Bergmann, Emily. “Parental Leave in the United States: Why the United States Should Follow France in Implementing Mandatory Paid Paternal Leave.” Child & Family Law Journal, vol. 9, 2021, pp. 159-172. Web.
As the first additional professional source of choice, this peer-reviewed journal article explores the deficiencies of the U.S. parental leave policies, such as the absence of guaranteed paid leaves and opportunities for non-married parents. The researcher offers a comprehensive review of family leave legislation in the EU with reference to RAND Europe’s policy briefs and a positive link between leave compensation and paternal leave uptake. Having reviewed France’s family leave model, the author proposes two policy improvement options for the U.S., including expanding the FMLA or introducing new legislation that would adopt France’s approach. The source is directly relevant to the topic since it draws comparisons between the U.S. and Europe’s developed economies while also offering realistic and feasible solutions to improve the former’s family-friendliness. Because of solutions-related parts, the article’s importance to the research issue cannot be overstated; specifically, support from this source will add credibility to the recommendations section.
Chzhen, Yekaterina, et al. Are the World’s Richest Countries Family Friendly? Policy in the OECD and EU. UNICEF, 2019.
This international policy research report represents the second additional source and draws comparisons between the members of the EU and the OECD in terms of family support policies. It examines each country’s statistics on paid parental leaves for both parents and such leaves’ duration, breastfeeding promotion, and access to early education. Based on the results, the U.S. ranks lower than most high-income countries; unlike twenty-six countries with paid leaves reserved exclusively for fathers, it does not offer mandatory paid leaves for either parent. This document provides credible evidence to argue that the U.S. lags behind the other developed markets in serving employed new parents, which explains its tremendous relevance to the research issue and its element of comparison. Comparative tables featured in the text will be important in developing recommendations and identifying viable reference models for the U.S. within the frame of exploring the issue of maternity/paternity leaves for Americans.
De la Corte-Rodríguez, Miguel. EU Law on Maternity and Other Child-Related Leaves: Impact on Gender Equality. Kluwer Law International BV, 2019.
This book on parental leave policies in the EU explores the legislative landscape in relation to protecting new parents from temporary income losses. Proceeding from the biological reality of pregnancy, it reviews the pillars of the EU’s framework of maternity leaves. The framework involves the suboptimal adoption of leaves that would be equally distributed between the parents and this solution’s implications for gender equality. The author anatomizes parental leave models in the UK, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland and their contributions to parental well-being. Concerning relevance, since it provides a comprehensive analysis of various parental leave schemes in relatively prosperous countries, the source will assist in selecting examples for comparison with the U.S. The author devotes attention to the considerations of gender equality and actual success in achieving it through parental leave policies. Thus, the source will be important for formulating solutions to address the issue in the U.S.
Gash, Chris. “Parental Leave.” Parents.com, 2019, Web.
This digital image uses vector graphics and an optical illusion known as reversible figures. It depicts a tall woman in a business suit who leans over a baby stroller; the stroller resembles the face of a clock, and the woman uses its minute hand as a handle. As for relevance, the artwork, despite its seeming simplicity, is directly related to the parental leave discourse and can be helpful in illustrating the ongoing mismatch between new parents’ financial needs and childcare responsibilities. The visual aid is also important by conveying two relevant messages about the issue. Firstly, it uses the colors of the U.S. flag and depicts only the mother, which implies the enormous gap between American women and men in family participation. Secondly, the ambiguous image of a stroller suggests that the time that parents spend at work takes away from infants’ well-being, which is in line with scholarly research.
Gordon, Victoria, and Beth M. Rauhaus. Maternity Leave: Policy and Practice. 2nd ed., 2020, Routledge.
In a 300-page book, the authors explore the realities of living as a working parent in the U.S., including coping with the lack of mandated paid parental leaves. The source problematizes the absence of mandatory benefits with reference to American private companies’ increased reliance on the FMLA’s unpaid leave rules rather than offering paid leave benefits to increase their attractiveness to employees. The covered themes include current parental leave policies’ implications for women’s health, work-life balance trends, international comparisons, the feasibility of paid leave legislation, and trends in paternity leave utilization. The book’s relevance to the issue is explicit as the authors explain the country’s current parental leave legislation with reference to history, fertility trends, and political dynamics. Furthermore, since it places the current situation in the international context, this work is important for researching the reasons why the country continues to lag behind the other states in parental benefits.
International Network on Leave Policies and Research. “Leave Policies and Research.” Leavenetwork, Web.
Leavenetwork.org is a professional website that reports the outcomes of parental leave policy studies and reviews conducted by the International Network on Leave Policies and Research. The website provides a variety of topic-specific materials, including information on webinars and seminars, presentations by experts from different countries, and recent world news regarding paid leave laws. It offers annual reports that rate countries in terms of the maximum length of post-natal leaves for mothers and fathers, compensation-related conditions, flexibility, and paid leave opportunities for private and public sector employees. The most current review is based on data from 47 countries, including the U.S., European counties, and even some developing economies, which makes the online resource relevant to the issue. Finally, concerning importance, the website contains sufficient information on the U.S. and the rest of the world, including country-specific barriers to expanding paid leave legislation and promoting men’s participation in child care activities.
Jamorabo, Daniel Sabido, et al. “Fellowship Program Directors and Trainees across the United States Find Parental Leave Policies to Be Inconsistent, Inaccessible, and Inadequate.” PloS One, vol. 16, no. 11, 2021, pp. 1-13. Web.
In this journal article, the authors report the outcomes of their parental leave policy evaluation project involving surveying 190 care fellowship program directors and over 230 trainees from more than 600 programs. The results reveal that over 75% and 56% of respondents disagree that benefits are accessible publicly or upon the employee’s request, respectively. Although parental leave policies are widely implemented in healthcare fellowship programs, employees’ access to benefits, the degree of standardization in this regard, and duration represent the areas of ongoing concern. The article exemplifies barriers to accessing parental leave benefits for those employed in the U.S., which makes it relevant to the topic and can be used to inform comparisons between different states. Regarding importance, it is notable that the discussion goes beyond the absence of guaranteed paid leaves and addresses U.S. employers’ freedom to interpret the FMLA and establish the terms of family leaves for new employees.
Khan, Mariam S. “Paid Family Leave and Children Health Outcomes in OECD Countries.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 116, 2020, pp. 1-11. Web.
In her peer-reviewed journal article, the author applies the event study method to examine the associations between national paid family leave programs and child health and mortality in 35 OECD member nations. The results suggest that paid leaves, especially those reserved for mothers, are associated with 1%-5% decreases in national mortality rates among newborns, infants, and children of preschool age. The author concludes that paternity leaves with compensation might show their protective effects in the future due to being relatively new even in countries with high gender equality levels. The source’s relevance to the issue of paid parental leaves in the U.S. versus other states stems from the amount of attention devoted to paternity/maternity leave policies in developed countries and their effects. Its findings can be particularly important when addressing the issue’s implications and developing solutions since this research report basically justifies the introduction of paid leaves in the U.S.
Kreznar, Christian. “Paternity Leave Helps Women, Men and Businesses—But Its Adoption Isn’t Equitable.” Forbes, Web.
Written by an expert in economic development policy, this online magazine article examines discrepancies between the helpfulness of paternal leaves and their slow adoption rate. Using two anecdotal stories, the author argues that new fathers’ access to paid family leaves is easy in rare instances. Therefore, aside from the absence of national programs to offer paid leaves, the culture of the U.S. is not supportive of men’s active participation in child care. This reveals society’s ignorance of studies that demonstrate a positive link between increases in paternity leave usage and better family health outcomes. The source reviews the situation with paid or uncompensated leaves for American men and their foreign counterparts, which makes it relevant to the issue of interest. The text sheds light on mindset-related barriers to the full-scale adoption of family leaves for fathers, making the source important when it comes to exploring the issue’s complex nature, including stigmatization.
Miller, Claire Cain. “Trump Called for Paid Family Leave. Here’s Why Few Democrats Clapped.” The New York Times, Web.
This online newspaper article reviews American policymakers’ flawed attempts to address the globally known gaps in social security benefits for families. In 2020, Donald Trump supported a child care leave proposal that would enable employed parents to cover parental leaves by borrowing from their future earnings rather than using an external source of funding. The bill has not been signed into law, which, as the author indicates, ignores society’s readiness for change. The author relates this situation to a lack of a consensus regarding the best compensation methods and the U.S. Republican Party’s attempts to gather suburban women’s trust without much burden on the country’s budget. Concerning relevance to the issue, the source reveals the history of the paid leave narrative in American politics. This information can also be important in terms of exploring how political struggles factor into the absence of national paid leave programs for parents in the U.S.
OECD.Stat. “Employment: Length of Maternity Leave, Parental Leave, and Paid Father-Specific Leave.” Stats.oecd, Web.
Stats.oecd is a professional website that offers recent and archived statistical data pertaining to the indicators of social well-being in 38 OECD member states and detailed data search guidelines for users. The resource provides customizable comparative reports for various indicators, including the length of maternity/paternity/parental leave, income distribution, time use, equality, and other areas of social security. The data pertaining to family leaves are available for the period between 1970 and 2021, which allows drawing comparisons between the speed of policy expansion in various states. Due to offering information on paternity and maternity leaves separately, the resource facilitates investigations into the adoption of leaves for fathers in different countries, thus being relevant to the selected issue. The same characteristic adds to its importance for formulating viable and realistic solutions for the U.S. based on best practices and the optimal share of leave time to be reserved for mothers and fathers.
Works Cited
Bergmann, Emily. “Parental Leave in the United States: Why the United States Should Follow France in Implementing Mandatory Paid Paternal Leave.” Child & Family Law Journal, vol. 9, 2021, pp. 159-172. Web.
Chzhen, Yekaterina, et al. Are the World’s Richest Countries Family Friendly? Policy in the OECD and EU. UNICEF, 2019.
De la Corte-Rodríguez, Miguel. EU Law on Maternity and Other Child-Related Leaves: Impact on Gender Equality. Kluwer Law International BV, 2019.
Gash, Chris. “Parental Leave.” Parents.com, Web.
Gordon, Victoria, and Beth M. Rauhaus. Maternity Leave: Policy and Practice. 2nd ed., 2020, Routledge.
International Network on Leave Policies and Research. “Leave Policies and Research.” Leavenetwork, Web.
Jamorabo, Daniel Sabido, et al. “Fellowship Program Directors and Trainees across the United States Find Parental Leave Policies to Be Inconsistent, Inaccessible, and Inadequate.” PloS One, vol. 16, no. 11, 2021, pp. 1-13. Web.
Khan, Mariam S. “Paid Family Leave and Children Health Outcomes in OECD Countries.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 116, 2020, pp. 1-11. Web.
Kreznar, Christian. “Paternity Leave Helps Women, Men and Businesses—But Its Adoption Isn’t Equitable.” Forbes, Web.
Miller, Claire Cain. “Trump Called for Paid Family Leave. Here’s Why Few Democrats Clapped.” The New York Times, Web.
OECD.Stat. “Employment: Length of Maternity Leave, Parental Leave, and Paid Father-Specific Leave.” Stats.oecd, Web.