OK so this came up in one of my classes today, and I wanted to post something about it on the blog because it relates to our discussion on intersectionality from Monday. Here’s a quick BuzzFeed video about it, too!

Basically, for some background, the US is the only industrialized nation which does not provide paid maternity leave. Under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, companies with more than 50 employees are required to provide job security for employees who can take up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for things like the birth/adoption of a new child or care for a parent.

There are organizations which do provide paid maternity/paternity leave, which is great, but the underlying structure of our society is severely problematic. It affects anyone with any kind of relationship, though especially those who are members of multiple marginalized groups.

People who work at businesses with fewer than 50 people are already exempt from the federal law, and their employers are not required to give them paid or unpaid leave, nor are they required to guarantee that once they return from leave they will be in the same/similar position. Additionally, people who financially cannot afford to be without pay for 12 weeks are also essentially disqualified.  Women, especially women of color, are more likely to be poor or living near the poverty line, so they are effectively disqualified from being able to take advantage of this policy.

I think there are a lot of reasons that contribute to why the US is such an outlier on this issue. Maybe government-mandated paid paternal leave goes against our stereotypes about parenthood (wait, fathers can/should/want to stay home and care for baby?!), or maybe it’s too big-bad-government sounding (*gasp* I think that sounds like socialisim). I think a big part, however, is our culture’s tendency to be so individualistic – we have the mentality here that everyone should take care of themselves and everyone will be able to figure it out if they work hard enough. I think one of our country’s biggest flaws is our inability to see the ways in which different structures, and the interactions between them, are constantly in play and effecting the ways in which we live.