At the very end of this interview published on backchannel, on September 28, Melinda Gates expresses again her concern and support for paid family leave (you can also read this part below). What about convincing Microsoft to do the decent thing by requiring its suppliers to provide paid parental leave (and paid holidays) for all their employees?
There’s another piece that we haven’t spoken about, which is leave. When women and men become parents in this country, we don’t do enough to support them to stay in the workforce.
I’m starting to make investments behind the scenes on family leave. We have to have good family leave policies in this country. At the federal, state, and private-sector level. We just have to. At least in this political environment, the one good thing that’s happening right now is that it’s not anymore whether we should have it, it’s now how to have it.
After this presidential election is over, I look forward to a real policy coming forward. You’re starting to see more states doing it. I want to make sure that we accelerate what’s going on at the state level, too, and we figure out what are the very best policies. Not every state will implement it the same way, and that’s okay, but men and women should have it.
There shouldn’t be only maternal leave. There should be family leave, because if you’ve got a sick or elderly parent or you have a child, having the man and the woman take the time off helps.
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