Working Mothers Group Lends Support

Article by Heather Aleknavage, Office of Sponsored Programs
Printed in the 2006 issue of the Women's and Gender Studies Center newsletter.
Photo by Evan Cantwell.

The Support Group for Working Mothers at GMU meets twice a month on Wednesdays from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. in the Women’s Studies Resource Center. The meetings are casual and friendly. The participants may not have formal training in counseling, but they have experience with balancing the roles of mother, partner, student and employee. They participate in this group so that they can help others while they work on helping themselves. There are now regular members who attend every meeting, but they welcome new participants as each person brings a new set of problems and perspectives on the experience of being a working mom.

The first meeting of the Support Group for Working Mothers at Mason was held on Feb. 20, 2003. There were eight women in attendance with about a dozen messages from other women who were excited about the group, but unable to attend the meeting. They found that no matter the age of the participant or the age of our children, the need to find balance in their lives was the same for all participants. Over the course of subsequent meetings, they’ve shared concerns about repeated absences due to sick children, having flexible work schedules, and childcare, especially the GMU Child Development Center.

Over the past five years, the group has had an incredible amount of interest and support from university administrators. The group has been a focus group for the university quality of work life task force, and they’ve helped influence the Human Resources and Payroll Department’s efforts toward promoting telework/flextime options and best practices for using Family and Medical Leave Act. They also partnered with Human Resources and Payroll to identify lactation rooms on all three campuses for faculty and staff, and we are currently working with facilities management to create a permanent place for all breastfeeding moms to use. Most importantly, their advocacy for the GMU Child Development Center helped to move the construction of a new facility forward. The new center opened in the fall.

For more information about the Support Group for Working Mothers at GMU, please contact Heather Aleknavage, Office of Sponsored Programs, at (703) 993-2295 orhaleknav@gmu.edu, or click here.

Article edited by Connect Mason Director Whitney Rhodes