Moms First, an advocacy organization, aims to “fight for the structural changes moms need and deserve,” like paid family leave and childcare benefits.
The group, founded by Girls Who Code CEO and lawyer Reshma Saujani, hosted an inaugural summit to support the fight for those changes last year. But this year, they decided to place the focus on men, with a conference titled The Future of Fatherhood that was held in New York City on June 5.
Turning the focus to fathers was partly a pragmatic decision, said Moms First’s Chief Operating Officer Molly Day. “We’re not going to win the structural changes we need without men at the table. We need them voting. We need them in positions of power, whether it’s the workplace or on Capitol Hill,” she said.
Thus far this year, progress on family-friendly benefits looks more promising in the workplace than it does in Washington.
Where Washington stands on support for working parents. President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly exploring ways to incentivize more women to have children with policy proposals such as a $5,000 “baby bonus” that would be given to a mother following delivery. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy even told his department to prioritize funding for communities with high marriage and birth rates.
But such proposals don’t deliver “actual economic solutions” for US families, Day said.
The Trump-endorsed tax bill that the House of Representatives recently passed includes a provision that would create savings accounts for American children born between 2025 and 2028, starting with a $1,000 deposit from the federal government. It would also raise the maximum child tax credit from $2,000 to $2,500, though some 22 million low-income children would not be eligible to receive the full credit, according to an estimate from Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy.
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Day said Moms First was “deeply disappointed" that the bill didn’t include reforms to the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, which allows taxpayers to deduct a certain percentage from their childcare costs, depending on their income level. This credit hasn’t changed since 2001, other than a temporary expansion in 2021. The proposed child tax credit expansion, “we don't think goes far enough,” she added.
Employers lead on family-friendly policies. One bright spot in the fight to better support working parents is the role businesses have played in recent years, Day said.
Some 200 companies reaching over 600,000 people are now part of the organization’s National Business Coalition for Childcare, and can speak to the return-on-investment they’re seeing from expanding childcare benefits—such as improved productivity or retention, Day said. Moms First has since brought some of these business leaders to Capitol Hill to advocate for childcare. “It can’t be a personal problem anymore. We really need it to be an economic imperative, and I think that’s where the business community really comes in to help us,” she said.
As of 2024, 40% of employers surveyed by SHRM offered paid parental leave, while 12% offered a childcare referral service, and 3% offered a subsidized childcare center or program.
These types of benefits are more prevalent among businesses in the Great Place to Work network, according to its CEO Michael Bush. Companies in this network are certified as an employer of choice through worker surveys that measure areas like engagement and trust. Investing in such benefits contributes to positive experiences among the workforce, which in turn can benefit an employer’s bottom line, the organization contends.
“What the private sector knows is this is the way to make a lot of money,” Bush said. “The government isn’t thinking about it the same way.”