Maternity Leave: Why it Matters, Why We Need More The United States lags behind its counterparts in the wealthy, developed world on many measures, not least of which is how it treats new moms. In the United States, only twelve percent of women have access to paid maternity leave of any length (Froese 1). The six weeks of paid maternity leave I receive from my company might be better than most Americans get, but it is still not at all enough and can lead to serious health problems for both mom and baby, as well as to more generalized societal ills. Research also reveals that current maternity leave programs in the United States reflect gross inequalities along the intersections between race, class, and gender, exacerbating income disparities (May 1). The United States should therefore adopt a more sensible, rights-based maternity leave policy, modeled after the successful programs already in place in other countries with robust economies.

Generous paid maternity leave policies benefit the entire society, not just mom and baby. As Ingraham points out, having children “is a necessary condition for our biological and economic survival,” and is therefore in the best interests of the government to foster economic growth through...

Among the nations that provide long periods of paid maternity leave, all are wealthy including Finland, Norway, Canada, and Japan (England 1; Ingraham 1). A person does not need to be poor to realize that insufficient paid leave will lead to the incursion of debt, decreased employee morale, and a cascade of problems both psychological and social. Raising children is exorbitantly expensive, as any new parent can attest, and those who need help during the critical first few years of the baby’s life receive the least amount of financial support from either the private or the public sector. Maternity leave is therefore beneficial for society in the way that it helps create a healthier, wealthier next generation of Americans.
Long maternity leave programs can be synchronized with the needs of companies to cost-effectively manage their human resources. For example, companies can offer new mothers the opportunity to work from home. Contract and temporary positions that fill the role of the new mother can easily be filled. Yet major American corporations, from Walmart to Starkbucks, have unjust and irrational policies that provide zero paid maternity leave days for new mothers (or…