Some of you may have seen the 20/20 report the other night by Elizabeth Vargas on working motherhood in America. One of the most shocking statistic in the report was that only 4 out of 168 countries do not have a national maternity leave program. Those countries are Papua New Guinea, LeSotho, Swaziland and the United States. Yes, our friends in North Korea and Iran offer more support to working moms than our own country. She also interviewed Senator Christopher Dodd who has been a diehard supporter of maternity leave, but has been consistently thwarted by both Democrats and Republicans.
Since I've joined the millions of other working Moms in America, I'd like to contribute my two cents on the issue of government support for families. First, I think that there will never be any government-backed maternity leave until we reframe the issue as "family leave." We have to stop pitting men against women, those with children against those without, working moms against stay-at-home moms, etc.
Believe it or not, paid family leave is really a family value, not a hand out to women who choose to work and have a family. Don't get me wrong, the promise of paid family leave would certainly help working mothers, but it would also help single people adopting children, fathers expecting children, childless people with sick mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, etc.
It's not about giving me a handout because I choose to have kids. It's about deciding as a society that we are going to value family members caring for each other. That we are going to give sons and daughters the flexibility to take care of ailing parents, and foster parents time to adjust to caring for another human being, and fathers a chance to bond with their newborns. It's so vitally important and yet the "family values conservatives" are more worried about gay people marrying than how millions of American families are going to juggle raising kids, taking care of ailing parents, maintaining work responsibilities, and last (and always least), finding time for themelves. How 'bout them family values!
At the very least, I wish that there was a little more informed debate/discussion on the issue. We spend so much time arguing about much less important things. Here's something that affects everyone that we completely ignore.
If you want to read more on the topic you can read Leslie Morgan Steiner's blog on the subject at http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/mt/mtb.cgi/13176
PS: Now that my ranting is done, I will tell you that Hailey Marie will be 4 months old on Sunday! She's giggling, grabbing things, and jumping in her johnny jumper. I can't believe it myself.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Do you remember what I said to you the first time I met you? Probably not, cuz you were sleeping at the time. But I told you to make a difference. I said you could be anything you wanted to be including President of the United States. Well, I'll say it again: Make a difference. Run for an office: local, regional, school board....the future is in your hands, literally and figuratively...make it happen. As someone who has been both: a stay-at-home mom and a working mom,as someone who has taken time off to care for their parents I agree with you whole-heartedly. Politicans are always talking about family values when they're running for office, but apparently fighting un-winable wars in foreign countries is more important. Make your voice heard. You've got my vote!
move to california... we have all sorts of leaves and special laws! on the downside, we also have ahnold as our governor... :)
Post a Comment