Maternity Leave in Australia
Maternity leave allows women to take leave of absence from their job
to give birth and care for their children. The International Labor
Organisation sets minimum standards for maternity leave. These include
a right to 12 weeks' paid maternity leave and prohibition against
dismissal during maternity leave. Although a member of the ILO,
Australia has never ratified its convention concerning maternity
protection ---- we have no standard maternity leave provisions.
Australian law entitles women to 12 months' unpaid leave and for more
than 25 years the Commonwealth Employees Act has entitled Commonwealth
employees to paid maternity leave. About two-thirds of women in the
workforce, however, are not entitled to paid maternity leave and many
working women are ineligible for unpaid leave because they are casual
employees.
Is it time to change maternity leave entitlements in Australia?
Australia has one of the least generous maternity leave provisions of
industrialised nations. Australiaand the...
also known as WIC supplies almost fifty percent of the infant formula used in the US at no
Reading about the inequality and discrimination against mothers, especially unmarried mothers, in the Motherhood Manifesto made we flip from cover to cover of the book to see when this book was last updated. I was horrified to see it was 2006. Kiki, the single mother of two who was looking for a job in Pennsylvania in 1989 and asked repeatedly the same two questions during her interviews literally made me angry. How could an interviewer be allowed to ask personal questions such as are you married and do you have kids? I was appalled just as I would have been if he had asked her what her race, religion, and sexual orientation was. It’s all in the realm of not appropriate and discriminatory. Laws are changing constantly; I know that when being
The term "reproductive rights" has become synonymous with abortion rights, birth control access, and issues surrounding reproductive technologies, yet the struggle for a woman's right to choose when and how to become pregnant often overshadows a woman's right to choose where and how to give birth. The lack of feminist discourse and activism surrounding issues of childbirth may attest to the hegemony in the modern American birth ritual of increasing medical intervention from obstetricians in hospital settings. There are currently several movements to challenge this dominant birth model--prepared childbirth advocates offer education classes and natural childbirth advocates lobby for the rights of midwives and home births--but I refrain from giving either of these movements a feminist label because neither are invested in challenging prevailing gender ideology or the equation of woman with motherhood. This paper will argue that a feminist discourse of childbirth is necessary by using a Foucauldian analysis to chart the current web of power and knowledge in the American hospital delivery room and how it works to deny agency to women in labor, alienating them from their experience. Recognizing that power and knowledge operate on a myriad of levels and tactics, including counter-tactics, I will not limit my focus to the dominant discourse of medical experts, but also explore what I call counter discourses of childbirth, particularly from the prepared childbirth and natural childbirth advocates. Within this discussion, I hope to offer suggestions on a feminist ethic of childbirth that reaffirms women's autonomy during labor, but does not limit them to prevailing codes o...
Paid maternity leave can increase female labor force participation by making it easier for women
... to measure governmental performance around the world in meeting the needs of working families. To complete the index, data was gathered from 177 countries that represent a wide range of political, social and economic systems. Their findings revealed that 137 countries mandate paid annual leave, including 121 countries that guarantee 2 weeks or more each year. In contrast, the United States does not require employers to provide paid annual leave. In addition, at least 145 countries provide paid sick days for short- or long-term illnesses, with 136 providing a week or more annually. More than 81 countries provide sickness benefits for at least 26 weeks or until recovery. The US provides only unpaid leave for serious illnesses through the FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act 0f 1993), which does not cover all workers. More information on this can be found in appendix.
Maternal leave is the period of time where new mothers take off from work following the birth of her baby. Paternal leave is the period of time where new fathers take off from work following the adoption or birth of a child. Family leave is a mixture of both maternal and paternal leave. Family leave has also more to do than just the birth or adoption of a child.
This assignment will begin by giving a brief definition of health whilst presenting a discussion on the exploration of an individual in relation to making healthy choices. The purpose of this assignment is to look at the effects of making healthy choices and the implications that may occur. In addition, current social policies that relate to health and society, and the effects of smoking in pregnancy will also be discussed.
Commercial surrogate motherhood is when one woman acts as a surrogate, or replacement, mother for another woman, sometimes called the intended mother, who either cannot produce fertile eggs or cannot carry a pregnancy through to birth, or term, according to dictionary.com. There are many different opinions regarding this topic, including positive and negative outlooks. When asked about their thoughts on the idea of commercial surrogate mothers, some might agree with the procedure and completely accept the idea of it. On the other hand, some people think the opposite. They don't support it because they either don't know enough about it, and haven't thought about the benefits, or simply don't care. If I was asked my opinion about commercial surrogate motherhood, I would say that I think it's acceptable, and it should not be prohibited. There are a few reason I would argue that commercial surrogate mothers are completely acceptable. I believe commercial surrogacy benefits women who are incapable of becoming fertile, it can have a very rewarding psychological effect on the surrogate mother, and benefits same sex couples who cannot have a child.
Within the past few decades, there has been a rise in the number of dual-income families. In todays world, women are expected not only to raise their children, but also earn money for their family in the workforce. Most countries ensure that pregnant women are given paid maternity leave. Only two countries do not carry this policy, Papua New Guinea and the United States (Wares). While the United States at present has the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, merely 60 percent of workers can receive the benefits that this law grants. The Family and Medical Leave Act offers three months of unpaid leave to workers that have amassed 12 months of tenure at a firm of 50 or more employees (Wage and Hour Division). Presently, approximately 40 percent
As a woman, the experience of pregnancy and preparing to bring a new life into this world is, in general, an incredibly exciting time, unless of course, you are one of thousands of women incarcerated in the United States, serving prison time for felony convictions.
Recently women’s rights and women’s equality in the workplace has come back to the fore as a topic for discussion in government agencies and the United Nations. Whilst this is a very important topic, when it comes to time off from work when a new child is born, women in the US have some provision, whereas men have none.
As we all know, majority of females are mothers and many are single mothers to beat that. Therefore, the thought of them not having paid maternity leave is quite disturbing to me. Why is the United States the only country in the world that doesn’t make paid maternity leave mandatory in the workplace? How are these females supposed to support their child, along with them if there not getting paid for the time they must take off? In many cases, that female may not have anyone to care for that child, so that she can go back to work. Things such as these may not be put into consideration by employers, but giving birth is a remarkable experience for females. Most importantly, maternity leaves gives a mother time to bond with her newly born child and it gives her time to recover or heal from the overwhelming birthing process. Therefore, the least companies can do is give paid maternity leave to females, while they’re missing work
Bringing a new baby into the world is one life changing experience. The lives of both the mother and the father are changed tremendously as they begin to learn to raise a child by trial and error. Maternity leave for mothers of newborns is never disagreeable; when it comes to paternity leave, however, it becomes one of the most controversial topics of the workforce. Reasons for maternity leaves and paternity leaves are both justifiable. Men should have the opportunity to take paternity leave from their jobs so that they can be a helping hand to the mother, have a chance to bond with their newborn child, and help bridge the gap in gender equality in the workplace without the stigma and criticism. After the birth of the child, women can become emotionally and physically fatigued, so men take an important role as care giver and supporter, especially in the first few weeks. If a father has an opportunity to stay home for the first couple of weeks, to care for both the mother and his new child, it will make a big impact for the family.
In a society with the muajority of mothers joining or returning to the workforce, there is a growing body of research documenting the demands placed on these women and what can be done to help their transition into this new role. According to the United States’ Department of Labor, in the year 2012, 70.5% of mothers with children under the age of 18 were a part of the workforce; of these women 73.7% were employed full-time, working over 35 hours a week, and 26.3% were employed part-time, working less than 35 hours a week (United States Department of Labor, 2012). Given this information, it is becoming more important to further research how this new role as an employee affects the role of parenting and what can be done to help this transition. The intent of this paper is to compare the experiences of a working mother to the current research on the topic of working mothers. Moreover, this paper addresses the demands placed on working mothers as well as the factors that ameliorate their transition into this new role.
Pregnancy and maternity leave is another form of discrimination seen in workplaces. Women are less likely to be hired due to maternity leave where they have to leave for a long period of time due to child birth (Larson). Recently, New York Times has been sued for gender discrimination by a former ad executive, Arielle Davis. Davis was recently laid off while she was on maternity leave for four months. She was “entitled to six months” but her managers “pressured her to take less than four moths” (Roy). Her leave did not affect her department of work in anyway yet she was laid off right before she was about to go back to work. There are several laws such as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act that are supposed to protect women from being fired because they are taking time off to give birth. Even with these laws, women are still being laid off because of maternity leave just as Davis was. It is absolutely wrong to treat a woman differently or discriminate her because she is pregnant. Every woman deserves the right to have a job and start a family at the same