Dear Ms. Sawyer,

It is my pleasure to inform you that you and Good Morning America have won Mothers & More’s “Apple of Our Eye” Award for your “Mothers Make It Work” feature that aired on March 31, 2006.

Mothers & More is a national organization whose mission is to improve the lives of mothers through support, education and advocacy. We have over 6,000 members and more than 140 local chapters coast to coast. The purpose of our Apple of Our Eye Award is to recognize acts that honor the importance of caregiving work and respect mothers’ individuality and right to make their own decisions about how to care for themselves and their families.

All women deserve recognition and support for their right to choose if and how to combine parenting and paid employment.

In order to further this core belief of Mothers & More, we are committed to raising public awareness about the obstacles mothers face in balancing their caregiving responsibilities with all their other responsibilities, including paid work, over the course of their lives. Good Morning America did just that on March 31.

Although we were dismayed by the week-long series that prompted this follow-up segment, re-visiting the so-called “mommy wars,” we were delighted to see you take real and constructive action, based on the overwhelmingly negative response you received to that series by mothers across the country.

Your “Mothers Make It Work” segment gave a national audience the opportunity to witness a roomful of mothers representing a variety of paid work, caregiving work and family make-up situations.  These women shared their stories, honored each other’s right and need to do what she feels is best for herself and her family, and found common ground in the hurdles all mothers face in balancing family responsibilities, paid work and everything else in their lives.

With this piece, Good Morning America blazed a new trail in mainstream media by providing what mothers have been craving all along — recognition that mothers do in fact support one another, that their work/family “choices” are complex and often constrained by factors they cannot control and that they face a common obstacle—workplaces that do not work for mothers.

And kudos for what you’ve done since that piece aired, looking in greater depth at workplace flexibility as one solution, and providing additional information, resources and opportunities for mothers to share their stories, thoughts and ideas via your website.

Bravo, Ms. Sawyer and Good Morning America! Keep up the good work. We hope that other shows will follow the path you have created.

Sincerely,
Joanne Brundage
Executive Director
Mothers & More
www.mothersandmore.org