When some working moms and dads wake up in the morning feeling sick, they don't just worry about calling the doctor. They worry about calling the boss.

Why? Roughly 40 percent of Vermont employees have no paid sick days. Getting sick, or having a sick child, means losing a pay...

When Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique 50 years ago, little did she know that her call for greater gender equality for American women would reverberate around the world and impact the economic condition of women and men.

Today, we have the evidence to demonstrate that there is a...

The debate about women in the workplace -- why so few at the top, why is it so hard to have kids and hold a job -- hit a new decibel level when two top executive women in the high tech world added their two cents -- or should I...

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan's seminal book -- The Feminine Mystique. It changed my life.

Then, as now, I was in a book group, while living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My husband was in a post doctoral program at Harvard and I was a stay...

President Obama got it right when he proposed quality pre-school for low and moderate income four-year olds. He is using the bully pulpit the right way by urging states to make this life changing investment. If we are serious about providing upward mobility and building a skilled workforce, pre-school is...

Tomorrow, Feb. 5, is the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Family and Medical Leave Act by President Bill Clinton. The spotlight shone on the bill because it was the first he signed into law after having taken the oath of office. The law represented a milestone for women;...

Whatever happened to Senate decorum?

What a bullying fest in the Senate confirmation hearings for former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. Such a demonstration of macho meaness. And this is one of their own. They tried to do that to Hillary, but she pushed back. Maybe Hagel should view that tape.

Thank you Hillary.

We thank you for eating all those airline meals, for visiting 112 countries and traveling 956,733 miles for our country.

Most of all, we thank you for demonstrating once and for all, that women have a seat at the tables where the tough decisions...

They say speeches don't create change. THEY are wrong. Barack Obama's inaugural address lifted up a nation that has been downcast, instead of looking up at the one sky above us. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. knew that words matter. They changed the course of a nation.

They...

This is a good time of year to go through my closets and decide which suits, sweaters, pants and blouses can be given away to charity so that someone else may wear them.

Why, then, do I find it so hard to pull an item of clothing off the hanger...

The minute I walked into the room, cheers broke out. This was New Hampshire, the state that made history on election night by sending a totally female delegation to Congress -- two senators, two congresswomen -- AND -- elected the second female governor. Maggie Hassan.

This was a meeting...

Governor Mitt Romney was not completely off-key when he boasted about asking for "binders full of women" to fill positions in his administration. Never mind that he didn't ask for them -- they were given to him and his opponent by a women's organization way before the election....

"Five of us were meeting for lunch and reminiscing about the women's movement. 'I was never one of those angry women,' one said. 'I'm still angry,' I blurted. My reaction surprised both me and my friends. Where did that come from? A source I hadn't tapped before. Upon reflection, I...

Fall has moved in gently, following a glorious sun splashed summer. Bits and pieces of color can already be discovered, as we await the full blast of reds and yellows almost ready to burst forth. A few night frosts should do it.

But the greens already hint that this is...

I had a chance to step back into history by taking part in a play at the Dorset  Playhouse called The Rivalry, based on the 1858 Lincoln Douglas debates.

I was given the fictional role of Adele, Douglas' wife,  who was a woman of her time -- quite the opposite...

"Job Killer." Those are the two words you are most likely to hear uttered by most American CEOs when confronted with proposals to enact family-friendly work policies.

This was true in the battles for earned sick days, paid maternity leave, increases in the minimum wage, and even workplace flexibility. Sure,...

The Strafford Town House is commanding. It is easily mistaken for a church because of the  white spire that reaches for the sky.  Set up on a steep hill; the giant structure forces you to look up to it, from the more fittingly modest village common. Now boasting a population...

Anne-Marie Slaughter, the first woman director of Policy Planning in the State Department, sent Internet sparks flying when her recent Atlantic cover story told women that, yes, she'd tried to have it all -- an elite career and a happy family -- but couldn't do it. And, she...

Happy Birthday Title IX! You will be 40 years old on June 23. Blow out the candles for the law that threw open the doors in gymnasiums and changed the playing fields in every high school, college and university in America to include women and girls.

I can attest...

When House Republicans stall on reauthorizing and expanding the Violence Against Women Act, they are blinding themselves to the everyday experiences of women's lives. There is hardly a woman who has not felt a brief pang of fear as she searches for her car in a parking lot after dark,...