The President of Smith College supports paid parental leave: for the college's employees in this 2016 column in Smith Alumnae Magazine and for Mother's Day 2015 in the Boston Globe, for everybody else. Meanwhile Boston based Lionbridge Technologies, whose main shareholder is Fidelity Investments, and whose main customer is Microsoft, continues to refuse to provide any paid parental leave. Fidelity and Microsoft support paid parental leave for their own employees but ignore the fate of the people working for them via Lionbridge Technologies.
Time to rethink our social construct of motherhood
By Kathleen McCartney MAY 06, 2015Nearing the end of her three-month maternity leave, my daughter is celebrating her first Mother’s Day with her daughter, Tessa. In 1985, when I was pregnant with her younger sister, I was an assistant professor at Harvard University. I remember asking the chair of my department, a child development scholar like myself, for a maternity leave. He declined my request, arguing that a leave would not be fair to my male colleagues because I might spend some of the time working on research. I suspect all mothers know that a maternity leave is not a sabbatical.
My daughter is among the lucky ones who has paid parental leave as a work benefit. Alas, a mere 12 percent of employed workers in the United States have access to paid family leave, a figure that also encompasses those caring for sick children or adult relatives. Not enough has changed in the decades separating my daughter’s first Mother’s Day from my own.
Motherhood is a cultural invention. It reflects a belief adopted by society that is passed down from one generation to the next. In US culture, we hold to the idea that young children are better off when cared for exclusively by their mothers. Mothers are bombarded by this message in the media, especially in programming directed to them. Only after five seasons does Claire Dunphy, the iconic mother of “Modern Family,” return to the workplace.
Anthropologists have attempted to disavow us of this view. Specifically they have demonstrated that child-rearing patterns are driven by economic considerations. In foraging societies, mothers stay in close proximity with their babies, while in agricultural societies mothers share child-rearing responsibilities with those less able to be productive in the fields, like grandmothers and young girls. Shared child-rearing has been and continues to be the norm across cultures.
In contemporary society, child care is our form of shared child-rearing. In the 1970s, when mothers of young children entered the workforce in large numbers, the Mommy Wars, which pitted employed mothers against nonemployed mothers, quickly followed. When correspondent Meredith Vieira left her job at “60 Minutes” after the birth of her second child, commentators lauded her decision to put her children first. Employed mothers like me felt too guilty to publicly proclaim that we, too, put our children first — never mind demand maternity leave.
Ideas: Writers who are mothers
A selection of highlights from a frank discussion among authors who juggled motherhood and writing.
Our culture’s ambivalence about maternal employment spurred research on whether child care was a risk factor for young children. In time, social scientists demonstrated definitively that infant care did not disrupt the mother-child bond and that children thrived in quality child care. I conducted some of this research, as one of the principal investigators of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s 20-year, longitudinal study of early child care.
Earlier in my career, I believed solid research findings, like my own, would lead to policy change. I was wrong. Culture trumps data every time. Our romanticized views about motherhood continue to sow division and guilt, undermining our energies to organize for the policies that employed mothers and fathers deserve.
Our cultural construction of motherhood is rooted in a particularly strong American bias toward personal responsibility, reflected across our social policies. This is why, in the United States, my daughter’s three-month paid leave is considered generous. In Sweden, where new mothers are guaranteed 16 months paid leave, it would be laughable. The United States ranks last among 38 developed nations in paid parental leave benefits: we guarantee none.
Mother’s Day is a good day to double down on the work required to reconstruct our conception of motherhood. An essential step is to make the invisible visible, helping young mothers and their partners realize that social constructions of motherhood are just that — constructions. By doing that, we can build the political will necessary for change.
There is some encouraging news. In his 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama called attention to the need for paid family leave and affordable child care, framing attention to working families “not as a side issue or a women’s issue,” but as a “national economic priority.” Numerous analyses have demonstrated the benefits of parental leave policies to workers and employers. Parents have time to bond with their children; health care costs go down; and fewer families are pushed to rely on public assistance. On the employer side, turnover is reduced, while morale and productivity increase.
Someday, Tessa might choose to become a mother. The supports we set in place today will enable her and her generation to be the best citizens, employees, and parents they can be.
Kathleen McCartney is president of Smith College and a researcher on early childhood education and policy.
Related:
• Editorial: Parental leave benefits everyone
• Marty Walsh and Michelle Wu: Paid parental leave is a must for working families
• Jennifer Graham: A holiday too schmaltzy? Be thankful it’s not a legal obligation
• Ideas: Writers who are also mothers
• Ideas: What ‘mom’ really means in America
From a Fidelity Investments statement of March 2016
Paid Maternity and Parental Leave Doubled
After a review of existing policies and external research, Fidelity has also expanded its maternity and parental leave program for employees. That includes boosting maternity leave to 16 weeks and parental leave to six weeks, which allows employees to take paid time off to care for a newborn (including adopted children). That's more than double the previous policy, which was six-to-eight weeks of paid maternity leave and two weeks of parental leave.
"We recognized that parental leave is a compelling benefit to attract and retain employees, so we took the necessary steps to give parents the time off they need. We take significant pride in providing our employees with a great associate experience. Our competitive benefits range from our market-leading retirement plan, to our award-winning wellness programs, and include offering modern facilities with amenities like subsidized healthy dining and on-site health and wellness centers. Our goal is to attract and retain top talent and we believe this approach helps us do just that," Hanson continued.
From a Microsoft statement of August 2015
Enhanced Parental Leave for mothers and fathers
Today we provide eight weeks of fully paid maternity disability leave for new mothers, plus 12 weeks of Parental Leave for all parents of new children, of which four are paid and eight unpaid. For these parents to bring their best every day, they need time to take care of themselves and their family. In recognition of this, we are making some significant enhancements to our Parental Leave practices, effective Nov. 1, 2015.
Specifically, we’re enhancing our paid Parental Leave to 12 weeks, paid at 100 percent, for all mothers and fathers of new children. For birth mothers, this is in addition to the eight weeks of maternity disability leave they currently receive, paid at 100 percent, enabling them to now take a total of 20 weeks of fully paid leave if they choose.
Additionally, we’ll offer birth mothers an expanded opportunity to use Short-Term Disability Leave during the two weeks prior to their scheduled due date to manage the physical impact that often comes with late pregnancy and to prepare for the upcoming birth.
We will also offer flexibility for when eligible parents can take leave. Eligible parents will now have the option to take their Parental Leave either in one continuous 12-week period or split into two periods. These parents will also have the option to phase back into work on a half-time basis.
Holidays & 401(k) changes
Beyond our new Parental Leave policy, we’re responding to additional employee feedback by making enhancements in two key areas, effective Jan. 1, 2016:
- Additional paid holidays: Beginning in 2016, we’ll add Martin Luther King Day and Presidents Day to our list of Microsoft holidays in the U.S. This creates two new company-wide breaks that align to the federal calendar and create time for us to pause in the lengthy period between New Year’s Day and Memorial Day. We now offer 12 paid holidays (which includes two floating holidays), in addition to paid vacation time that employees accrue. We believe this will provide employees with more opportunity to take time to recharge and invest that time in ways that are meaningful to them, while honoring Dr. King and U.S. presidents.
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