The US is the only industrialised country in the world without national paid leave. That includes maternity leave: to this day, there is no federal paid maternity or family leave act in the States, meaning that if you have a baby, depending on your employer, you can be expected to return to work almost straight away. For one in four new mothers, that’s as early as two weeks after giving birth.
The data only gets more dismal: 51% of Americans live in ‘childcare deserts’ – areas with very few or no providers. Where childcare is available, it is now so expensive that it has become equivalent to or higher than rent. Meanwhile, the richest country in the world has the highest maternal mortality rate among high-income nations, with Black and Indigenous American women and women in poor rural areas particularly affected (despite studies showing that 80% of these pregnancy-related deaths are preventable).
“It’s an alarming national emergency,” says Erin Erenberg, executive director and co-founder of Chamber of Mothers, a nonprofit fighting for systemic reform on paid family leave, affordable childcare and better maternal health outcomes across the US. “One that, to me, says that we are truly not prioritising women and mothers.”
Chamber of Mothers is set on correcting that. Started by eight mums (Erenberg included) in 2021 after the US Congress cut out paid family leave from the Biden-backed Build Back Better Act, it works on both a federal and community level to advocate for better maternal rights. In the span of three years, it has gathered some 100,000 members across the 35 state chapters and serves as a thought partner in new childcare and paid family leave legislation with different senators and representatives. Just as importantly, Erenberg says, it’s striven to ensure that mothers everywhere in the country “know that they can have an impact”.
The organisation’s latest initiative, Vote Like a Mother, was launched ahead of the US presidential election on 5 November to encourage women to get out to vote – offering the resources necessary to feel confident and informed and facilitating the time through providing childcare resources.
“It’s a rallying cry for mums to put their concerns front and centre,” Erenberg says. “We’re not telling you who to vote for, but we’re absolutely telling you that you need to use your voice, you need to use your vote.
“With everything that’s at stake, this is the time to vote according to our interests as mothers, and start to make change.”
To achieve that, the Chamber of Mothers has teamed up with I am a voter, a public awareness campaign aimed at broadening civic engagement. “By texting ‘mother’ to 26797, anybody can look up their registration status, register to vote and get updates on upcoming elections and information about where their polling place is,” Erenberg says.
It’s also created the Vote Like a Mother educational website, where users can research their ballot and find details on all candidates, their backgrounds and their stances on specific issues.
Lastly, Chamber of Mothers has joined forces with Olympic champion and health activist Allyson Felix to eradicate one of the biggest hurdles to getting mothers – particularly Black mothers in under-resourced communities – to vote: access to childcare.
“For many mums, childcare can stand in the way of even getting out the door in the first place,” Erenberg says. “So what we decided to do with Allyson was to put together a voter guide where [mothers] can find all of the different ways they can access childcare to make voting a breeze.”
“I know all too well how overwhelming motherhood can be, as mums are all balancing so much and always seemingly starved for time,” Felix tells Service95. “Too often, mums, especially Black mums, feel like they have to choose between everything else they care about and motherhood. Thanks to this partnership, we can tell mums that you don’t have to choose between voting and motherhood. This election, you can do both.”
Taking place in North Carolina – a key battleground state – New York and Los Angeles (though Erenberg says the hope is to roll it out nationwide by the next presidential election in 2028), the collaboration includes the involvement of several childcare organisations, which are either covering babysitting fees or providing daycare vouchers.
“What we want to do in this election is to start to eradicate barriers to entry,” Erenberg says. “We are working in a bipartisan way to create the change that mums need, because we know that when we’re united, consistent and insistent, we can build the country that we deserve.”
Her wish for 5 November, she says, is that more women will be able to focus on what matters to them through the tools Chamber of Mothers is providing. “Take a second to avail yourself of our resources and think about what’s important to you, to your kids, and please vote like a mother. Please go out and vote.”
Discover more information on Chamber of Mothers and Vote Like A Mother here.
