Parental Leave

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Reflection on Parental Leave Policy
While many policies enacted in the past few decades have helped in increasing the number of women in the workforce, I still feel that lack of a substantive parental leave policy in the US compels women to stop working. As a result, the US continues to have fewer women in the labor force than men. Perhaps if we had a better policy on parental leave the number of women in government and other organizations could be higher. Such is true because developed countries such as the UK which offers mothers close to 40 weeks of paid leave have a high percentage of women in the workforce than the US. Additionally, the few companies in the US such as Google that offer mothers about five months of paid maternal leave have more women employees that companies that do not (Popovich, 2014). There is no doubt the statistics speak for themselves which means the US needs to adopt a better parental policy both in the public and private sector to encourage more women to remain in their jobs even after giving birth.
Also, just like many studies have indicated, I feel that paid parental leave has immense benefits for parents, children, businesses and even the entire society. For instance, a study conducted by The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) showed that children of parents who took a parental leave have higher IQ and education, hence higher income. What is more, paid parental leave is synonymous with low infant mortality rate and better child health.

All this can only lead to a better and happier society. In light of this findings, I am appealing to the US policymakers to consider passing a federal bill that guarantees mothers at least five months of paid parental leave.
Reference
Popovich, N. (2014, December 3). The US is still the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/03/-sp-america-only-developed-country-paid-maternity-leave