on women, work and family encourage gender discrimination by reinforcing existing cultural biases, such as beliefs that:

• Women do not have social and economic equality because they do not want it.
• Women prefer dependency to power, are fearful of success, and engage in self-defeating behaviors that keep them from advancing in challenging careers.
• Women are more caring and less competitive than men and are less willing to make the personal sacrifices required for success.
• Women are petty, irrational, insecure, and are their own worst enemies. These caricatures include: perfectionist mothers who lose themselves in parenting, tyrannical female bosses, gate-keepers who won't "allow" their partners to share housework and child-care, and highly educated mothers who choose to give up lucrative careers for at-home motherhood—also known as the "Opt-Out Myth."
• Women face more problems because of the feminist agenda. Cautionary tales in the media include: successful single women who can't find a man because they're too busy or picky, child care and nanny scares, children looking for their sperm donor dads, and more.
• Due to their biology, women are not cut out for certain physically demanding jobs, or for stressful positions as leaders of business or government. Women's reproductive systems make them better suited for giving and nurturing life rather than competing in male-dominated fields.

Where are the middle class mothers and mothers of color?

If you read major newspapers and news magazines or watch network news broadcasts, you may have the impression that all mothers are white, married, college-educated and have (or have abandoned) careers in high-profile professions such as law, medicine, broadcast news or finance.

In fact, as you might imagine, that profile fits only a tiny fraction of U.S. mothers. The vast majority of mothers in professional occupations work in female-dominated jobs such as nursing, teaching, and social work. In the U.S., 75 percent of working women do not have a college degree. And although they are poorly represented in media reporting on working mothers,

African-American mothers have a higher rate of working outside the home than any other demographic. Married African-American mothers with children under 18 have higher rates of workforce participation than other married mothers (82 percent compared to 71 percent of white moms, 66 percent of Asian moms and 62 percent of Latina moms, according to the U.S. Census Bureau). National media reporting is often directed to targeted consumer markets, and the stories of mothers and caregivers in the "missing middle"—and the serious challenges they face in meeting their families' needs and making ends meet—are typically left out.

Is there anyway to hold the media accountable for misleading reporting?

Yes , by speaking out. For example, on March 8, 2006, NOW sent a letter to Good Morning America anchor Diane Sawyer and the show's executive producer, protesting their two-part series on the "Mommy Wars" that pitted stay-at-home moms against mothers who work outside the home (and over ten thousand messages from NOW activists echoed the concerns in our letter). Three weeks later, NOW President Kim Gandy and MCER Committee Chair Laurie Pettine appeared on GMA in a more balanced segment on March 31, 2006. This was a direct result from NOW's action alert that generated such an enormous response that GMA had to act on our request.

In response to an article criticizing reporting on the so-called "Opt Out Revolution" as socially irresponsible journalism (E.J. Graff, "The Opt Out Myth," Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2007), NOW organized a letter writing campaign calling for balanced and accurate reporting on women and work/family conflict. A key part of the MCER action agenda is combating misleading media coverage of mothers' and caregivers' economic realities, and there are many opportunities for members to participate in this ongoing campaign.

What you can do as an activist:

• When you see or read misleading stories or headlines -- especially trend stories based on anecdotal accounts that are presented as "news" or "facts" -- call, write or email the media outlet with your concerns.
• Write a letter to the editor about how you would like to see mothers and caregivers covered by the press. Use facts from the NOW MCER fact sheets or cite examples from our online resources list to give your statements more authority. For more tips on how to write a letter to the editor see NOW's MCER online guide at http://www.now.org/issues/media/070403mommyth.html.
• Comment on media web sites. Independent sites aren't the only online media that allow reader comments. Many mainstream media sites encourage readers to comment on their news stories, much like blogs.
• Join the NOW Mothers and Caregivers Economic Rights Community Building listserv at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NOWMCERCommunity.

What you can do with your NOW chapter:

• Devote a chapter meeting or organization program to feminist media literacy, focusing on women, work and family reporting.
• Create a media watch committee for your chapter. Have a small group of volunteers take turns watching and reading local media with a sharp eye on feminist issues, including mothering and caregiving. After you have 6-12 months of research, your chapter will be able to identify the feminist reporters and the not-so-feminist ones. Try to make friends with the feminist reporters. Send them thank you notes when they do something good. Clearly identify yourself as a member of a NOW chapter. Who knows, maybe they will call you for a quote!
• Develop a report from your research, documenting the good, the bad and the ugly in your local media's coverage of women's issues. Send a copy of this report to all your local media outlets and post it on the web.
• If your local paper shows a clear pattern of perpetuating stereotypes, ask for an editorial board meeting. You might end up meeting with the editor of the paper or even the full editorial board. Present your research (be prepared, there will be many questions!) and ask them to present women/mothers/caregivers in a more accurate light.
• Don't forget to send press releases about NOW actions and meetings to your local newspapers and radio stations—send copies to the news department as well as the community calendar. Follow up with a call if you really want their attendance. You may get coverage of some of your local events.

If you'd like to start your work on state or local MCER activity, contact NOW-MCER or visit http://www.now.org/issues/mothers.