Global Sistergoods Blog

My sister was telling me how she spent the weekend with some other couple friends & their kids. “All of the other ladies had really important jobs, like being a lawyer or doctor. And then there was me,” she told me. Now, wait a second. You run a business, I said. That’s a job. A hard job! A job that pretty much consumes your every spare minute!

“Well, yah,” she told me, “but really, I just feel like a stay at home mom.”

Now, me. I don’t feel like a stay at home mom at all, even though I work from home. In fact, I get kind of defensive when people have suggested that my work is somehow lessened since I don’t work outside the home. Or it’s easier, somehow, than sitting in an office with a bunch of other people. Since I’m, you know, staying at home.

It intrigued me, that we should have such different perceptions of what we do. Granted, I don’t put on a suit or makeup everyday, and sometimes my daughter comes to meetings with me, and my 40 hour work week can be as few as 25 or as much as 60 and all broken up instead of 9-5. I don’t think that our work should be less valued, nor should anyone feel guilty about the choices they make for themselves, their work, their families.

Coincidentally, the Times published an IHT article last Sunday discussing the intense cultural pressure German women are under to be SAHMs…a pressure that is shifting in these economically uncertain times. German primary and secondary schools apparently have an early release, before 1 pm. This schedule dates back to the 18th C. when Prussia became the first country to make education compulsory for the lower classes; the half-day system supported the country’s reliance on child labor. Over time, thinking became that mothers, not the state, should provide additional culture to their child’s lives—mom was in charge of after school programming. This system discouraged highly educated women who wanted a career to have children. Recently, though, schools have been phasing in afternoon programs to accommodate women who work (outside the home). Not without raising the ire of SAHMs, who feel that you shouldn’t have children if you can’t take care of them yourself.

We put so much pressure on ourselves anyways, to be the perfect partner/mother/daughter/sister. I think it’s time we declare a truce on the Mommy Wars, don’t you?

Our prayers are with our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Please consider a donation, however small, to one of these fine organizations (courtesy of the Associated Press and other sources):

- InterAction, a coalition of U.S.-based international non-governmental organizations, has a list of agencies responding and how to donate to them. Find it here:http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti

- To donate $10 to the American Red Cross, text Haiti to 90999. The amount will be added to your next phone bill. The organization is also accepting donations through its International Response Fund, http://www.redcross.org

- To donate $5 to Wyclef Jean’s Haitian Yele charity, text 501501. The money will be added to your next phone bill.

- To find out how to help the International Rescue Committee, visit http://www.theIRC.org or call toll free, 1-877-REFUGEE.

–Mercy Corps: http://www.mercycorps.org

–Medical Teams International: http://medicalteams.org

–Doctors Without Borders: http://www.doctorswithoutborders

Sometimes we just love our town of Portland, Oregon. We were the first city in the Northwest to pass a Sweatshop Free purchasing policy, ensuring that all city agencies that purchase apparel do so from companies that “disclose the locations of their manufacturing facilities and abide by ethical sourcing practices.” The City, like any other city, spends quite a chunk of change on police, fire and other uniforms for its employees. The new policy is mostly due to the lobbying efforts of our friends at Portland Sweatfree, who also held an event in late December at City Hall, to which we were invited. It was super fun. I also got a sharp, union-made T-shirt from our friends at No Sweat.

KJ and Dave from Free Geek

No Sweat Apparel gear is produced by independent trade union members in the US, Canada, and the developing world. They believe that the only viable response to globalization is a global labor movement. So all of their T-shirts, shoes and hoodies are union made, with workers who have the right to representation and collective bargaining. Check them out. They are a great small business with a mission that resonates with our own.

I was disheartened, however, to read Ken Silverstein’s latest essay in Harper’s Magazine (I’d link it here, but you can’t see the whole article on the web; you have to purchase a hard copy). Its title is “Shopping for Sweat: The Human Cost of a Two-Dollar T-shirt.” The questions posed by Silverstein include: is sweatshop free enough? How do we define sweatshop free and ethical practices (Linda Baker wrote about this in the NY Times here)? Is it good enough that workers are unionized if they are not paid a decent wage? Silverstein focuses on Cambodia’s success marketing itself as a “sweatshop free country”, through a trade agreement that allowed it to export a quota of textile products to the U.S. under favorable terms, if it improved its labor conditions and submit to factory inspections by the International Labor Union. The agreement lapsed after 2005, when quotas were phased out, but the growth of the Cambodian textile industry were remarkable, and the big retailers (Walmart, Nike, Adidas, Target, Gap, etc.) source some of their goods from Cambodia. So, one assumes employment has increased. Yet wages haven’t. The main reason for this, says Silverstein: “apparel buyers, while quite happy to win accolades for doing business in Cambodia, have remained unwilling to pay much for the privilege.” He quotes Scott Nova of the Worker Rights Consortium: “Any government that imposed a living wage as a legal minimum and tolerated genuine collective bargaining would see its local industry vanish in a matter of months.” Silverstein further asserts that the ILO is not an inspection agent in Cambodia, but an advocate for the apparel companies that fund its work. The ILO essentially tries to keep jobs in Cambodia by whitewashing any potential labor issues.

Now, I’m not an economist but I like to be an informed consumer. What do you think? Would you spend a bit more on clothing if you were assured that the worker who made it made a living wage? Do you check to see where your clothes are made and have an opinion about whether it was Cambodia/Sri Lanka/Bangladesh/China? Would you write to the CEO of name-the-large-retailer and demand higher wages for their factory contractors? Or are you just happy to get a good deal?

I’m waiting for my husband to get back from picking up my in-laws at the airport. My house is never so clean as right before they arrive. Cleaning the stove itself was a 4.5 hour project involving three different (nontoxic) cleaners, about six different scrubby sponges and a toothbrush for in between the buttons. Obviously, I’m putting too much pressure on myself. Will they love me any less if they open the closet in the Room of Lost Hope and see where I’ve stashed all the lost hope so I could vacuum? Will they love me any more if they see how artfully I’ve stacked and nested my Tupperware instead of just throwing it in the cupboard?

In short, what’s up with me being all neurotic? Time to turn outward. Think about others. Get in the spirit, you know.

So instead of dusting the door jambs, I’ve been doing my end of year giving and thinking about our wonderful partners. You might not know that you can dedicate 5% of your fair trade, eco-friendly purchase at www.globalsistergoods.com to a great cause. Among them:

Women’s Earth Alliance unites women on the frontlines of environmental justice causes by coordinating training, technology, and financial support for thriving communities and Earth.

Stoveteam International Solving medical and environmental problems by bringing fuel-efficient Ecocina stoves to the world. Indoor air pollution is one of the leading causes of death of children under five in the world. It kills more children than malaria.

Hands to Hearts International is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of orphaned and vulnerable children and economically disadvantaged women around the globe.

Rural Development Institute is an international nonprofit organization working to secure land rights for the world’s poorest people, those 3.4 billion chiefly rural people who live on less than $2 a day, mainly women.

Dress for Success promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.

The Northwest Mother’s Milk Bank is raising money to create a functioning milk bank in Oregon, which will collect, pasteurize and distribute donor human milk to meet medical needs.

Please consider supporting one of these fine organizations. Know an organization that should be on our list? Let us know!

When my daughter, Quincy was born, I worried about raising a daughter in a world filled with so many negative messages about what it means to be a woman. I thought surely it would be easier to raise a son. After all, maleness is generally more valued. My opinion has changed however, since adopting our son, Baxter. What I have discovered is that the box that defines what it means to be a boy is much smaller. Recently I was shopping with Baxter for some new pajamas for Quincy. I was having him help me pick out the pajamas. He immediately chose a white pair covered with pink sparkly ballerinas. He loved them so much that he asked if he could get a pair too. There was no way I could say no to his adorable little face. At checkout, I asked the clerk to hand Baxter his pajamas because he was so excited about them. The clerk commented to me about how open-minded I was and that it certainly was ok for boys to like ballerina pajamas. Underlying message – boys don’t usually wear sparkly ballerinas. The first night the kids wore the pajamas, even my husband gave Baxter a little ribbing. It was meant to be light hearted, but he didn’t tease Quincy in the same way. Quincy can like dinosaurs, trucks or countless other stereotypical boy things and no one raises an eyebrow. But being a boy does not include liking pink, princess, ballerinas or mermaids. All things that Baxter currently loves. As women I feel that we have and are making great strides to expand the definition of what it means to be a woman. I am hopeful that we will be able to do the same for our sons.

New pajamas and a favorite doll

Beth’s first blog post!

This post has also appeared on http://www.livingmyMoMent.com