Mothers & Grandmothers
Women everywhere in the world are at the heart not only of the family and the community but of the economy, as mothers, wives, partners, grandmothers, rural workers and subsistence farmers, nurses, teachers, cleaners and millions of other workers. Yet we always come last in economic priorities, along with the children we raise. As a result, the caring work, basic for human survival, which we spend much or most of our lives doing, is trivialized and ignored. According to official definitions (International Labour Office), raising a child is not counted as "work" but being in the military and killing is.
50% of families world-wide are headed by women but the specialized work of being a single mother is even less recognized, and single mothers are the poorest workers. We are often attacked and witch-hunted by governments.
Women never retire, we just tire. Grandmothers continue to do caring work, often for grandchildren so that daughters and other younger women can go out to a job. The following groups, co-ordinated by the Wages for Housework Campaign, have focused on defending mothers:
Philadelphia, USA:
Come to a Community Dialogue and Speak Out: Mothers ROC!
Reclaiming Our Children from DHS
Monday November 12
Across the US, families
are losing custody of children – that is, children are losing their
families – at an alarming rate – Philly’s rate among the highest.
Treasury backs mums at home,
Sunday Star Times (New Zealand), 01 May 2005
Every Mother
is a Working Mother Network – USA
Single Mothers' Self-Defence – England
Read more about the current activities and organizing of these groups for the Global Women's Strike at www.globalwomenstrike.net