Speaking up on Wikipedia
Click here to see FAHN’s page
When the nonprofit organization, Family and Home Network (FAHN), realised that Wikipedia's Stay-at-Home Mother page redirects to ‘Housewife’, they launched a writing project to set the record straight. They cite the work of our sister-organisation, FEFFAF in their article.
Below is a copy of their press release in readiness for launching the new page, better reflecting the reality of the stay-at-home-parent.
Family and Home Network Speaks up for Stay-at-Home Mothers on Wikipedia
DURHAM, NC—May 1, 2024. Family and Home Network (FAHN) discovered that the Wikipedia page for “Stay-at-Home mother” redirects to “Housewife” and set out to change it. FAHN penned a new Wikipedia entry for Stay-at-Home mother, which can be read on our website. We plan to post it to Wikipedia on May 7. This is the organization’s 40th anniversary project.
“Stay-at-home mothers are often ignored or stereotyped in cultural and political conversations. Although stay-at-home parents do essential work, they're not considered part of the workforce and their work is not counted in the GDP," says Willow Duttge Tepper, member of the FAHN Board of Directors and lead of the project.
“Though homemaking skills should never be denigrated, at-home mothers must not be misidentified as housewives,” says Catherine Myers, Executive Director of FAHN. “Most at-home mothers are focused on their children’s needs and on their own desire to spend time together with their children. Family and Home Network is happy to set the record straight.”
FAHN has four decades of experience listening to and speaking up to dispel misconceptions about at-home mothers, and the team brought that knowledge to the Wikipedia entry. It’s important because all families must be included in family policy, and many families with an at-home parent are economically vulnerable.
Unfortunately most U.S. family policy is crafted through the lens of “working families,” leaving out at-home mothers and at-home fathers, who are forgoing paid employment in order to care for their children by choice or by circumstance. FAHN found that stay-at-home fathers have their own Wikipedia page, and now stay-at-home mothers have one too.
“Care has value, whether it's done by child care providers or by parents themselves,” says Myers. “At-home mothers, at-home fathers, and other unpaid caregivers must be recognized and their care counted and supported with equitable, inclusive family policies.”
FAHN is a grassroots nonprofit organization founded by three at-home mothers in 1984, and originally named Mothers at Home. In 2002, recognizing the many creative ways mothers and fathers care for their children, and knowing that today’s “working mother” or “working father” might next year be “at home” and vice versa, the organization chose a new name: Family and Home Network. Today, the organization celebrates 40 years of offering parents affirmation, information and advocacy. FAHN urges policymakers to adopt principles of Inclusive Family Policies.
The new entry launches today. We wish them every success in rectifying this Wikipedia oversight!
The Mothers At Home Matter Committee
7th May 2024
Are you a MAHM member yet?
There are many benefits to being a Mothers At Home Matter member! Your support is invaluable to help us shout louder about fairer taxation for families and acknowledge the choices 21st-century mothers want for their children.
MAHM campaigns for:
Childcare subsidy to follow the child with parents allowed to chose whether they use it to stay at home, give it to grandparents, childminder or external setting.
Taxation should fall fairly on those who stay at home and those who work.
Public examination on short and long term needs of children (and the effect on infants of long hours in external settings).
Recognition of value of unpaid care (estimated at £77 billion by Carers UK).