parental leave
What we should be debating is paid Family Leave.
Tom Bourdon shares what it was like for him to take paternity leave while being a same-sex relationship.
Taking care of the little bundle isn't a female thing. It's a parent thing. But if men continue to back down and employers persist in dissuading fathers from taking leave, children will remain a "women's issue," which can be detrimental to both men and women.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
It is ironic that the individuals who champion family values and cry it from mountain tops left and right (mostly right) are the ones that are conspicuously absent when it comes to providing families with such an important provision as a decent parental leave.
For flex-time, leave and even telecommuting policies to be fair for all, parenthood has to stop being the central focus behind their development. Here are three ways these kinds of policies could be made more equitable.
Things have changed little, if at all, for men. Companies of all sorts often offer illegally short paternity leaves, even companies without a history of blowing off other federal mandates.
The challenge facing advocates for fair family/work policies is to provide evidence that these policies are money makers; they can boost the bottom line over the long term. It's not as tough a sale as one might think.
What Americans need is a set of laws, government programs and business practices that support babies and their families.