Feminism 1.0, 2.0, 3.0…. the numbers make me think of the women upon whose shoulders we stand, as well as of the daughters who are coming after us.  The current work that MomsRising.org does, and the successes we’ve had thus far, are the result of a continuum of work done both by the people who are fighting for women’s rights now, as well as by those whose shoulders we stand upon.  The feminism 1.0s.

I’m reminded of these shoulders each and every day by a ring I wear next to my wedding ring.

This ring was given to my grandmother by my great-grandmother—a great-grandmother who was the first President of the Rochester, NY Planned Parenthood chapter in the time of Susan B. Anthony, and who my grandmother remembers as having stood tall in the face of priests banging loudly at her door protesting her teaching women about birth control in a time when only “people of ill repute” considered such a thing.

Then the ring was passed down from my Grandmother (who later boldly took over that Rochester Planned Parenthood presidency) to my mother who is a strong feminist in her own right and worked for many years as a social worker for Prince Georges County Family Services, and then finally to me when I turned 16.

It’s a bit of historical anchoring for me, reminding me that women in our nation got the right to vote not so very long ago.  Just XX years ago, believe it or not.  Also reminding me everyday that due to the hard work of the women before us, incredible battles have been won, including the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) which banned employment discrimination based on race, sex, religion, or national origin, and was a pivotal gain for women in the workplace.  So many gains have been made that I could fill pages and pages with a listing of the wins which place us where we are today.  I have to say a big thank you (but even the biggest thank you doesn’t seem enough).

I am reminded that all of us in our nation come from a long line of women for whom the responsibility of civic engagement was a given—and for whom the inequalities faced by women were walls to be broken down.

Right now that wall is smack dab in the center of motherhood, and we call it the “Maternal Wall.”

Breaking down that wall is a big part of modern feminism. A little know fact is that many women never even get to the glass ceiling because the Maternal Wall is standing in the way of ever reaching any rooms with glass in the first place.  And, over 80% of women in the United States have children by the time they are forty-four, so we’re talking about the majority of the women in our nation hitting this very same wall.

Here’s what that Maternal Wall looks like: Women without children make about 90, women with children make about 73, and single moms make only about 60 cents per a man’s dollar.

It also looks like this: A recent study found that given equal resumes, women with children are 79% less likely to be hired than women without children.

The Maternal Wall begins to explain why so many women, families, and children are living in poverty, why so few women are in national leadership, and also why not enough children are getting the healthy start they need.  There are long-needed policies  for family economic security—like paid family leave, like sick days, like access to early learning and afterschool opportunities, as well as fair pay—which are long overdue, and which each put a big dent in the Maternal Wall.

The Maternal Wall is a wall that still needs to be broken down for all of us, as well as for all the 3.0s out there, including my own daughter.

MomsRising.org is using the power of feminism 2.0 by reaching out to busy members online and on-the-ground with as many opportunities to engage in breaking down the Maternal Wall as possible, by actively blogging, twittering, and social networking, and also by using tried and true organizing tactics.

We live in a dynamic modern communications environment where the people in our nation work more hours per week than most any other nation, and where each person receives over 3,000 “hits” of media marketing per day (including the ambient advertising on clothing logos and the walls around us).  In many ways it’s harder and harder to break through this static to have our voices heard.  On the positive side, an increasing number of ways to become politically engaged are available due to new technologies, as well as the new tactics which come with those emerging tech platforms. New doors are opening.

Today’s new version of political engagement can include joining a “virtual” online community where one’s values and beliefs are represented more closely and stories can be shared while consciousness is raised that we aren’t each in this battle alone; as well as electoral engagement, and legislative advocacy, which can be broken down into small actions where each person can have an impact from a living room chair in the time between getting home from work and eating dinner.  It’s a foray into armchair politics with an all-together modern definition.

It also includes on-the-ground advocacy, media outreach, leadership development, and much more.  In fact, the modern political toolbox also includes blogging, voting, making art, running for office, protesting, writing, internet action, media outreach, educating businesses about new and better ways to make money without breaking our backs, playing music, defying stereotypes, cell phone organizing, directly lobbying for legislation, social networking, and otherwise crafting cultural change with emerging technologies.

Using the political toolbox in as many ways as possible at the same time can be powerful.  There is no one right way to fight for feminism 2.0 (a feminism which I define as the economic, social, and political equality of women—and no, with women still making less than men for the same job, and Congress comprised of only 16% women, we’re not there yet).

MomsRising.org is working to use as many tools as possible to make critically needed changes in the fastest ways possible, and to, importantly, provide as many avenues for the voices of mothers to be heard as possible.  We’re doing this in partnership with over 100 aligned organizations (and growing!) who have a combined membership of over 10 million, and in partnership with our over 150,000 very active members who in the last year alone have taken over a million trackable actions and have generated over 1,000 media hits.

Yes, we, as a dynamic movement of many organizations, bloggers, webspaces, and individual voices are evolving our tactics using the old and the new together to break down the modern barriers to equality.  It’s a new revolution of sorts. Feminism 2.0 is here.

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