This week’s Newsweek includes an article by a mom about the whole soccer mom/security mom. If you’ve read my posts here, here, and here, you know that women’s issues are rather important to me. I think Leach, author of the Newsweek article, makes a good point. She says,

While political strategists play up the fear factor, the moms I know are worrying about how they’ll pay for their kids’ college education. We don’t want our children to be burdened with five-figure debt from school loans. We want to be reassured that good health care will be available for our families. We work hard, and we are smart. We know that we are paying more in premiums but getting fewer benefits.

Most of the mothers I talk to have given up on the prospect of Social Security, so we try to put a little extra into our retirement accounts. We want to help take care of our aging parents when the time comes, but the money just isn’t there. And we’re saving for a trip to New York. We want our kids to see the Statue of Liberty and the Museum of Modern Art. We are not afraid.

(bold mine)

Sure the war on terror (defined differently by each candidate) is important, but it shouldn’t be the only issue. If you haven’t read The Price of Motherhood by Ann Crittendon, you should. This country doesn’t do much for mothers, whether they stay home or work outside the home. We all (women, mothers and others) work hard, don’t get paid enough and don’t get enough general credit for our contributions.

Meanwhile, over at misbehaving.net, there’s a debate raging about women and blogging. As a scholar of literature, I think there’s a subtext there about what women write about vs. what men write about. Private writing (women) vs. public writing (men). It also has that weird feeling of being back in the late 60s/early 70s feminist movement–the personal is the political. I feel a watershed coming. Stand back!