Thank you! Thank you Madeleine!

For those interested in this topic, Up With Chris Hayes covered it extensively:

http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/13/11686266-story-of-the-week-towards-a-real-nanny-state

Sadly, they didn’t have Madeleine as a guest. I hope they return to this topic with Madeleine instead of Katie Roiphe.

Recent data from the Census shows that contrary to the image of the stay-at-home mother as a middle class woman whose husband makes enough to support the family on one income, many stay-at-home mothers are living in poverty and have very little education. They don’t have jobs because child care costs more than they could reasonably earn, so they live very hard and marginal lives.

What policies should we look to in order to relieve the burdens on these women?

Obviously, the biggest obstacle to improving conditions for working families is the business community, which mostly resists anything that empowers labor, even if they don’t have evidence that it will hurt them. How do you suggest activists and politicians approach this obstacle?

Paid family leave seems like a real pipe dream on a national level right now. The Democrats had to, for understandable reasons, prioritize passing health care reform, which meant that paid family leave was waaaaay down on the priority list. Now Republicans are in office, so we can kiss this goodbye for the foreseeable future.

Do you believe, in light of these facts, that attacking this as a federal issue might not be the best idea? What kind of alternatives would you suggest?

Madeleine, what do you think of the idea of mandatory paternity leave? I’ve seen it routinely suggested as a way to focus people on the fact that this is a men’s issue as much as a women’s issue.

Heh, should have guessed it was a publisher vs. writer struggle. It’s true that it probably got more high profile attention from media outlets that love how polarizing the word “feminist” is.

My sense is that the word “feminist” doesn’t drive people away as much as it used to. That said, Madeleine, I was a little surprised that you put the word “feminist” in your title. Your argument is that these issues are about a lot more than women’s liberation, and in fact they should be sold as common sense policies for existing family structures. Do you worry that using the word “feminist” will distract people from the fact that these are solutions for everyone, not just women?

While it’s incredibly diverse country to country, your book argues that a lot of Western Europe is way ahead of America when it comes to maternity and paternity leave, flex time, and other policies that help out working families. Why do you think the Europeans have a better handle on this than Americans? What’s wrong with us?

Feel free to pop in with questions of your own, FDL readers! I know I’ve got tons, but we want to hear from you, too.

In the beginning of the book, you have strong criticism of the feminist movement for focusing on abortion rights to the detriment of concerns such as these. Obviously, reproductive rights is a serious concern, so it’s not that feminists care about it that’s the problem. It’s that we don’t take as broad a view as we should. Why do you think abortion rights dominates the debate about women’s roles, to the point where it drowns out other concerns?

In your book, you emphasize that this is an issue where large and diverse coalitions can be built, including ones with conservatives! I certainly hope that’s true, but have found most conservatives resist policies that help working parents precisely because they don’t believe it’s best to have two parents working. If current policies push women out of the workplace and into the home, the argument goes, it’s better for the children. How do you respond to concerns that day care and other aspects of the working mother life are bad for children?

One of my big concerns about the focus on flex time, Madeleine, is the fact that it naturally fits better with white collar, professional jobs that are a lot of desk work that can be done at home or on an irregular schedule. How do flex time policies work to include working class people, who often have jobs that require clocking in and out and hourly wages?

I’m not a big fan of despondency as a political tactic, cmau. In reality, women and minorities have made tremendous gains in the past century, leading me to believe more are possible.

I think when you begin with the framework of “mothers”, people tend to think of things like noble sacrifices and paying women in flowers and cards. It’s really hard to get us past that to talk about things women really need to be mothers and workers. How do we smash the sentimental framework and get a real discussion going?

I’ll start with the first question. I think we all agree that more flex time, affordable child care, and other pro-family innovations would be great for families and for women. Where do you think, Madeleine, the best place to start advocating for these policies would be?

Thanks for having us! Welcome, everyone. Welcome, Madeleine.

Thank you!

Which is no slam on memoir. I love memoirs! I think more writers should write them, if that’s what they’re actually doing.

In all seriousness, one thing I’ve noticed about people’s reactions to her is that they seem to think that Liz Lemon=Tina Fey, even though they are obviously quite different people. Do you think this assumption comes up more around female writers, and do you think that the prevalence of memoir writing from women—like this book—has anything to do with it? Or is it about something else?