Americans often take pride in ways their nation differs from others. But one distinction — lack of a nationwide policy of paid maternity leave — is cited in a new report as an embarrassment that could be redressed at low cost and without harm to employers.

“Despite its enthusiasm about ‘family values,’ the U.S. is decades behind other countries in ensuring the well-being of working families,” said Janet Walsh, deputy director of the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. “Being an outlier is nothing to be proud of in a case like this.”

Human Rights Watch, based in New York, focuses most of its investigations on abuses abroad. But on Wednesday, with release of a report by Walsh on work/family policies in the U.S., it takes the relatively unusual step of critiquing a phenomenon affecting tens of millions of Americans.

The report, “Failing its Families,” says at least 178 countries have national laws guaranteeing paid leave for new mothers, while the handful of exceptions include the U.S., Swaziland and Papua New Guinea. More than 50 nations, including most Western countries, also guarantee paid leave for new fathers.

Read the whole piece here

1.) Paid Sick Days Campaign

We kicked off the year in full force with an exciting new campaign for a critical protection: paid sick days. While, unfortunately, the bill did not make it through the legislature this year, significant advances were made by way of increasing public understanding and dialogue of the policy and demonstrating public support for this workplace standard.

A highlight from the campaign was when we partnered with the Maine People’s Alliance and MomsRising.org to deliver a heap of fortune cookies with personalized messages in support of paid sick days to the legislature. Why? Because healthy workplaces are worth a fortune!

What’s next? We’re not giving up! Right now, more than 200,000 Maine workers lack even a single paid sick day from work. Thousands of others risk discipline or termination simply for using time they’ve already earned. Maine Women’s Lobby will continue to work with the Maine Working Family Coalition to advance legislation to support working Mainers, including paid sick days.

Read all about it here – for all of our blog posts from the campaign.

2.) Lilly Ledbetter in Maine

Right now, the wage gap is at 77 cents to the dollar – which is to say that for every full dollar a male earns, a woman earns, on average, 77 cents. The plaintiff in the employment discrimination case Lilly Ledbetter vs. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and namesake for the 2008 Lilly Ledbetter Fair Paid Act, Lilly is one of the nation’s foremost advocates for closing the wage gap. We were incredibly fortunate to have Lilly come to Maine and deliver an inspiring speech on her long-fought battle for equal pay. In the midst of our campaign for paid sick days, her passion and story were particularly inspirational for our work.

Check out some great photos from the event here.

3.) Safe Cosmetics

Toxic chemicals in my shampoo? Oh my! This year, the Maine Women’s Lobby’s sister organization, the Maine Women’s Policy Center, vamped up organizing with young women and worked to support the formation of a student-run group, Women Against Toxic Cosmetics Harm (WATCH). This group of 20 passionate young women worked together to advocate for needed political reform of our broken chemical safety system. In their first six months of operation, they successfully launched three creative and successful press events, conducted campus and community-wide public education, initiated online actions, organized in-district visits, and placed a number of opinion pieces in both campus and local newspapers.

In 2011, we will continue this work by engaging with student leaders and working with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England to create a statewide network of young women advocating for chemical safety reform.

For press clips, and videos from this work, click here.

4.) Elena Kagan

On August 5, with a 63-37 vote, the United States Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. And this fall, three women took their seats together on the bench for the first time in United States history. The Maine Women’s Lobby was there all along working to engage Mainers in the process and to advocate for Kagan’s confirmation. We convened a coalition in support of the effort, organized watch parties across the state, and met with our Senators’ staffers. We want to sincerely thank Senators Snowe and Collins and all of our activists out there for making sure that Elena Kagan was confirmed as the fourth woman to join the bench in the Court’s 221-year history.

Read more about the confirmation process here.

5.) She Decides

This fall, the Maine Women’s Lobby launched a new campaign to make sure that women’s economic concerns were front and center this election year. SheDecides is a nonpartisan campaign to demonstrate the importance of women – particularly unmarried women – in the elections. SheDecides is our pocketbook agenda, and it’s a roadmap for candidates who want to speak to the economic reality of women’s lives.

We asked candidates to share where they stand on the minimum wage, paid sick days, family friendly workplaces, paycheck fairness, and access to jobs and education. And, we took those messages to the campaign trail. After holding a kick-off event on Women’s Equality Day, women in bright green SheDecides t-shirts were visible at forums across the state and earned coverage on WMTW and in the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Phoenix. We matched these on-the-ground efforts with online action—our activists generated 500 e-mails to ask candidates where they stood on our pocketbook agenda. Then, the SheDecides team knocked on doors and shared these answers with women voters by sending a voter education mailing to more than 14,000 women statewide. Check out www.SheDecides.org to learn more.

And, that ain’t all! As we gear up for the start of the new legislative session next week, look out for the SheDecides team! We’ll be brushing off those green t-shirts and heading to the legislature to advocate for Maine women!

Want up-to-date news on SCOTUS and how you can be part of the process? Sign up here and be “in the know” when it comes to SCOTUS this summer.

This October, Senate President was interviewed on the Paid Sick Days Bill that she will introduce in response to the H1N1 outbreak. Libby explains that while the purpose of this bill is to prevent the spread of H1N1, the important thing is that we address the need for paid sick leave, both for illness and for safe days for victims of violence.

No one knows better about how the health care system is failing than the women-young and old-who met with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius today in South Portland. The Maine Women’s Lobby and AARP brought together the group of women leaders to discuss why women’s health issues are critical in the national health care reform debate. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree also participated, providing Maine women a chance to tell their stories about how health care issues affect them and their families and why reform must happen this year. Read more…

Congresswoman Pingree, Sarah Standiford, Nancy Kelleher with Secretary Sebelius

Maine Women Leaders Join the Discussion

Check out some of the press from the event:

New York Times and photo

CBS news blog

WGME (video)

WMTW (video)

MPBN

WCSH (video)

Sun Journal

Bangor Daily News

Press Herald

Kennebec Journal

Associate Press

So, I started asking around … and here are some reflections from the women of the Maine Women’s Lobby:

Director of Public Policy, Laura Harper, and some of her lobbyists cohorts.

Here’s what Laura had to say:

I feel certain that my experiences lobbying for marriage equality will never be matched. Every day, I came out to legislators. I shared with them my commitment for my partner, Lauren, our engagement, and the fears and discrimination I have faced during our partnership because we can’t get married.

It was a rush. It was exhausting. It was scary. It was joyful.

When the Governor signed the bill into law, I was waiting with other advocates outside his office. When a member of his staff discreetly stuck her head around the door and whispered, “He signed it,” I knew I was a part of Maine history. I knew it would be a moment I would never forget, similar to when President Obama was elected or when we finally passed the anti-discrimination law in Maine.

I will return to that moment again and again. There will always be a part of me that will never age, there will always be a young woman standing there in her little suit with her sweaty armpits and rumpled tissue thinking, “Oh my God, we’ve actually won.”

Here’s Sarah, our Executive Director:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s Kim Simmons, one of our board members:

The highlight of the 124th Legislative session, for me, was the passage of the Marriage Equality Bill!  I am impressed with the cooperation that emerged in the 124th Legislature and with the fact that our leadership is female. Nevertheless, I was disappointed not to see more radical and progressive action taken to redistribute wealth in our state, to protect the poor, and to address the absence of paid sick leave which creates both the potential for a public health crisis and family emergencies on daily basis. It seems to me that we have a unique moment to truly push for tax policy that is rooted in social justice priorities and reflects the interests of most Maine people, and I hope that more progressive and innovative thinking will emerge in the second session of the 124th!

Charlotte at the State House

And, here’s what I think:

So, when I think back on the 124th session of the Maine Legislature, my first thought is, “phew … it’s over.” And don’t get me wrong, I love the excitement of the session. I love the exhilaration of the wins – and the opportunity of the losses. And, I guess in a lot of ways I would describe this past session as a roller-coaster ride – we were up, we were down, we were recessed, we were tabled … Oh yeah, I was paying attention to the play-by-play afforded to us by Laura, her Blackberry, and Twitter … and I was addicted! Check out our newsletter archive to review the roller-coaster ride.

So, enough about us. What do you think? Add your reflections today.

PS: Yes, “phew” is actually a word. It’s in the dictionary and everything.

Thanks everyone,

Charlotte

Throughout the past 2 weeks this giant baby bottle has been traveling across the state.

In the photos below, a group of children from a local daycare joined us – with their own handmade signs.

For more information about our work to “Get BPA out of our bodies,” and to sign the petition, check out the action page of our website.

Check out the article from the Times Record.

The Sun Journal editorialized against the decision.

And here’s what Sarah said, “The Sun Journal editorial stating that a transgender woman should use the men’s restroom misrepresents gender identity and discrimination.” (Go Sarah … Go Sarah.)

Check out the articles (I’d advise against perusing the reader comments – unless you’re lookin’ to get fired up) and then tell us what you think …

PS: I have to send a shout-out to Pam and her “Pam’s House Blend” blog. Check it out… and then come back and give us your take.

To honor Dr. Tiller, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, the Family Planning Association of Maine, the Maine Women’s Lobby and the Maine Civil Liberties Union will hold a candlelight vigil Thursday, June 4th, at Monument Square in Portland. The vigil will begin at 7:00 pm. Speakers from the faith and women’s health communities will offer remarks to honor the memory of Dr. Tiller.

WHAT and WHERE: Candlelight vigil to honor Dr. Tiller in Monument Square, Portland

WHEN: Thursday, June 4, 2009 from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm

WHO: Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Family Planning Association of Maine, Maine Civil Liberties Union, and Maine Women’s Lobby.

Check out the media about the event:

WMTW

Portland Press Herald

FOX4KC.COM (A Kansas television station)