Quote: (04-28-2016 05:57 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:
I would actually support this if everybody could get it - men and women. Equal rights to get time off and flexible work arrangements regardless of family status or having children. Asking why you need extra time off or to work part time/from home would be discrimination. If a company provides 6 months of paid maternity leave to a new mother, it should also provide the same benefit to me so that I can fly to Poland or just sit on my ass and drink beer.
I would also question the notion that having children means doing society a favor and requires benefits and sacrifices from other members of society towards parents. A brief visit to a third world country where people have many children despite not getting the benefits is enough to understand that there is no shortage of children in this world.
This may come as a shock to you (believe me, it did to me too) but the USA is one of only 2 countries on the entire planet that does not offer some form of paid maternity leave. Yes, even those seemingly dirt poor third world countries - their governments offer paid benefits to their citizens who have newborn children.
I fully endorse maternity benefits - it's unrealistic to think a new mother can go back to work full time the day after giving birth to a newborn baby. Caring for a newborn is a 24-hour job for the first several weeks the baby enters the world. It wakes up every hour needing food, changing, comfort, etc. They also have very vulnerable immune systems after birth and require constant monitoring.
That said, this is yet another reason for the "wage gap" - women have babies and take time off costing themselves opportunity for career advancement and costing their employer money.
Goddamn. Women make babies and care for them, and men go off gather resources and provide for the family. Why is this shit so backwards and difficult?