Ellen Bravo

The National Federation of Independent Businesses loves to wrap itself in the flag of neighborhood Mom and Pop shops when it lobbies on Capitol Hill, but many small business owners maintain the NFIB's agenda doesn't address their priorities, and say the lobbying group even fights against policies that small businesses...

My favorite Mother's day gifts from my sons were their original stories, songs and poems. But what I needed when they were infants and toddlers was something children can't deliver: affordable time off when they were born and when they were sick.

So for all those candidates and elected...

I love the image of conservatives hiding behind the flag of motherhood to protect themselves against charges of gender insensitivity. It's like kids who move the couch to cover up a stain and hope no one will notice.

By all means, let's talk about the importance of motherhood.

We can...

This time last year, Desiree Rosado, a school bus driver in Groton, Connecticut, was dreading flu season. "Working without paid sick days, you're always worried about what will happen if you get sick," she said. "When my kids caught the swine flu, I missed a week of pay to stay...

It's time to expand the Occupy Wall Street movement to include K Street, home of the corporate lobbyists.

As the top one percent carry out their heist against working people, lobbyists provide the blueprints and drive the getaway car.

And when the 99 percent band together to fight for policies...

My friend recently asked whether I could talk to her daughter about how to deal with men leering at her.

The daughter is eleven.

In two years she'll celebrate her bat mitzvah, when the world will recognize her as a woman. Yet today, her mother and I are inducting her...

My older son did magic shows as a kid. He learned early on that the key to fooling the audience was a steady stream of patter and something to draw their attention so that they wouldn't notice the trick unfolding before their eyes.

I was reminded of his sleight-of-hand routine...

On Mother's Day, a group of national feminist and labor leaders, journalists, and organizers traveled to Phoenix to document the experiences of women in the wake of SB 1070.

The testimony we heard makes clear in vivid and haunting detail how SB 1070 constitutes a violation of every principle we...

Gwen Ifill was hobbled by more than a broken ankle at the vice presidential debate. The rules prevented her from asking any follow-up questions. I work with eleven statewide coalitions representing a million people, all fighting for policies that value families at work. Here are some questions we wish Gwen...

Should Sen. Barack Obama emerge as the Democratic candidate, women have compelling reasons to support his candidacy. Here are my top ten:

10. Nearly half of women voting in the Democratic primaries already support Sen. Obama's candidacy. CNN compiled exit polling data from all the states that held...

Oppression, alas, is not a zero sum game. The fact that Hillary Rodham Clinton has been subjected to outrageous displays of sexism throughout this campaign doesn't mean racism has been defeated. Both forms of injustice are alive and well in American institutions and sensibility.

That's why feminists must repudiate remarks...

First they warn: "If we pass [fill in...

From a national women's media training to my local women's book club, from exchanges among long-time feminist activists to conversations with my feminist son, I hear a buzz about why so many feminists are deciding to vote for...

What do you do when school says you must show up to register your kids, and work says you must stay overtime for an extra shift?

If you're like Vickie Underwood, in DeKalb County, Georgia, you choose your kids.

Underwood told her boss she was sorry but, unlike all the...

Teachers tell researchers they've never seen so many children coming to school sick. Guilt-ridden mothers share stories of sending ailing kids to day care or school out of fear that staying home with them would result in discipline on the job.

These stories don't surprise me. But what was startling...