Parenting and the workplace: The construction of parenting protections in United States law

Maxine Eichner

doi:10.1186/1746-4358-3-14

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss the shortcomings of the legal protections that exist for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and parenting for United States' workers. The two main sources of protection for pregnancy and parenting in United States employment law are the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Both, I argue, contain inadequate protections for the needs of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, as well as their infants. I consider what it is about the way these statutes conceptualize the needs of pregnant women, mothers, and their babies, that prevents more robust protection of their needs. I then compare the minimal protection afforded American women and families with more progressive policies in other countries to highlight the possibilities that arise when the state affirmatively supports working parents and their children.

Highlights

In this paper, I discuss the protections that exist for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and parenting for United States' workers and discuss the problems with this set of protections
U.S law conceptualizes these issues in a narrow, individual rights/antidiscrimination framework
U.S law is based on a medical model of what counts as a need

Summary

Introduction

I discuss the protections that exist for pregnancy, breastfeeding, and parenting for United States' workers and discuss the problems with this set of protections. To cut to the chase, the United States provides a really limited set of protections for pregnancy, breastfeeding and parenting, far more limited than almost every other country (and I really do mean almost every other country) for two reasons. This framework basically says that women need to be treated the same as men; so long as they are, employers can treat employees of both sexes badly, and fail to accommodate pregnancy, breastfeeding and parenting.

Results

Conclusion