This thought exercise illustrates why paid leave is so critical.
 | By Sarah Wildman Staff Editor, Opinion |
I spent a few months of my first pregnancy living and working in the former East Berlin neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg, an area that seemed to attract pregnant women and children. Like my neighbors, I had an obstetrician and a collection of forgiving stretchy dresses. But what they had, and I did not, was guaranteed paid leave waiting at the end of all those months of gestation. |
The United States guarantees zero weeks of paid parental leave, a remarkable outlier among developed countries. On the campaign trail, President Biden promised to mandate 12 weeks of paid family leave. But as Build Back Better, his once-in-a-generation social infrastructure agenda, has been battered about in the House and Senate this fall, family leave was sharply reduced to four weeks. Even that number feels wobbly. |
When the comedy writer Bess Kalb first learned that politicians had sacrificed paid leave during policy negotiations, she was infuriated. "The issue, for me, is quite personal. If I'd had only four weeks of paid leave after giving birth, I might be dead," she writes in her by turns hilarious and enraging essay. "And if I were dead my 2-year-old son would not have had a semi-handmade garbage truck costume for Halloween." Kalb was rushed into surgery, six weeks postpartum, because of a pregnancy-related complication. Had she not had leave, she wonders: Would she have waited too long to investigate what was wrong? |
Kalb's rage is shared by many American women who have tweeted out their experiences of life four weeks postpartum as a way of illustrating the necessity of paid, protected leave. Parents described living on less than 3 hours of nonconsecutive sleep, bleeding, complications, depression and lack of child care. |
Of course paid leave is not only for childbirth and parental leave — it is also for caring for a sick family member, a spouse or child or parent. Without federal family leave, Americans are dependent on benevolent employee policies. As such policies are unavailable to many hourly workers, gig-economy workers, most service workers and more, millions are left with the impossible choice to either return immediately to work, unhealed and unready, or face dire financial consequences. As Kalb writes, "Adequate paid parental leave creates a life-or-death divide along racial and class lines. Survival after giving birth should not be a luxury afforded to wealthy white women." |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com. |
Contact us If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times. |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment