NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Opening a conversation on how motherhood fits into the vision of a liberated life for women today and how mothers can better share the gains of the women's movement, Barnard College in New York City will host a daylong discussion on Tuesday, Oct. 29, between feminist activists and an emerging advocacy group for mothers, which believes society now sends the unmistakable message that childrearing is less valued than a paying job.

The conference on "maternal feminism" will bring together supporters of a motherhood movement, women's rights activists and writers, including Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women; Ann Crittenden, author of "The Price of Motherhood: Why The Most Important Job in the World is Still the Last Valued" and Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of "Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children."

The conference will open at 9 A.M. with the public release of a manifesto, "Call To A Motherhood Movement, " drafted by Enola Aird, a Barnard alumna (Class of 1976) and lawyer with two children who is director of the Motherhood Project of the Institute for American Values, which is co- sponsoring the conference with the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Aird and members of a group called the Mother's Council believe that whether mothers are employed in the workforce or not, their role as mothers is profoundly undervalued and even demeaned.

The discussion will focus on how society today views mothers and how a commitment to raising children fits the vision of the women's movement for equal rights. Additionally, the conversation will explore perceived tensions between feminism and motherhood and how society can best support mothers.

"For too long, feminism and motherhood have been on uneasy terms," said Aird, "They need not be. We must broaden our understanding of feminism to more fully include the needs and concerns of mothers and children."

Janet Jakobsen, director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women, said: "As a leading center for feminist research and activism, we welcome a broad discussion of issues of concern to women today. Caring for children is vastly undervalued in U.S. society, and we need a wide range of policies that will make the choices faced by parents less onerous and improve the conditions of labor for all those who take up this important work."

The conference, titled "Maternal Feminism: Lessons for a 21st Century Motherhood Movement," coincides with new feminist initiatives that challenge the disparaging of childrearing and supports the needs of mothers.

Writers Crittenden and Naomi Wolf have formed a new national organization to fight for equal rights for mothers. The Mothers' Council, a diverse group convened by the Motherhood Project, is examining matters affecting the nurturing of children and has called for a mothers' movement to value and support mothers and children.

"We are tired of having our work as mothers treated as less important than the business of business," said Aird. "We will no longer accept our culture's unmistakable message that time spent - and work done - with children and family is not as worthwhile, not as valuable as time spent in the paid workforce."

Ms. Aird notes that technology and other social factors have changed the equation for mothers, both at home and at work. Mothers today cannot be so easily divided into distinct camps: those whose paid employment takes them outside the home full-time and those who devote their time full-time to childrearing. More common today, says Ms. Aird,, are growing numbers of women who move in and out of the workplace as their family's economic conditions change and others who work from home as telecommuters, consultants or free-lancers.

Other speakers at the symposium will include Jean Bethke Elshtain, author of Jane Addams and the Dream of American Democracy, and Janet Giele, author of Two Paths to Women's Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism. The discussion will be moderated by Peggy O'Mara, editor of Mothering Magazine.

The conference will take a fresh look at the role of mothers in the women's movements of the 19th and 20th centuries; including "maternal feminists" who historian Janet Giele has documented "worked side by side with 'equal rights feminists"; and outline an agenda for a motherhood movement in the 21st century.

The Barnard Center for Research on Women promotes a dialogue between feminist scholarship and activism. Founded in 1971, the Center continues to foster inquiry and advance knowledge about women; to keep feminist issues at the forefront of college life; and to increase ties among diverse groups of women.

The Motherhood Project is working to put the importance of motherhood on the national agenda and seeks to bring fresh knowledge to bear to help mothers meet the unprecedented challenges of raising children in the 21st century. A key goal of the Project's Mothers' Council is to promote "mother-informed" national conversations.