Mindy Fried (M.S.W., Ph.D.) Talks about Parental Leave Then and Now When I grow up, I want to be a sociologist. Or a professional figure skater; I can’t decide. Luckily, today we have a blog from a real-life sociologist with over 20 years of experience conducting research, teaching and doing policy analysis on work, family and organizational issues. Mindy Fried, is a former Lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and in Women’s Studies at MIT, and currently a Principal at Arbor Consulting Partners (www.arborcp.com).
About 10 years ago, Mindy wrote a book called Taking Time: Parental Leave Policy and Corporate Culture (Temple U Press, 1998), based on a year she spent in a financial services company trying to understand how workers viewed the company’s parental leave policy – and the extent to which they actually used it.
Read a snippet from the book below, and then compare it with what she says about the current work-life situation in America. How far have we come in the last 10 years? From Taking Time:
 On a fall day in 1993, the Houston Oilers' starting offensive line man, David Williams, decided to miss a game against the New England Patriots so he could be by his wife's side during the birth of their baby boy. The team tried to dock his pay -- to the tune of $111,111 -- for missing work, but worse still for this $2-million-a-year player, he was accused by his coach, Bob Young, of failing the team. Said Young, "This is like World War II, when guys were going to war and something would come up but they had to go." Never mind that sports-war analogies are commonplace; somehow this time, it seemed grossly over the top. When Young's wife was having a baby, he claims to have told her, "Honey, I've got to go play a football game." This coach was not going to lose the war.
In fact, the 27-year-old Williams did not intend to miss the game. He and his wife had scheduled an induced labor for the day after the game, but nature took its own path. Williams declared, "My family comes first. That's the way I've always been, and that's the way I always will be, long after I'm finished being a football player." Williams was not out in left field; his missed game was covered by the FMLA as a legitimate family emergency. With this legal protection, his agent threatened to file a grievance if the Oilers followed through on docking his pay.
When I first read this story, my initial reaction was positive. I applauded the fact that this guy had the guts to challenge the work ethic on the job. And more than that, his refusal to work while his wife was having a baby demonstrated the application of the then- new FMLA, not by just any man, but by a football player, the epitome of "Man." But the reality was that David Williams -- as noble as he was in resisting the institution of football -- was back to work for the next game. With all the hoopla made about this case -- and it was the subject of many a talk show and op-ed piece -- David Williams was no different from most men who take a few days off to a week off after the birth of a baby.
While it's great that Williams provided a positive role model for men to be involved fathers, women are considered better equipped for the job. I began to wonder what happened with Williams and his family after he went back to work. How did he and his wife split caregiving responsibilities like diapering, feeding, and getting up in the middle of the night with a crying baby? Did his wife return to work too, and if she did, when? Was it after a few months or a year? If she did return to work outside the home, what kind of leave policies did her workplace have, and how did her colleagues react when she took time away from her job to be with their baby? Or did her husband's high salary define their caregiving arrangements, allowing her to be a stay-at-home mom?
For the Williams family, their caregiving choice may have been obvious, given David's seven-figure income. The majority of American families need women's earnings to stay out of poverty, and women have become a permanent part of the labor force. Women will comprise an even greater percentage of the labor force as their numbers increase faster than male workers, with women filling 67% of new jobs created. This trend is not expected to reverse. Of these women in the labor force, 80% will become pregnant during their work lives, and 57% of new mothers will return to work in their baby's first year. Despite these facts, the prevailing cultural attitude is that women should be the primary caregivers for babies.
Parental leave policies -- unlike maternity leave policies -- incorporate the notion that infants can thrive with either male or female caregivers. As such, these policies challenge the gendered division of labor and families, and therefore challenge the norms that favor mother care over father care. As a social policy, parental leave does not dictate how families arrange care for an infant; it simply gives families options. Parental leave policies are a public call for loving care and nurturing from one or more consistent adult figures.
But in the public discourse around caregiving, a number of questions arise, like who should care for babies? What is really best for them, and is that achievable? And why should employers care? These are questions that face new parents as they try to balance what is best for their babies, as well as what is doable for their families.
Cut-to 10 years later:
“My strong belief is that we need a paid parental leave policy, and I look to the Scandinavian models as ‘best practice’ models. U.S. policy - the FMLA - is a good step but ultimately, pretty lame - only unpaid leave and it doesn't reach a large percentage of workers because they don't work in workplaces of 50 or more employees (a requirement by the FMLA). Also, given that it's unpaid, it's out-of-reach for many workers who have low incomes and need their paycheck. The current policy reinforces gendered caregiving, given that men's earnings are often higher than women's and it makes more economic sense for men to "hold on to" a job and for women to "take time" away from a job. Taking time for parental leave challenges the prevailing norms within workplaces that value the amount of time put into the job (often "facetime"). While I believe that women have made enormous strides, we need entitlements at the federal level to create a foundation for what is acceptable behavior. Even in Sweden, men use the leave time (which is very generous) less than women, but the government knows this is the case (via research) and has developed policies to increase men's leave time.”
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So, apparently, not too much has changed in the last 10 years.Unlike in Sweden, where it appears that the government strives to make paid leave a culturally acceptable practice for both men and women, paid leave still doesn’t even exist on the federal level in the USA! And from the interviews we’ve been doing, it appears that many employees in the USA don’t feel comfortable taking company-provided leave even if it happens to exist on paper.
Is asking to take time off to be with a new-born child really so much to ask? Seems to me like it’s something that can and should be worked into the system of employment in the US. Everyone else is doing it. And sometimes that is a good enonugh reason to follow suit.
- Vetta
photo/painting by markwaitkus used under creative commons license.
One person has commented on this article.  1. UntitledGuest User, UnregisteredIt really is a shame that David Williams didn't take off the rest of the season for his child's birth. He does not live in a coal mine, he's not living paycheck to paycheck, and if he is good enough to play for the Oilers, then he is good enough to play for anyone next season. Guys need to realize that, especially well-paid managers and entrepreneurs, that you can take an August off with your family, you can take a year off. If time is money, why not steal some for yourself and give yourself a raise? |
