*Author Unknown at this time.
Some people say women are luckier to be in the United States than anywhere else in the world. No where else in the world do women have more opportunities and freedoms than they have in the United States. But is it true? Two recent reports on gender equality tell a different story. The first, which ranks countries according to gender equality, finds that the United States ranks 31st in the world, behind nearly all of Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and even behind some poorer nations like Ecuador and Cuba. We rank just above Namibia.
The second report compares maternity leave policies around the world. Countries with the greatest gender parity have the most generous leave policies. The United States was the most dismal, providing no paid leave and only 12 weeks of job protection. Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and New Zealand are the top 5 ranking countries in gender parity and all provide protected leave for at least 1 year with varying rates of pay and part time work. Germany and Norway allow 2 years of paid leave, while Finland provides 3 years of paid leave.
As American women we have achieved less pay equity and are subject to stingier maternity leave policies. This doesn’t make us look luckier. What happened in the United States? Where did we go wrong? How did we screw this up?
Part of this difference stems from American economic policies. While we focus on getting more people to work, other countries focus on providing more people with services like longer vacations, child allowances, free college, universal health coverage, and subsidized daycare. Paid maternity leave fits naturally into this array of public programs. In the United States, public programs conjure up images of people leeching off the system by taking advantage of ‘hardworking’ Americans.
But part of this difference is a direct result of how we saw women in the workforce. The battle of feminists in the 1960’s and 70’s aimed at enabling more women to enter the workforce. Motherhood was viewed as a primary barrier and feminists focused on ‘freeing’ women from the constraints of motherhood. This battle included fighting for reproductive rights and challenging the notion that women were ‘born’ to be mothers. Women had to prove that they needed no special treatment in the workplace. Mothering was no different for women than fathering was for men. Returning to work immediately was a sign of liberation.
In Europe, they waged a different battle. Rather than fighting for women to work more, they were fighting for mothers to work less. But here’s the funny thing, their approach helped women earn greater parity. This doesn’t sound logical. Fighting for women to work less and stay home with their babies should hurt their pay, but it didn’t. Why?
Imagine this scenario. A woman in the United States works through her twenties to establish a solid career and at the age of 29 has her first child. What are her choices in the United States? If she needs her income, she will stay home for six weeks, put the baby in daycare and return to work. After returning to work, she will often leave or miss work for doctors’ appointments, illness, ear aches, colds, coughs, and fevers. She will also need several breaks a day as she madly tries to pump enough breast milk in a bathroom stall. All of this on top of working while sleep deprived. Needless to say, not the best circumstances to lobby for raises or promotions. Mothers in highly demanding careers are often pushed off or at least pushed down the corporate ladder.
If she can afford it and this first option doesn’t seem appealing, she can quit her job and stay home with the baby until the child is older. When she is ready to return to work, she will have a huge gap in her work history often forcing her to take entry level work and wages. ‘Mother’ doesn’t reflect well on a job application. In both scenarios, she suffers in pay and promotions, creating our glass ceiling.
Now imagine this same scenario in Germany, Iceland or Finland. After having a baby, she can bow out of the workforce for up to 3 years. She won’t be trying to juggle work and family. She won’t be broke and she can spend more time with her new baby. At the end of the year, or 3 years for Finland and Germany, she can return to her same job, with the same status at the same pay. No need for a job hunt and no reason to accept entry level positions at less pay. The child will be past the demanding first year, allowing her to devote more time to work.
What is the result? By protecting women’s right not to work, they were protecting their rights at work. The results are irrefutable. More generous maternity leave policies mean more gender equality. We should learn from their lesson and fight for better maternity leave in the United States. When we show greater kindness to mothers we are also showing greater respect to women. So let’s begin with the College and work to the federal level. We’re wealthier than any country in Europe; let’s try to beat their best policy.
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