Women give birth nearly every day around the world, yet some fathers are hardly present to lend them support. Some fathers may not be desirous of the opportunity while others can’t find time to be there long enough. Also, some fathers can’t afford to sacrifice their pay check, which their families need to maintain the new addition. Paternity leave is time off from work granted to male employees, in the private and public sectors, to be with their spouses and newborns. Most employers rarely pay male employees paternity leave to spend time with their spouses when they deliver a child, suffer a miscarriage, or adopt a child. Men wishing to take paternity leave to assist their spouse under these conditions usually do so through paid leave such as sick days or vacation time. In recent times, a growing number of men in the United States have taken unpaid family leave from their jobs to spend time with their newborns (Babycenter.Com). I believe paternity leave with pay should become a national law, because it will allow men paid time off from work, to assist and support their spouses during their recovery after delivering a child; and to spend time with their newborns.
According to Anthony Bradley’s commentary on Paternity leave makes real men, he says “What kind of confident man would want to be a ‘stay-at-home’ dad while the rest of the men are out doing stuff like working. Most men have no interest in not having a full time job, and why should they?”(Worldmag.Com) He goes on to say that America would be a radically different country if it was necessary for a father to bond with his children. Bonding he says, takes more than six weeks, “It’s a pursuit of love for life, not simply physical presence”.
There has always been a stereotype...
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...the opportunity to view prospective new employees without being tied to long term contracts. Temporary employees are usually paid minimal and might not put a financial strain on the employers if only a small fraction of the salary of the worker who is on paternity leave is paid. There may be other ways of funding paternity leave, but this way has proven to be successful in some countries and perhaps if it is considered, funding through Social Security or the Family and Medical Leave Act would drive more men to consider spending time with their new family while being paid.
Works Cited
Paternity Leave What are the Options for Dads. BabyCenter.Com, June 2003. Web. 27 Nov. 2009
Bradley, Anthony. Paternity Leave Makes Real Men. Worldmag.Com, 10 Sept. 2008. Web. 27 Nov. 2009.
Parker, Wayne. Bonding With the New Baby. Fatherhood.About.Com, 2008. Web. 27 Nov. 2009
"Father absence and the welfare of children." Coping with divorce, single parenting, and remarriage: A risk and resiliency perspective (1999): 117-145.
Many businesses do not want to hire or promote someone who they consider a risk of taking a long leave of absence, like maternity leave. According to Jay Miletsky (2014) mandating paid maternity leave would only increase these costs by the amount of a woman’s wages.The reality is, for many companies paid maternity leave is simply too costly. Not only are they paying a salary to someone that 's not working, but they are also paying overtime hours to compensate for the work she is not doing in her absence. It 's not unusual for companies to run on very tight budgets, paying three months salary to a suddenly non-productive employee simply because they made the decision to have a child would hurt many l businesses. If maternity leave was mandated, many companies would have to make up the difference by laying off other employees, or raising prices of their products and services, ultimately harming consumers (Miletsky,
This policy allows working couples to choose how they balance their work and parenting commitment to their new baby. The first two weeks are reserved for the mother but the remaining fifty weeks can be shared between both parents (Glegg, Swinson, 2013).This will definitely give chance to fathers to bond with their infants on an equal footing with the mother. Sarkadi, et al (2007) also suggests that policies should be made that fathers of young children may choose to do part time jobs so they can have time with their
The Family and Medical Act (FMLA) of 1993 was America’s initial plan of “enabling workers to balance . . . work and family” (Cohen 213). Yet, many workers across the nation are unable to attain these benefits simply because their leave is unpaid (Cohen 214). Since the passage of the act, very little progress has been made in the fight for paid parental leave, causing the United States to be developmentally behind the rest of the world (Talbot). The United States’ family leave policy is severely inadequate and outdated. In order for the nation to progress politically and socially, reforming the present legislation into a model of paid parental leave can lead the United States in the right direction of growth. The current policy for parental
Women that push for an abortion do not always have a partner that agrees and supports their decision for terminating the pregnancy. If the father is willing to support and care for the fetus, it is wrong for a woman to go against his wishes and follow through with an abortion. For a father to want to be involved in the fetus’s life means he is willing to take on the responsibilities of having a child so he should have a say if his fetus should be terminated or not. The Becoming A Father/Refusing Fatherhood article states, “To be a father-as-progenitor a man simply has to provide the sperm that leads to conception, whereas to be a father-as-carer a man has to take on a variety of social roles. The roles associated with the father-as-carer included disciplinarian, breadwinner/provider, guardian, moral compass, sex role model, guide and friend” (Ives 78). To have a father-as-carer in an offspring’s life gives a woman no reason to get an abortion. The woman is consciously aware of the outcomes of intercourse when willingly performing in such an act. In the Rethinking Roe V. Wade article it states, “if a woman concedes to voluntary sexual intercourse, she has incurred a responsibility to care for the fetus, since she is responsible for its existence and subsequent dependence on her body for sustenance. Consequently, she has a moral obligation to sustain it until birth, an obligation that ought to be legally enforced by proscribing abortions” (Manninen 41). The female is aware of the consequences when engaging in sexual acts so it should be her responsibility to carry the fetus to term. The presence of a partner that is willing to stay by the women’s side and support her during the pregnancy does not give her a reason to obtain an abort...
It is time we stop treating child care as a side issue or a women’s issue, and treat it like the priority that it is. Paternity leave is good for women's careers. “When childcare responsibilities fall exclusively on the mother, the effect is to reduce women’s wages. Time out of the labor force deprives women of experience and promotions. When men shoulder more of the childcare burden, the effect is lessened (“The Benefits of Paternity Leave”).” Paid family leave has become an important way to signal to employees that the company is invested in them. People feel their company is committed to them in the long term. Overall, paid family leave helps keep people in the workforce after they have children. “When more workers are able to take leave, they are more likely to choose to remain in the labor market. Paid parental leave is associated with higher employment in economies around the world (Covert)”.
I am also a woman who in a few years will be in the workforce and will eventually become a mother that is why I am a supporter of paid family leave and believe that it should be available for both mothers and fathers. The support for paid maternity leave is and has been growing over the years, in the U.S advocates are everyday people who are put in the situation of having to deal with and or make a decision between their children and their job. Paid parental leave has been debated over a course of years but the only strive the U.S has taken is protected unpaid family leave which isn’t enough due to the fact that “legislators are not swayed by the empirical evidence alone. We consistently hear that legislators need to hear the voices of their constituents explaining what paid family leave means to them” (Rowe-Finkbeiner et al. para. 21). That is why the United States government should mandate paid parental leave policies for both mothers and fathers in most if not all businesses in all fifty
With no pay and the risk of losing their jobs--if additional time is requested--parents return to work in as little as two weeks after the birth of a child. This results in the absence of one or both parents during the most crucial part of a child’s life—the first year of life. Ultimately, it is the children who will suffer. The events that take place in the early years of a child life, as well as the people that surround, will influence who they become. Children need love and guidance from their parents. Babies can learn so much, parents have the time to teach them and watch them grow. It is their duty as well as their rights as parents to enjoy the first moments of life with their children. Susan J. Douglas says, “The first five years of life are so crucial to cognitive and emotional development” (Douglas Par 8). Parents often send their babies to daycare at too young of an age because they are expected to return to work and have no other choice. Others quit their job because they do not want their babies to go to daycare. This creates a financial strain on families and has lasting effects on the newborn and other young children in the home. Sharon Lerner says, “Paid parental leave frees mothers and fathers from choosing between their careers and time with their infants” (Lerner 20). Paid family leave alleviates a great deal of stress for parents who are expecting. It makes starting a family less frightening because families have enough money and time to adjust with their new lives before returning to work. This makes workers less likely to call out of upon returning and more likely to be focused on the
Haas, L. & Hwang, P. (1995). Company culture and men’s usage of family leave benefits in
Currently in the United States, under The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, the federal government mandates a minimum of 12 weeks unpaid maternity leave to mothers who have a newborn or have newly adopted a child. Whether or not an employer chooses to pay the mother during this time is left to their discretion. This law only applies to about 50 -60 percent of working mothers due to firm size and duration of employment requirements. Currently, only 11 percent of private sector workers have access to paid maternity leave in the United States. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that doesn’t mandate paid maternity leave to women. (Stearns, 2015)
If you and your significant other had a child, would you want to be there to not only support your partner, but to see your child’s first milestones in real life? Of course you would! The problem is most parents miss crucial parts of their child’s life because of the lack of paid maternity and paternity leave in the United States. New families, across the nation, should be allowed a minimum six months of paid maternity leave.
The Family and Medical Aid Act (FLMA), of 1993, provides for 12 weeks of unpaid, job protected leave for certain specified events (8). Whilst one could refer to this as maternity or paternity leave if taken because of a pregnancy, this would not be strictly true. Where maternity and paternity leave are offered around the world, they are separate from any other leave due to medical or family reasons. The leave in the U.S. provided through the FLMA is also, as mentioned, unpaid. This creates a number of issues for the expectant family as, regardless of their job being safe for the time taken off, without the income it may be harder to look after the new born child as a couple of unpaid parents, than one parent not taking leave, or neither taking leave and relying on relatives to care for the child as much as possible.
Imagine you were pregnant, When you gave birth to your child, the only maternity leave you received was a month’s worth of vacation and sick time. And when you went to return to work, you found your job no longer existed. Since your employer was a small company, it didn’t have to go by federal laws that require 12 weeks of job protection after birth. This story is fictional, but it is real for so many. In America, there is no federal mandated paid maternity leave and that is hurting our women and our children by causing the miracle of birth to be masked by the all too real cost of no paid maternity leave.
By businesses allowing fathers to take time from work this grants time for a father-child bond to form. Being open to share duties with her significant other and both planning for new responsibilities of parenthood is very important to be prepared for their new child. Having more support from their spouse is a way of allowing both parties to be a part of the child 's life as well as not putting all the responsibilities on one parent. Allowing men to have this option whether to take maternity leave or not is eliminating stereotyping among women and men. Fathers are the primary care providers in a family, with them being off for maternity leave there is no income coming in for the family. However if maternity leave is paid for both mother and father, the income will still be coming in but is decreasing the business income. Businesses would be failing because they would be paying workers that are not
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.