The 2008 presidential election was fraught with so many twists and turns that there are whole chapters from earlier in the year long forgotten. As John McCain made his closing argument using "Joe the Plumber" as his mascot, it felt like the Waitress Moms of the primaries had mostly faded from our view. Even Sarah Palin didn't move many pundits to bring up the Waitress Moms. They were too busy following the latest clothing scandal and infighting in the McCain/Palin camps to consider what women in this category were looking for in a President. Only "Hillary voters" and "Women voters" were evoked, and we now know they went handily to Barack Obama. With the election over, and Obama our President-Elect, it was heartening to see Teresa Heinz Kerry (together with Jeffrey Lewis, President of the Heinz Foundation), long a champion for Moms and women in retirement, resurrect the Waitress Mom, and this time speak of them, not as a voting bloc, but a group of women living in tough times.
Although in Teresa's op-ed she speaks of the Waitress Moms in context of this year's presidential election, the term Waitress Mom first was coined in 1996:
The coinage of Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, Waitress Moms make up a demographic group defined, very roughly, as low-income working women of child-rearing age, troubled by President Clinton's morality, concerned about bread-and-butter family issues, and possibly too exhausted to vote. ...
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Lake identified Waitress Mom in 1996, in an effort to remind her party, during a season of pandering to the Aerostarwaffe of suburbia, that the Constitution still granted the franchise to people without 401(k) matching plans.
Waitress Moms made a big splash in 1998, because of the Bill Clinton Monica Lewinsky scandal:
No, says the waitress, Carol Chavez, with enviable patience, she was not previously aware that she is a member of the hot political swing group of the moment, the ''waitress moms.''
''I've just been trying to raise my kids,'' she says. ''I work two jobs, so I don't listen to any of it.''
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The scandal involving President Clinton seems to have troubled a good number of them, pollsters have said. And now no one knows if they'll turn out on Nov. 3 -- or how they'll vote if they do show up.
Ms. Chavez, who turns 50 on Tuesday, says she, for one, won't vote, or even tune into the debate. She has children aged 9, 15 and 19, and everything she's got goes into providing for them.
Her co-worker, Janet Pochon, a 41-year-old mother of three handing out burgers at a pretty good clip, is a lifelong Democrat who twice voted for Bill Clinton but will also be staying home this year.
''I'm just really depressed with everything that's going on with Clinton and it's really turned me off,'' she said. At what moment did the Democrats lose her? ''When Clinton admitted he lied,'' Ms. Pochon said. ''You put your trust in somebody and they break that trust. I'm sure there are a lot of people just like me.''
Despite having it tough in the nineties, it is amazing to see how a moral issue trumped economic issues for these women. During the Bush years, we did not hear much about this voting bloc, but they returned in 2008, as Teresa recounts the evolution of the various female demographics:
First, it was the Soccer Mom, a symbol of the stress and rewards of prosperous women raising active children.
Next was the Security Mom, a symbol of our nation's fears after 9/11.
This election year, we met the Waitress Moms -- mostly worried about keeping a roof over their heads and putting food on the table. Many are in dead-end jobs and raising children alone. Their lives are defined by overwhelming economic insecurity. The American dream -- the fundamental belief that hard work can build a better life -- isn't on the menu of Waitress Moms.
Teresa goes on to speak of how they were popularized in this year's election. I would argue that was more the case during the primaries. One waitress became famous, spoken of by Hillary Clinton and National Public Radio:
I followed Clinton during a recent bus tour across Iowa, when she and her entourage pulled into a Maid-Rite, a greasy spoon famous for its loose-meat sandwich. Clinton settled into a red stool at the counter, ate a sandwich, chatted with her waitress and then was on her way.
The scene gave Clinton perfect fodder for her next few stump speeches. It turns out her waitress was a single, working mom — just the kind of voter Democrats are courting aggressively this year.
Clinton recalled the meeting for an audience up the road in Boone. "The woman waiting on us — it was her first day," she said, adding, "She was a little nervous. Single mom, raised two boys, works at a nursing home and always has a second job."
If she's elected president, Clinton promised, people like her waitress will have it better.
Some of you may recall that this became a minor hiccup for the Hillary campaign, because a staffer forgot to leave a tip for this waitress. In Iowa, that may have hurt her, but throughout the primaries Hillary won this demographic convincingly. The McCain campaign thought, by having Sarah Palin as a running mate, they could poach them. Judging by exit polls, they came up short. The reason is largely because they are hurting, and don't have the luxury to vote on reasons other than economic. Teresa details their plight:
The challenges
First, Waitress Moms can't depend on their jobs. All low-wage workers face limited opportunities for advancement. For women, residual sexism limits them further.
Second, Waitress Moms can't depend on their families. More often, their families depend on them. Estimates suggest that caregiving middle-aged women experience 40% fewer paid work hours than those who don't provide care. Also, women caregivers lose about 10% of their median annual incomes in related out-of-pocket expenses. This equates to less money saved, lower Social Security benefits, smaller (if any) pensions, and thinner resumes.
Third, Waitress Moms can't depend on existing social safety nets. Medicaid is not a health care fallback for them. So they go without. But when they can no longer go without, they head to the emergency room. And Social Security fails Waitress Moms by not counting their years of caregiving toward the credits they need to earn a benefit.
At the link, you can read solutions to these problems that the Heinz Foundation has come up with. Although the Heinz Foundation is most famous for its work on the environment (green building, now a mainstream idea, was first pioneered in Pittsburgh when the Heinz Foundation's new building was constructed with green building principles in the late '80s early '90s), they have done excellent work in helping women, particularly older women who face an uncertain future in retirement. Read the eBook "What Women Need to Know About Retirement" to get a practical guide, written by the Foundation, to have a more secure retirement.
I can't help but be given pause by hearing the stories of these women. As the saying goes "there but for fortune" go you or I. As a stay at home Mom, I am at risk of losing income forever in the form of social security, because of the choices I have made (no regrets, by the way). As Teresa said in her diary last Mother's Day, this topic may not be "sexy", but boy is it important. As we go forward in our excitement of a President Obama and a Democratic Congress, I hope we will consider these women and try to help them.