Is Family Paid Leave?

During WWII, the two-breadwinner vision of the family suffered further setbacks. As May puts it, women entered war production, but they did not give up on reproduction..Economic hardship was no longer a barrier to marriage, as it had been in the 1930s, and dependents' allowances eased the burdens of families if the breadwinners were drafted. But perhaps most important was the desire to solidify relationships and establish connections to the future when war made life so uncertain. (May p.59-60) While the culture venerated female workers, it also promoted a return to domesticity after the war, a return encouraged by the gender bias of the GI Bill. Meanwhile, men were encouraged through pin-ups and propaganda to believe they were fighting for their own slice of the domestic, consumerist good life.

Many people have never considered what women were doing in WWII when their husbands left to fight. Their lives weren’t easy or normal during the war. Women had to work just as hard as men, sometimes even more so. In this essay, I will discuss the position of American women before World War II, during the war, and at the end of the war.

World War II was the catalyst that changed the opportunities available to women and eventually the way they were regarded as a viable workforce. Suddenly women throughout the United States were pushing themselves to their limits to support the war effort. Women were fulfilling jobs and responsibilities that many previously believed to be impossible for their gender. Opportunities were opened in steel plants, ammunition factories, and even the United States military. As the war progressed the number of male workers declined dramatically. Society had no choice but to turn to the mothers, sisters, and daughters of our nation for help. The results for each woman varied

Paid maternity leave protects families from financial stress and bombardment. Per the Washington Post in the article “Defending Paid Parental leave” on September 2, 2009, “One of the side effects of the bad economy is that good ideas that sound expensive begin getting ignored. Take paid parental leave. Making sure that parents can afford to take time off to have a baby is a good idea on a number of fronts. It protects families from the choice of financial calamity or time with a newborn.”

War time is not only hard on the soldiers surviving on the battlefield, but it is also very difficult for widowed mothers and wives, awaiting for their husbands to return from the war, who are having to gain employment and provide for their children economically and emotionally. During the year 1972, the amount of marriages began to decrease, as stated before, due to the high percentage of young men being drafted into the war. The high divorce rates were partly due to the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which demanded equal payment between men and women. The Equal Pay Act allowed men and women to possess high paying jobs and to support their family financially, and by passing this act, it only lightened the dependency placed on men to support their family. Many opportunities were opened for not only women, but also for ethnic minorities, and even children during the Second World War, this topic will be discussed more in-depth later in the essay. In current times, the known percentage of marriages ending up with a divorce has increased enormously; it has increased to around fifty-seven percent. These high percentages of divorces may have World War II to blame, but is it really a bad thing? No, it is not because due to the effects of World War II, women have made huge strides for equality and both sexes have undergone a sexual revolution

In 2002, California became the first state in the United States to create the Paid Family Leave (PFL) program – a family leave insurance program that provides income replacement to eligible workers for family caregiving or bonding with a new child and this program went into effect on July 1, 2004. http://paidfamilyleave.org/ask-us/what-is-paid-family-leave

In 1993, the United States passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Under this act, eligible employees are entitled to twelve weeks worth of unpaid, job-protected leave (with continued health insurance coverage as if they had not taken leave) per year for the following reasons: the birth and taking care of a child one year or younger; to care for an adopted/foster child for 1 year after the adoption/placement; to care for a spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition; a serious health condition that prohibits the employee from during their job; or any need that may arise due to the fact that the employee’s spouse, child, or parent is a covered military member on covered active duty. Eligible employees are also entitled to twenty-six weeks per year to care for a covered servicemember with

The Urban Institute published a case study that promotes the creation of national paid family leave policy in the United States. In the study, it is shown that this issue has been debated countless times in the past. George H.W. Bush even vetoed an unpaid family leave act during his presidency. This displays the struggles of enacting policy relating to this issue. The lack of a national paid family leave program in the US has left working mothers with three options: “return to work immediately after childbirth, quit employment, or take unpaid leave” (Urban Institute, 2017, p.3). The issue with these options include, loss of pay, unemployment, or the lack of parental presence in a child’s early development. Moreover, although some private companies offer paid leave, less educated and lower income mother have little access to this paid leave, which exacerbates their financial instability, keeping them in a lower societal class. This study found that not only is the current system is inadequate, but it is also inequitable, which causes financial hardships across the nation. According to the study, there has even been a 32% decrease in income after childbirth. Although this is the current situation, some states have enacted a statewide paid family leave program, which displays

Although the U.S. has some form of paid leave only half of all first-time parents take any paid leave and that compensation usually comes from other benefits such as sick days or vacation time. Furthermore, only about 13 percent of the private sector workforce is employed by companies that offer designated paid family leave. Recently, California, New Jersey and Rhode Island have implement

Our society is changing each and every day, new technology advancements, new medical practices, and new industrial technology advancements, just to name a few. With this being said, shouldn’t the benefits be changing along with this? You have medical leave, maternity leave and in rare occasions, paternity leave. Why shouldn’t parents be able to take off time together to bond with their newborns or new family members in such a case as adoption? So I took some time to study about parental leave, this is when I came across some very interesting information. When looking at the statistics, the benefits really out weigh the disadvantages. Parental leave policies with a required minimum of twelve weeks paid leave to use at the parents will within the first four years of the child 's life should be offered in United States, like in Sweden, because children and parents will both benefit from this.

The lack of a paid parental leave law in the country does not necessarily mean that it is absent in the U.S. labor market. Some generous and more progressive companies do recognize the importance of the leave to employees and do offer it. According to the Employee Benefits Survey of 2015, 21% of employers nationally offer some paid maternity leave while 17% offer some paid paternity/adoption leave. However, about a fifth don’t have any kind of protected maternity, paternity, or adoptive leave. (Ray, 8; Time, n. pag.)

Paid parental leave should be equal and for both parents once a child is born

For all working parents, paid parental leave is an important component to incorporate to balance the workplace and sharing a family. However most parents who undergo leave are only paid a maximum grand total of either six weeks (for vaginal delivery) or eights (for a c-section) which come from Short Term Disability funds collected by employee payroll deductions. This is not enough time for parents to recuperate properly enough to return to their jobs. In 1993, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitled all eligible employees to take unpaid job-protected leave to medical reasons by providing 12 weeks worth of job protection. But the FMLA still does not provide enough compensation, and there are also firm restrictions enforced that exclude approximately 40% of the American workforce.

During World War II women were known to leave the perfect housewife lifestyle and start joining the workforce. The cause of women going into the workforce was to keep supporting their families while their husbands were fighting for the

Access to paid leave is often identified as an issue that primarily concerns working mothers, yet paid leave is also critically important for working fathers. In a society that continues to evolve, it is even more imperative to address this unequal access with an increasing number of fathers who are serving as stay at home parents (International Labor Organization, 2014). Legislation that supports fathers having the support they need to prioritize family responsibilities can significantly increase the personal and economic well-being of their growing families (United States Department of Labor, 2015). Despite these advantages, the growing importance of paternal involvement with their newborns is not always supported in today’s society. The economic and social barriers fathers face may hinder them from taking paternity leave altogether, such as inadequate access to paid leave and outdated cultural norms about male breadwinners. According to survey data, most fathers in the United States only take one day of leave time for every month the typical mother takes (Harrington et al., 2014). This means that even in the twenty-first century, it appears to be more widely accepted for mothers to take off time from work to care for their families than fathers. Fewer than half the countries in the world provide men with access to paid leave to care for a new child, while virtually all provide paid maternity leave (ILO, 2014). Paid paternity leave and laws related to promote