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Today my daughter turns 6 weeks old. That’s how young some babies are when they go into daycare cause their moms don’t get maternity leave.
This is…how do I put this….totally f—ing insane.
At 6 weeks, my daughter eats every 2-3 hours. I am her only source of food. She can’t hold her head up. She doesn’t sleep through the night.
I can’t fathom leaving her in daycare this young. Or with a nanny or the non-existent family member I don’t have to help me. It makes me so sad that some women have to do this.
Five years ago I wrote a story for Businessweek about how the US doesn’t have paid maternity leave. I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-01-28/maternity-leave-u-s-policies-still-fail-workers
At the time, only 12% of working Americans had paid leave. Today it’s about 17%. That’s not much progress.
Also, let’s talk about the 6 weeks that some women do get. (Again, not all women.)
It’s technically “disability” leave because having a baby wrecks your body.
My mom once described it as "shoving a bowling ball out of a very narrow piece of plumbing." She wasn't wrong!
Six weeks is the MINIMUM length for recovery. For many women (Hey there. Hi. It’s me.) it’s a lot longer.
At 6 weeks, not everyone (hi, me again) can sit in a chair comfortably, let alone stand at a service job for an 8-hour shift. Many of us can’t lift heavy things.
And guess who’s less likely to get leave, paid or unpaid, of any kind? Hourly workers with those 8-hour shifts!
Given how segregated the U.S. job market is, black and brown women are less likely to hold jobs that grant any kind of leave at all. https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2019/article/racial-and-ethnic-disparities-in-access-to-and-use-of-paid-family-and-medical-leave.htm
And what about dads/partners? Granting men paternity leave lowers the divorce rate and also promotes stronger father-child bonding. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/parenting/paternity-leave.html
(Psst, politicians, that’s quite literally “family values.”)
I get 6 months of leave at Bloomberg, for which I’m very grateful. In the U.S. that makes me (and my daughter) incredibly privileged. But it’s still just half of what I’d get if I lived in someplace like the UK.
That’s how far behind other countries we are. Our best here is barely acceptable in other countries.
There are so many things going on right now in America, so many other problems that feel bigger and more immediate. I know that.
I don’t expect paid parental leave to be at the top of any politician’s agenda in 2021. But that’s the problem. It never is. And so it never gets done.
Even Trump kinda-sorta knows this is important. In 2016 he promised voters 6 weeks of paid leave. (It didn’t happen, of course.) https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/promise/1387/guarantee-6-week-paid-leave/
Similarly, in 2013 Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced a bill that would provide 3 months of partially paid leave. It went nowhere.
I think she introduced it again last year? And again, nothing. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/463/actions
Our government is failing to provide something most Americans want and all children need.
Any politician who claims to be pro-life or support “family values” but who doesn’t move on this issue isn’t pro- anything.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go feed a tiny baby and continue not sitting on chairs for the foreseeable future.
