Celebrity moms, including Charlize Theron and Amy Schumer, are among 50 prominent women signing onto an effort, calling on President Joe Biden to pay mothers a $2,400 monthly payment for their work, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic. They're calling it the "Marshall Plan for Moms."
"It’s time to put a dollar figure on our labor. Motherhood isn’t a favor and it’s not a luxury. It’s a job," the group wrote on the Marshall Plan for Moms website.
The idea, launched by the group Girls Who Code, is modeled after the Marshall Plan, passed in 1948, which gave financial aid to Europe after World War II.
"COVID has decimated so many of our careers. Two million of us have left the workforce, at a rate of four times that of men in September alone. Millions more have been forced to cut back our hours or work around the clock to keep our jobs and be full-time caregivers," the group said.
They group is asking Biden in his first 100 days to implement a short-term, monthly payment to mothers depending on their needs and resources and to pass policies on paid family leave, pay equity and affordable child care.
Girls Who Code put out a full-page ad in the New York Times Tuesday to make their case.
In a December 7 opinion piece in The Hill, Girls Who Code founder and CEO Reshma Saujani wrote that she envisions a monthly, means-tested $2,400 monthly payment "to the women who are the bedrock of our economy and society."
Saujani noted that she logs her son onto daily Zoom classes only to see other moms on the other end, exhausted and exasperated -- many frustrated by the constant opening and closing of schools, sometimes at the last minute.
"Every woman in America is familiar with these scenes. But are our leaders? Are our legislators? Maybe they’re familiar, but are they really paying attention? More to the point: do they even care? Judging from the near total lack of government support provided to women and moms during the Covid-19 crisis, the answer seems to be a resounding 'no,'" Saujani wrote.
Other celebrities signing on include Eva Longoria, Julianne Moore, Gabrielle Union, Alyssa Milano and Amber Tamblyn.