[Morris County NOW] President Appointed to National Post

by Mavra Stark, from the Morris County NOW Newsletter

Wonderful news:  Laurie Pettine, our president, has been appointed as Chair of the newly formed Ad Hoc Committee on Mothers’ and Caregivers’ Economic Rights.  This is a committee on the national level of NOW, and it is critical to the development of working strategies at NOW to bring women closer to the goal of financial equality regardless of their life choices.

Laurie was the perfect choice for this position, and Kim Gandy, NOW President, was very wise to have made it.  As some of you know, Laurie is not only our chapter president but the chair of our chapter’s task force for mothers’ economic rights, Morris Mothering NOW.  She is also the Chair of our NJ State task force for mothers’ and caregivers’ economic rights.  Laurie, joined by her colleagues in our chapter’s task force, originated a great action kit that can be used by any chapter to develop its own mothers’ task force.  She worked tirelessly to bring a task force to our state organization, NOW-NJ, and with equal fervor to get a national resolution passed at the last NOW Conference in July.

This is the very first time anyone from our chapter has been honored to be the chair of a NOW national task force.  I was once on a national task force to develop a feminist communications network, and Sandy Powers, another of our members, was once on the national Lesbian Rights Implementation Committee.

A committee is only as effective as the person who chairs it.  That being the case, I have very high hopes for what the new national committee will be able to accomplish with Laurie at its head.  Close your eyes and imagine: Universal Quality Childcare … Social Security credits for time taken to raise your kids … Corporate policies that reward rather than penalize women with children … ETC!

So to Laurie Pettine we say, “You go, Girl!”