| Do you pay attention to how the mom characters are portrayed on your favorite TV shows? Loathe the so-called "mommy wars" on which the news media love to focus? Each week, Meredith O'Brien's Working Moms in Pop Culture & Politics column provides a reality check on how TV shows, movies, and the media depict moms. A longtime journalist and mother of three, Meredith O'Brien formerly taught journalism at the University of Massachusetts, is the author of A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum and writes the Picket Fence Post blog for GateHouse Media. Follow Meredith on Twitter: @MeredithOBrien |  |
Attack on Angelina: Sound or Sexist?
Imagine how it would feel if a news website ran an online poll asking readers whether you should be a working mom or an at-home mom.
Medium: The Perfect Balance.
Sure, the typical working mom doesn't get calls in the middle of the night from a district attorney or a police detective summoning her to a crime scene so that she can use her psychic powers to try to discern what really happened. The average working mom doesn't communicate with dead people. Or see the future in her dreams.
Let the Battle Begin.
We here at Media Central are really excited about the battle that's brewing, particularly because we're a month away from Mother's Day and this is the perfect ratings-grabbing fight we've been looking for, particularly on those slow news days. Two women, both writers, have books which take the opposite sides of one of our favorite topics: The mommy wars.
Schools & the PTA: Too Hard on Working Parents?
Having dropped my three children off at school, I was headed back to my home office to work like mad. I only had a precious few hours until the three maniacs - ages 8, 8 and 5 -- returned, making the completion of my assignments, well, let's just say . . . challenging.
A Mary Richards for a New Generation: 'Old Christine' Teaches New Tricks
Behind the desk at the women's gym she owns, there's a poster of a woman with the palms of her hands pressed together in a yoga position. The caption: Strength.
The Motherhood Manifesto: A Call to Maternal Arms.
Rosie the Riveter, a cherubic baby and President George W. Bush: Three images that don't at first blush seem to go together. Yet it's those images that open the new documentary, "The Motherhood Manifesto," which advocates for government-supported public policy changes to create a family-friendly American workplace.
Brothers & Sisters: Moms & Daughters Juggling Work and Family
An honors graduate from the Wharton School of Business, she was recently promoted to the post of president at her newly-deceased father's company. She's married and has two young children and a teenaged step-son. Her husband's an at-home dad. She lives in a nice house and has plenty of family around to babysit. For free. more
Mommy Track: Origin of the Phrase.
Eighteen years ago, a self-described feminist and president of a non-profit group which advocated for women in corporate America, wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review that would turn her world upside-down. In her article Felice N. Schwartz told elite business readers that if they wanted to stop losing talented and bright female employees in whom they'd invested time and money, they needed to start creating a more family-friendly workplace, one which provided mothers (and fathers) with options.
What Does Mommy Tracked Mean To You?
Over the past few weeks there's been some sniping aimed at Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton because she's been talking a lot about being a mom, that plus the fact that while recently sitting on the sofa with the ladies from "The View," she mentioned that the United States has never had a mother as a commander-in-chief. The first female speaker of the House, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has also been chastised for loudly championing her background as a mother and a former at-home parent who launched her political career when her youngest was in school.
What About Brian: Portrait of a New Working Woman
Judging by its title, you might think that the ABC drama "What About Brian" is simply about a scruffy, thirtysomething surfer dude who just can't quite figure out what to do with his life. But you'd be wrong.
