I
usually don’t go all political in my blog, but a recent report on public policy
vis-à-vis the needs of working families
(and this is a woman’s leadership issue) threw me into high gear. In a politically charged year when there is
so much rhetoric given to “family values,” (and women’s issues) we need a
closer look at what kind of values we’re talking about. I’m tired of politicians giving lip-service
to “family values” and then when it comes to doing the heavy lifting they are
as scarce as an Easter egg in July.
A
new report, Expecting Better: A
State-by-State Analysis of Laws That Help New Parents, issued by the
National Partnership for Women and Families concludes that there have been too
few advances in federal and state employment laws in bringing public policy in
line with the needs of the 21st century family in the United States. The United
States is in striking contrast to 178 nations that guarantee paid work leave
for new mothers and 54 nations that guarantee paid work leave for new fathers.
So
what is the big deal? The big deal is how, as a society, we should walk our
talk about family values and ensure that our public policy gives a hand-up to
families. The big deal is that by giving
families a “hand up,” research shows that there are tremendous benefits for
both families and businesses…..families gain economic security and better health
and businesses boost their bottom lines.
With
women, as the report states, being the primary or co-breadwinners in nearly
two-thirds of families, loss of income during pregnancy or parental leave has
significant consequences for the family.
The report cites that only “38 percent of workers have access to
employer-provided short-term disability insurance, and only about one-tenth of
the workforce has access to employer-provided paid family leave to care for a
new child.” And those families at the
margins are hit the hardest. “Workers in
low-paying jobs who have the greatest need for both job protection and wage
replacement during leave from work are far less likely to have access to either
of these employer-provided benefits.”
And
this is a women’s leadership issue.
Another recent report, Invest in
America—Invest in Woman, a Report of the Majority Staff of the Joint
Economic Committee of the United State Senate, cites out-of-date social supports for working
families, inflexible work arrangements and undervalued early care as major
reasons for holding women back in reaching middle and senior management
positions.
So
what is wrong with this picture in a society that supposedly holds that the
family is the essential ethical and moral unit of society,? Where politicians can't stop gushing that
they support women and families? Where, in this latest report, over 60% of the
States were given a grade of “D” or “F”
for supporting working families? Perhaps
a “hand-up” to help real children, mothers, and fathers living in 21st
century families isn’t our vision of “family values” and, in the end, it’s all rhetoric after all.
Expecting Better: A State-by-State
Analysis of Laws That Help New Parents available at http://www.nationalpartnership.org/site/DocServer/Expecting_Better_Report.pdf?docID=10301
Invest in America—Invest in Woman
available at http://jec.senate.gov/public/?a=Files.Serve&File_id=57cfaf04-f297-4c61-964b-6321af47db03
