State of Motherhood at City Club of Portland

April 29, 2015
Latifapic007
Latifa Lyles, Director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor

We were pleased to welcome Latifa Lyles, Director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor, to Portland this Friday as part of the White House’s “Lead on Leave” national tour (more on that here).

Ms. Lyles was the keynote speaker at the City Club of Portland’s Friday Forum this Friday, May 1st.  The conversation, which we helped to arrange, is about the “State of Motherhood.” Because, frankly, in our country, it’s not so good — especially when it comes to the way our economy intersects with family caregiving.

Mothers still bear the brunt of family caregiving responsibilities (though that is slowly, finally changing), so the fact that many of our workplaces are decidedly not friendly to people with family responsibilities impacts mothers the most.  Truth is, mothers in Oregon and across our nation face a stacked deck when they try to meet the competing demands of work and family.

Our Executive Director, Andrea Paluso, participated in a panel discussion along with Dr. Aileen Duldulao, a Maternal and Child Health Epidemiologist with Multnomah County and a primary author of the  2014 Multnomah County Health Department Maternal, Child and Family Health Data Book. Dr. Duldulao is an expert in how mothers are doing — and why; Andrea is an expert in how to unstack the deck so mothers have a fair shot at getting ahead, not just scraping by.

If you were not able to attend or want to share the conversation, we invite you to watch the Friday Forum event video (the program begins at 14:58):

You can read more about the White House “Lead on Leave” tour in this Washington Post article.