No Country for Mothers

When No Country for Mothers premiered in New York earlier this summer, I asked the associate producers in the room to stand. Then I asked every mom who’d had enough to stand. More people rose. Finally, I asked everyone who believed this country should work for mothers to stand.

The entire room was on its feet.

I keep coming back to that moment because it captured exactly why we made this film and why, instead of selling it to a streamer and calling it a day, we decided to take it across the country.

And now, we’re bringing No Country for Mothers to San Francisco.

I started fighting for moms because I lived this.

When my second son was born, COVID hit, and I watched women get erased from the workforce in real time. There was no school, no daycare, no backup, and somehow it was still on us to hold everything together. During the pandemic, women were almost three times more likely than men to leave work because of childcare.

For a brief moment, it seemed like America might actually learn something. Workplaces became more flexible. Remote work expanded. We began acknowledging, even imperfectly, that caregiving is real work and that employers cannot simply pretend it doesn’t exist between 9 and 5.

And now we’re watching that progress disappear.

Our country runs on an economy that punishes care and workplaces that won’t bend, then tells moms it’s their fault when they struggle. And when leaders act stunned by declining birth rates while ignoring what moms have been telling them for years, they’re choosing to look away from the consequences of the systems they created.

It does not have to be this way.

We made No Country for Mothers because moms’ stories belong at the center of our policies, our workplaces, and our economy. The film examines how shame and blame have been used to keep mothers divided and distracted from the policies that actually shape our lives—and what becomes possible when we stop blaming ourselves and start looking at the system instead.

Since June, I’ve watched that realization happen in rooms across the country.

We could have put this film on a streaming platform, where you could watch it alone at 10 p.m. after everyone else was asleep, get furious, text a friend, and eventually go to bed. Instead, we made a different bet: that moms getting mad alone doesn’t change anything. Moms getting fired up together in a room does.

And that’s exactly what’s been happening.

No Country for Mothers is traveling across the country—from theaters and libraries to living rooms, workplaces, and backyards. More than 2,500 moms put their names on this film as associate producers, breaking a world record. Thousands more are showing up to watch together, get angry together, and ask: What would it actually take to build a country that works for mothers?

Now, San Francisco, it’s your turn.

Join us at the Presidio Theatre for a special screening of No Country for Mothers, followed by a talkback about where we go from here.

You can’t stream this film. You can’t watch it on demand. If you want to see it, you have to show up—and that’s the point. Being isolated and divided is what got us into this mess. Coming together is how we get ourselves out.

Every screening reminds me of what I saw at our premiere: the exhaustion so many mothers carry is not a personal failure. The anger isn’t ours to carry alone. And the systems failing families aren’t inevitable.

They were built.

Which means we can build something better.

San Francisco, come fill the room. Bring your partner, your friends, your coworkers, the parents from your group chat. Bring someone who needs to see this, and someone who’s ready to do something about it.

Reshma Saujani
Founder & CEO
Moms First