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Joan Blades is the President and Co-founder of MomsRising.org, a five-year-old organization that champions core motherhood and family issues. A million members strong, MomsRising works to support policies that help with family economic security like health care, paid maternity, family and sick leave, fair pay, early learning, and flexible work. One of the big issues that MomsRising takes on in a big way is toxins in our homes. In my interview with her, we talk about BPA in our canned goods (and ultimately in our blood stream) and flame retardants in our furniture (another toxic fabrication).
“The problem with these chemicals is we can’t see them. When people get ill or have problems with obesity or A.D.D., you can’t draw a direct line from here to there,” says Joan. But what she and her team at MomRising do draw on in a remarkable way is the engagement of their million members. “Corporations are disturbingly powerful. That’s why we need to have citizen engagement. That’s our best way to push back,” she says. Joan Blades knows how to do that in spades. She was the Co-founder of MoveOn.org, an online activist organization with now over 5 million members. Now that’s how you turn up the volume, women!
About my guest: Joan Blades is a co-founder and President of MomsRising.org, a grassroots online activist organization that mobilizes millions of moms, dads and others; educating people about the problems facing mothers and families; and provide avenues for common sense solutions to those problems. MomsRising.org is modeled on MoveOn.org, the enormously successful and powerful online activist organization that Blades co-founded in 1998 with her husband, Wes Boyd, and their family and friends. Now an organization of more than 5 million online activists, MoveOn brings ordinary people back into politics by building electronic advocacy groups.
With MomsRising.org co-founder and Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Blades is also the co-author of The Motherhood Manifesto. Released on Mothers Day 2006, The Motherhood Manifesto makes the case that it’s time for a broad change in America’s support for mothers and families. In both public and private sectors, radical shifts are needed to make parenting and the workplace compatible. She is also the co-author with Nanette Fondas of The Custom Fit Workplace, a practical, inspirational guide for making the workplace more nimble, trust-based, and profitable. Thoroughly grounded in research and cutting-edge designs, The Custom-Fit Workplace makes the case for today’s workplace to buy-in or risk falling behind.
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