Maternity leave policies and workplace discrimination against mothers

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Becoming a new mother can be very exciting as well as very stressful. Many soon-to-be mothers worry about having enough time to spend with the child, being financially stable, and if their jobs would allow them to take off if needed. In today's workforce; is there really enough time set for maternity leave? Employers can be very demanding and not be aware of how motherhood truly affects women. Employers should consider changing their policies regarding treatment of mothers and mothers-to-be because families would benefit from it. There have been questions about making a policy to have parental leave, which would allow men and women to take a leave of absence when a baby is born. This, however takes away from maternity leave because it disregards what women go though when giving child birth if men are given the same rights. Therefore, instituting paternal leave will counteract the discrimination women face over pregnancy and maternal leave.

Arguments with the law

A paternal leave will counteract the discrimination women face over pregnancy and maternal leave. Women of today have fear of taking time away from work when having a child. Initial efforts to establish maternity leave policies were in "response to negative effects of dangerous employment conditions, including long hours, on maternal and child health" (Trzcinski 9). More recently, the developing body of research literature "provides support for the hypothesis that under certain conditions, maternal employment during pregnancy and soon after childbirth can increase the risk of negative outcomes for both infant and maternal physical and mental health" (Trzcinski 9). More people have begun to see that this is a problem and something needs to be done to address it satisfactorily.

For example, in the past, the rights of women who desire to have children and continue to work had to undergone many changes in the work place. Support during this time period is very important. Prior to enactment of federal legislation that protected women from employment discrimination relating to pregnancy, it was unacceptable to many employers for a woman to take off time from her job to have a baby. Employers were often very inflexible and unsupportive. The husband and other family members could not request release time to support the mother-to-be and share the birth experience during this important time in her life..

According to the Solutions Journal, "For the first time in our history, approximately four out of every ten mothers in the United States is primary breadwinners and almost two-thirds are bread winners or co-breadwinners" (citation?). It is evidence like this that shows change is needed in the work place. With more and more women entering the work place, employees will need to be more flexible, especially with women who make the choice to have a family and still remain in the workforce.

However, "In 1993 President Clinton created the Family Medical Leave Act enabling family members to take off up to 12 weeks due to medical leave under any conditions" (citation?). This meant that the husband or any other family member could provide the mother and child support up to 12 weeks without fear of being fired or force to take a leave without pay. One could only imagine how important this was to having the father involved from the beginning of the young child's birth. Spending time with the mother and baby would provide memories he would cherish forever. Furthermore, this law gave other family members the opportunity to support the new mother, if needed, without fear of being penalized or losing seniority or benefits because of taking time off to assist in the care of the baby. Women play an important role in the workplace; therefore, they deserve rights that will fully protect them if they make the choice to become mothers and have careers Despite the Family Medical Leave Act, there are still many challenges for women, including finding adequate daycare and stress from working long hours and having to come home and take care of the family. Some efforts have been initiated to foster a dialogue on such issues. President Obama hosted the White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility on March 31, 2010, to discuss how Americans can meet the demands of their jobs without sacrificing their families.

Additionally, the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor hosted a national dialogue on workplace flexibility to discuss how employers can empower employees and their families while becoming more competitive in the global market. Although much more than dialogue needs to occur, including development of specific courses of action to address problem areas and implementation of plans targeting these deficiencies, such meetings clearly show that strides are being made to seek solutions and ways to support women in the workplace, especially mothers and caregiver.

Statistics

According to one study, more than 58% of working mothers in Japan desired balance between work and family, but only 12% felt they actually had a satisfactory balance. In a U.S. survey, 77% of Americans believe that businesses should be required to provide paid family and medical leave, and 68% believe that employers should provide more funding for childcare. There have been studies that have shown that workers who have been given more flexibility in the workplace prove to be better workers and more productive. Consequently, the evidence indicates that providing more flexibility in constructing employees' work schedules would actually boost employee morale and facilitate greater productivity, definitely a win-win situation. However, instituting paternal leave will counteract the discrimination women face over pregnancy and maternal leave because it will decrease the importance of child birth.

Furthermore, if the workforce has a standard leave of absence for all parents, maternity leaves will disappear, and how a woman's body heals varies from woman to woman. People do not the maternity leave very seriously. They treat it as if the woman is asking for vacation time. Therefore, passing a law for paternal leave will overshadow the discrimination women face over pregnancy and maternal leave.

"Social science studies also show the persistence of stereotyped perceptions and decision-making with respect to pregnant workers. For example, one recent study concluded that "negative stereotypes and beliefs associated with pregnant working women do exist, and that men are more likely than women to hold these beliefs," while another by the same researchers found that subjects assigned consistently lower performance ratings to a pregnant worker viewed on video than an identical, non-pregnant worker.42 "Pregnant women," these researchers found, "were viewed as overly emotional, often irrational, physically limited, and less than committed to their jobs. They were not seen as valued or dependable employees."43 Another study found that "pregnant women evoke hostile reactions in situations in which they stray from the traditional feminine gender role. As a result, pregnant women may face significant obstacles to successful employment."44 A third found that "subordinates studied tended to have more negative impressions of the pregnant manager and of their interactions with her than they did of the manager who was not pregnant" (Pregnancy, Work, and the Promise of Equal Citizenship).

Finally, becoming a new mother is very exciting as well as it can be very stressful. The questions of, Will I have enough time to spend with my child; am I financially stable; will my job allow me to take off if needed will continue to be concerns of a new mother. Also, most mothers will continue to be concerned with what are my rights regarding having to take time off after giving birth, how will this affect my job status and support by my employer, and how will this impact my family life and possibly affect my well-being and health. Therefore, pregnant women need all of the support that they can get. In the workplace, even in modern society, they have to fight for their maternity leave which allowed to them by law. If a parental leave law is passed, it would cancel out maternity leave, which would give more discrimination to women.

"While citizenship is not as central today in women's rights advocacy or litigation, the notion of avoiding "second-class citizenship" continues to animate courts and policymakers. Legislative history of antidiscrimination laws is replete with calls to end the lesser citizenship status of women, people of color, the disabled, and other historically disadvantaged groups. Justice Ginsburg invoked the idea of equal citizenship explicitly and powerfully in United States v. Virginia, in which the Court struck down the Virginia Military Institute's longstanding male-only admissions policy.106 There, she wrote that "[n]either federal nor state government acts compatibly with equal protection when a law or official policy denies to women, simply because they are women, full citizenship stature -- equal opportunity to aspire, achieve, participate in and contribute to society based on their individual talents and capacities."107 We thus cannot discount the powerful connection between citizenship and women's rights, which ultimately outweighs the concerns about exclusion" (Pregnancy, Work, and the Promise of Equal Citizenship).

To put an understanding to this argument, a parental leave should not be passed because it will counteract maternity leave. It has been proven that when peers of the same common interest are involved, women are supported better. This is because they feel like they have that support that they need especially when they are being seen as insignificant in society. The progressions of credentials, assessment, categorization, placement, and instruction have truly meant to show that instituting paternal leave will counteract the discrimination women face over pregnancy and maternal leave. In these cases, the differences comprise the situation and at the same time, they also are components that can form the solution; society is the problem, society is also the solution. Countless of facets under the study of instituting paternal leave will counteract the discrimination women face over pregnancy and maternal leave are yet to be tackled and given emphasis, and it seems likely that the solution lies within the situation. Despite the issues, diversity enables any study or observation of women to be theoretical. However, the society does overlook how important it is to have a maternity leave. Women need to have a nurturing support system in their development. It can be concluded that this support system can be supplied by the law since it reaches a wider audience, which is around a diverse world that contains different types of women. From there, cultures define the role of women through different medias that have grown and changed over the last centuries, which means instituting paternal leave will counteract the discrimination women face over pregnancy and maternal leave.

Babies are a gift from God. They deserve the best mother and home possible. Therefore, women deserve the best possible working environment. This means flexible hours, laws in place to protect them from harassment in the workplace and a boss that is willing to work with them. Women make up over half of the workforce and they should have rights to protect them and allow them the opportunity to be good mothers and wives too.

"Work is important beyond its facilitation of democratic participation. Vicki Schultz has argued that "jobs create people" because they shape individuals' behavior and self-conception.131 Sociologists have long argued that work is intricately linked to self-identity,132 but work also affects conceptions of others and standing in the community.133 As Kenneth Karst has written, "[i]n our society, as much as anywhere else in the world, work is a means of proving yourself worthy in your own eyes and in the eyes of others."134 Paid work also has proven tangible benefits to the individual, including greater psychological well-being and economic security, and to society. There is little research on the well-being of pregnant female workers, but there is some evidence that they experience these benefits as well. One review study concluded that "several studies find that when working conditions are suitable, working during pregnancyis beneficial to the psychological well-being and financial status of the pregnant women" (Pregnancy, Work, and the Promise of Equal Citizenship).

Conclusion

Most mothers-to-be are concerned with what their rights are regarding having to take time off after giving birth, how motherhood will this affect one's job status and support by the employer, and how it will impact one's family life and potentially affect one's well-being and health. This is very stressful and by adding a parental leave will counteract the maternity leave.

Work cited

Barbour Rachel, Amy Brown, and Jolynn Shoemaker. A Revolutionary Change: Making the Workplace More Flexible. Volume 2 Issue 2 Feb 2011 http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/889

Boushey, H in The Shriver Report: How a Woman's Nation Changes Everything (Boushey, H & O'Leary, A, eds), The new breadwinners (Center for American Progress, Washington, DC, October 2009)

Boushey, H. Its Time for Policies to Match Family Needs (Center for American Progress, Washington, DC, March 29, 2010)

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/7748616/ns/today-books/t/brooke-shields-battles-postpartu... "Brooke Shields Battles postpartum depression

Osawa, M. In Workplace Flexibility (Christensen, K & Schneider, B, eds), Flexible employment and the introduction work-life balance programs in Japan, 303-316 (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2010)

"Pospartum-Depression."(Oct):1.