US family‐leave policy: the legacy of ‘separate spheres’

Abstract

Family‐leave policy in the USA is essentially regulatory, providing for work–family supports that are unpaid and otherwise relatively limited in substance and scope. Using a path‐dependency informed analysis of policy developments from the 1920s through the 1990s, I argue that these central defining qualities stem from government involvement beginning in the first part of the 20th century in helping the private sector to construct what I theorize was a ‘precursor’ work–family benefits system. During this period, the government was developing a general approach toward the growing numbers of working women that was based largely on traditional ideas (‘separate spheres’) about women's roles. Separate spheres influenced the way that the growing numbers of working women were viewed within the initial work–family benefits system, and I argue that this approach has carried over into the more recent family‐leave policy debates, helping to explain the key features of present‐day policy.