Take Action with Mothers & More

Let the President and your Representatives in Congress hear your voice on the real Social Security crisis!

• Please email us your name and chapter (or state) if you are contacting the President, your Senators, and your Representatives on this issue so we can track participation.
• Highlight and copy the sample letter below. (If you are not a member, simply do not copy or delete the first line of the letter.)
• Enter your zip code in the button above and click Go.
• Information on the President, your Senators, and your Representatives will be displayed. You can choose to email them immediately by clicking email and then choosing Compose Your Own Letter. Or you can find snail mail or fax information and proceed to create and print a letter on your own.

Letter to President

Dear President Bush,

As a member of Mothers & More, a nationwide non-profit organization of over 7000 mothers, I am writing to ask that as we decide the future of Social Security, we also replace the outdated beliefs about men, women, work and money that currently guide our retirement systems with new values that protect the financial security and autonomy of women and mothers.

Specifically, Social Security and any current or future private retirement mechanisms should:

• Allow couples to share paid work in the way that works best for them without rewarding or penalizing any of those choices.
• Honor the marriage promise by ensuring that control and ownership of retirement assets acquired during a marriage are shared equally by spouses while they are married and after a divorce.
• Relate Social Security benefit levels to all contributing work - both paid employment and unpaid care work.

This issue is important to mothers because we are more likely to run out of personal savings because we live longer, our poverty rates are higher in old age, and we are the ones most likely to sacrifice earnings in order to care for others. This is important to me because [insert your own story or use this – as a mother, I have sacrificed earnings in order to care for my family and I should not be penalized for doing so.]

Therefore, I urge you to use your leadership in this debate to make sure we protect the economic security of mothers – and anyone who cares for others, and to make sure that mothers – and any lower earning spouse, is treated as an equal owner of retirement assets.

Sincerely,

[Name and Address]

Letter to Senators and/or Representatives:

Dear [Senator or Representative]

As a member of Mothers & More, a nationwide non-profit organization of over 7000 mothers, I am writing to ask that as we decide the future of Social Security, we also replace the outdated beliefs about men, women, work and money that currently guide our retirement systems with new values that protect the financial security and autonomy of women and mothers.

Specifically, Social Security and any current or future private retirement mechanisms should:

• Allow couples to share paid work in the way that works best for them without rewarding or penalizing any of those choices.
• Honor the marriage promise by ensuring that control and ownership of retirement assets acquired during a marriage are shared equally by spouses while they are married and after a divorce.
• Relate Social Security benefit levels to all contributing work - both paid employment and unpaid care work.

This issue is important to mothers because we are more likely to run out of personal savings because we live longer, our poverty rates are higher in old age, and we are the ones most likely to sacrifice earnings in order to care for others. This is important to me because [insert your own story or use this – as a mother, I have sacrificed earnings in order to care for my family and I should not be penalized for doing so.] [If you can insert anything specific about the representative, such as voting for him/her or contributing to his/her campaign, do so.]

Therefore, as your constituent, I ask that you raise your voice to make sure we protect the economic security of mothers – and anyone who cares for others, and to make sure that mothers – and any lower earning spouse, is treated as an equal owner of retirement assets.

Sincerely,

[Name and Address]