TOW #2 - The Fight Working Moms Won

In “The Fight Working Moms Won,” Bryce Covert covers the battle between working moms and their struggle to establish ground in politics.  Emerging from the past where moms were encouraged to stay home and raise the children, the idea of paid leave for mothers was uncommon.  But since that time, the situation has evolved from women deciding whether or not to work, to how mothers can balance work and family life.  Covert’s credibility is not established directly in the article, but at the bottom it is mentioned he is an economic policy editor at ThinkProgress and also contributes to The Nation.  Covert’s article is directed towards working and non-working women who are trying to create a family at home.  His article immediately gets a mother’s attention when he states that some plans for paid leave would make employers “wary of hiring women of childbearing age for fear they will disappear if a baby arrives” (Covert 14).  The fact that women’s’ jobs are in danger due to their lifestyle makes women more inclined to listen to Covert’s piece.  This article comes from recent event where politicians like Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump are debating over certain policies and plans they have when becoming president.  In fact, Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump agrees with the struggles many working mom’s face.  She says “as a mother myself of three young children, I know how hard it is to work while raising a family” (Covert 17). Many politician are trying o gain more votes by appealing to wider audiences, for example, working mothers.  Covert uses rhetorical devices that appeal to emotion and reason in order to convince his readers that women’s issues are becoming more talked about in politics, and that it’s a good thing.  Covert appeals to emotion by including accounts of how tough raising a family can be.  Most families don’t realize that “once they start their families, their energies are zapped by sleepless nights, running after toddlers, and all the other labor that goes into raising children” (Covert 8).  This makes mothers and other readers see that it’s difficult to raise a family and balance a job too.  In turn, this makes working mothers feel proud that they can handle such a struggle and still be able to work.  It also encourages women who don’t work to start working if they desire to.  In addition, it gives hope to women who worked hard to show how their pleas on paid leave should be discussed in politics.  Not only do emotions play a big part in coverts article, but reason does too.  Covert says how “poll after poll finds that overwhelming majorities of Americans support paid family leave” (Covert 11).  This shows to working mothers that is makes total sense why this topic should be discussed more.  The topic of paid family leave was rarely spoken of until Clinton started mentioning it in 2008.  The fact that it is popular in polls increase the need to discuss it in politics.  Covert’s use of emotion and reason effectively show readers how paid leave is an important topic and it being discusses more is important.  The more this topic is talked about, the better chance it has to be being resolved in the future.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/opinion/campaign-stops/the-fight-working-moms-won.html?ribbon-ad-idx=15&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article