Are you caught up in the excitement of awareness from Maria Shriver’s A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything? We certainly are, and here’s why. The report makes it clear that there’s still much work to be done.

Fem2.0 is thrilled to announce that we have been given a grant to take the next step – to change the way work and families are discussed in our society, to shift it away from privileged "work/life balance" perspectives to one that better reflects the reality on the ground for millions of working families. We need this shift if we want policy makers to take working families seriously and act on legislation about such issues as paid sick days, healthcare, child and elder care, equal pay, etc.

As you know, Fem2.0 is about connecting today’s issues and women’s voices, using the Internet to promote better policies for our families and society. In February of 2009, we held our first conference, where bloggers, activists and many others gathered to discuss, dream and conspire about how to exercise the power of women on the Internet to change the world. To remind you about how much energy we generated, here are a few comments about the event:

"I was lucky enough to be part of the Inauguration – on the Mall with my newest 1.5 million friends watching history change in front of our eyes. Well, I didn’t realize that, just a few short days later, I would have the same sense of being part of history, of being part of a change that has the potential to impact millions. In this case, it is as I listen to speakers at the Fem2.0 conference on how women’s presence on the web is already affecting not just women’s issues, but everyone’s issues."

AAUW Dialog, 02.02.09

"To say the energy there was exciting is an understatement, the momentum began with the plenary and took off from there.  We are all deeply committed to the advancement of women’s rights in all areas."

Girls Just Wanna Have Funds, 02.03.09

"In Washington, DC, members of feminist organizations of long standing and feminist members of the blogospere met face to face for the first time. Now comes the hard part: to see what each group might offer the other… At the least, leaders of national women’s rights groups and the founders of fast-growing feminist blog sites gathered in the same room. That in itself was a first. And a major accomplishment, says Shireen Mitchell of Digital Sisters, one of the organizers of the Fem2.0 conference held in early February in Washington, DC… The mainstream women’s groups, aided by feminist policy groups and think-tanks, have a huge role in shaping legislation that affects women’s rights; the bloggers have far less of a direct role. Many of those at the Fem2.0 conference hadn’t realized that some of the women’s rights proposals they were backing had been drafted by the feminist women’s groups. That was one of the eye-openers at the conference, and bloggers sent in hundreds of requests for the list of top priority legislative initiatives that the mainstream groups had been working on."

truthout, 02.11.09

 The grant challenges the Fem2.0 community to demonstrate our commitment and our will to make a difference. Our job will be to disseminate commissioned research and guidelines on how to participate in the work narrative to get it where it needs to be, and to use the guidelines in a collective action that will flood the public space with opinions and real stories that shout: WAKE UP, THIS IS THE REALITY!

Over the next few weeks, Fem2.0 will be organizing and lining up our troops in preparation for the action, which will begin to unfold sometime in November. We’ll have more details later.

If you are interested in getting involved now, contact us at info@fem2pt0.com or Tweet us.

In the meantime, limber up, flex your muscles and get ready to kick some Internet ass!

Pumped up and ready, your organizers,

Joanne Bamberger

Heather Holdridge

Shireen Mitchell

Gloria Pan

Katie Stanton

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