Maternity Leave Policies Research Articles

An Exploratory Study on the Maternity Leave Policy and Normative Discrimination in the Greater Male’ Region

Literature has contemplated the discourse regarding discrimination against working mothers in the workplace from various angles. While contemporary studies consider the implications of maternity-related policies, this has not been studied locally. This study aims to identify if and how working mothers in the Maldives face normative discrimination due to the maternity leave policy, the motherhood penalties which ensue, and its contribution to the maternal wall, through the lens of patriarchal ideologies and gender roles. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 8 working mothers between the ages of 25 to 40 who have had at least one child after the maternity leave policy for civil servants was revised in 2019. A thematic analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of the maternity leave policy for civil servants. The findings of this study demonstrate that preconceived gender stereotypes and patriarchal ideologies motivates a cycle of discrimination.

The Principle of Meaningful Participation in the Formation of the Maternity Leave Policies in Indonesia

The maternity leave policy in Indonesia is in the process of transitioning from a three month leave as per the Indonesian Employment Law to a six month leave in accordance with the Maternal and Child Welfare Bill (‘MCH Bill’). The government delayed the legalization of the bill due to the policy being controversial among the public, especially employers and workers. The controversy that occurred was a reaction to the exclusion of certain voices in the process of forming the MCH Bill. This research aimed to highlight the problem related to meaningful participation in the formation of maternity leave policy in Indonesia. The methodology used in this study is the legal doctrine method with a statutory and a conceptual approach. In the process of forming legislation in Indonesia, the principle of meaningful participation must be applied to accommodate the aspirations of all parties involved in the implementation of the law. In the context of the establishment of the MCH Bill, the meaningful participation of employers and workers is crucial because they are the main actors in the production process and the main actors in the MCH Bill.
 Keywords: Maternity Leave, Meaningful Participation, MCH Bill

What If Moms Quiet Quit? The Role of Maternity Leave Policy in Working Mothers’ Quiet Quitting Behaviors

This study aims to examine the effects of various maternity leave support on the quiet quitting behaviors and mental health conditions of working mothers across industries during the post-pandemic period. Through an empirical survey method of 310 valid responses from a panel data, the study results indicated that working mothers who took maternity leave were less likely to adopt quiet quitting behaviors when they returned to work after childbirth and showed better mental health at work compared to their peers who did not take maternity leave because of childbirth and/or childcare. Additionally, paid maternity leave was not found to have a significant effect on quiet quitting behaviors and mental health of working mothers across industries, but the duration of maternity leave was found as a significant factor in impacting working mothers’ quiet quitting behaviors and their mental health conditions. Moreover, peer workers’ quiet quitting behaviors and supervisors’ support for childcare (e.g., flexible work schedule) were found significantly to improve working mothers’ quiet quitting tendencies at work. Lastly, there exist significant differences in age and race in the working mothers’ quiet quitting behaviors at work.

Mothers in the Military: Effect of Maternity Leave Policy on Take-Up.

This study exploits changes in paid maternity leave offered by one of the United States' largest employers, the Department of Defense, to estimate the effect of such policies on mothers' leave-taking. Since 2015, the U.S. Marine Corps has shifted its maternity leave policy from 6 to 18 to 12 weeks. Leave expansions increased leave duration, whereas contractions decreased leave taken by active-duty service members. However, the policy changes crowded out other forms of leave: with an increase in maternity leave available, mothers increased use of maternity leave and stopped supplementing with additional annual leave. Although all mothers used the full 6 weeks of leave in the early period, it is the less advantaged mothers-those in the enlisted ranks, first-time mothers, and single mothers-who disproportionately used more of the additional leave than officers, experienced mothers, and married mothers. Pregnant officers, experienced mothers, and single women used less leave than nonpregnant women in the months leading up to birth, but expecting additional post-birth leave did not change average pre-birth leave-taking. Our results highlight the importance of optimally sizing family leave policies and provide evidence that the true cost of such programs may be lower than the raw count of weeks provided by additional maternity leave allowances.

Does Enhancing Paid Maternity Leave Policy Help Promote Gender Equality? Evidence from 31 Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Globally, women continue to have less economic decision-making power and face gender-unequal norms at work. Little is known about the impact of national public policies on norms surrounding equality. We examined the impact of extending paid maternity leave policy on decision making in the household and gender norms in the workplace, specifically whether women have sole or joint decision-making power with respect to large household purchases and whether women are perceived as having an equal right to jobs when jobs are scarce. We used difference-in-differences models to analyze the impact of increasing paid maternity leave on outcomes measured in the Demographic Health Surveys and World Values Surveys collected in 31 low- and middle-income countries. A one-month increase in the legislated duration of paid maternity leave increased the odds that women and their partners/spouses reported that women had more decision-making power by 40% (95% CI 1.14, 1.70) and 66% (95% CI 1.36, 2.03), respectively. A one-month increase in the legislated duration of paid maternity leave was associated with 41.5 percentage-point increase in the prevalence of individuals disagreeing with the statement that “when jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women.” More generous maternity leave increases gender equality in economic decision making in the household and improves gender norms related to work. Future studies should examine the impact of paternity leave and non-discrimination policy, as well as other large-scale policies aiming to improve gender equality at work and at home.

How Does the Modification of Maternity Leave Policies in Universities Impact the Birth Rate of the County?

A survey published by United Nations’ International Labor Organization in May 2014 showed that, among the 185 countries surveyed, America and Papua New Guinea were the only two countries that did not offer paid maternity leave. By July 2014, the states that offer paid maternity leave include California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. Whether paid or not, maternal leave policies are directly related to women’s decisions regarding when and how often to have children, as well as their employment choices. Given this importance, in 1993, the United States’s government passed the Family and Medical Leave Act to mandate maternity and parental leave. This study focuses on the correlation between maternity leave policies in universities and the birth rates of counties in which they are located. Data was collected from seventeen universities and counties before and after the maternity leave policy was implemented. Through running mathematical regression models, the results show that additional modification to maternity leave policies actually has a negative correlation with the birth rates. A more generous maternity leave policy does not necessarily change the birth rate’s status quo.With this result being discovered, the study can promote suggestions regarding the policies and further investigations based on the subject.

Mothers in the Military: Effect of Maternity Leave Policy on Take-Up

The United States remains the only OECD nation without national paid maternity leave. This paper exploits changes in paid maternity leave offered by one of the United States’ largest employers, the U.S. Department of Defense. Since 2015, the Marine Corps has shifted their policy from six to 18 to 12 weeks. As expected, leave expansions increased leave duration while policy contractions decreased the amount of maternity leave taken by active-duty service members. In addition, we find the policy changes crowded out other forms of leave. That is, with an increase in maternity leave available, mothers in the military increased their amount of maternity leave and stopped supplementing with additional annual leaves as mothers in the six-week policy period had. Though all mothers used the full six weeks of leave in the early period, it is the less advantaged mothers–in the enlisted (worker) ranks, first-time, and single mothers–who disproportionately used more of the additional leave than officers (managers), experienced mothers, and married mothers. Our results highlight the importance of optimally sizing family leave policies, as well as provide evidence that the true cost of such programs may be lower than the mere number of weeks provided by additional maternity leave allowances.

The Impact of Mandated Maternity Leave Policies on the Gender Gap in Promotions: Examining the Role of Employer-Based Discrimination

This paper examines how mandated maternity leave policies impact the gender gap in promotions. I present a model of the gender gap in promotions where firms must choose whether to invest in the training of their employees, but they are uncertain about their employees' future choice of hours of work. If women are more likely than men to reduce their hours of work during childrearing years, firms will invest less in women early in their careers, leading to a gender gap in promotions. In the presence of asymmetric information about workers' future preferences, mandated maternity leave policies can exacerbate this gap. Using the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, I test the predictions of the model in the context of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). Women hired after the enactment of the FMLA are three percentage points more likely to remain employed but eight percentage points less likely to be promoted than those who were hired before the FMLA. Furthermore, I find evidence suggesting that information asymmetry, in addition to selection, is driving the increase in the gender gap in promotions.

Maternity Leave Policies and Occupational Self-Efficacy: The Moderating Role of Job Satisfaction

Research in management has largely ignored the organizational implications of maternity leave despite the increasing number of women taking it. Most studies examining maternity leave have primarily...

The Rise and Fall of Paid Maternity Leave Policy in the Years of the Keating Government

In 2010, Australia finally introduced maternity leave, making it one of the last OECD nations to do so. Yet this policy had been announced by the Keating Government some sixteen years earlier, only to be watered down and then ultimately scuppered by subsequent governments. How, then, do we make sense of the rise and fall of this policy in the 1990s? This paper examines this question, arguing that while effective mobilisation by women in the labour movement was crucial to placing this issue on the Keating Government's policy agenda, the continued dominance of a male breadwinner model ultimately served to provide powerful impediments to policy implementation. The paper draws on interviews with key actors and analysis of policy debate to make this case, employing the concepts of policy windows and path dependency to make sense of the opportunities and impediments to policy change respectively. While an important and neglected story of maternity leave policy in Australia, this analysis has important implications for understanding policy‐making, policy trajectory and even gender roles in Australian politics and society.

Maternity and Family Leave Policy

Maternity and family leave policies enable mothers to take time off work to prepare for and recover from childbirth and to care for their new children. While there is substantial variation in the details of these policies around the world, the existing research yields the following general conclusions. First, despite important barriers to the take-up of leave, both the implementation of new programs and extensions of existing ones increase leavetaking rates among new parents. Second, leave entitlements less than one year in length can improve job continuity for women and increase their employment rates several years after childbirth; longer leaves can negatively influence women's earnings, employment, and career advancement. Third, extensions in existing paid leave policies have no impact on measures of child well-being, but the introduction of short paid and unpaid leave programs can improve children's short- and long-term outcomes. Fourth, while more research is needed, the current evidence shows minimal impacts of existing U.S. state-level programs on employer-level outcomes such as employee productivity, morale, profitability, turnoverrates, or the total wage bill.

Which Ideas, Whose Norms? Comparing the Relative Influence of International Organizations on Paid Maternity and Parental Leave Policies in Liberal Welfare States

This article examines the adoption of paid maternity and parental leave policies in the liberal welfare states of Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and investigates the domestic and international sources of policy ideas. Through comparative analysis using mainly qualitative techniques of analysis of primary and secondary sources and elite interviews, the article examines the decision-making processes in each of these jurisdictions. It finds the relative influence of international organizations to be rather limited in comparison to domestic sources of influence, including the election of leftist governments under sympathetic party leaders and in the context of human capital concerns.

How Does Family Policy ‘Work’? Job Context, Flexibility, and Maternity Leave Policy

AbstractUsing evidence from Canada and the United States, I review the literature on workplace flexibility and one‐size‐fits‐all federal maternity leave policy as it relates to maternal job context. The literature suggests that job variation is central to accessing work–family policy due to differences in job characteristics, demands, and overriding workplace norms. As a result, the opportunities for and consequences of flexibility and leave vary significantly between high and low wage employment contexts. Accordingly, the evidence suggests that policy development would benefit from taking job context into account.

124 Maternity Leave Policies, Beliefs, and Attitudes for Emergency Physicians

124 Maternity Leave Policies, Beliefs, and Attitudes for Emergency Physicians

Law, Economics, and Culture: Theory of Mandated Benefits and Evidence from Maternity Leave Policies

Why do some countries mandate a long maternity leave, while others mandate only a short one? We incorporate into a standard mandated-benefit model social tolerance of gender-based discrimination, showing that the optimal length of maternity leave depends on it. The less tolerant a society is of gender-based discrimination, the longer the maternity leave it will mandate. Relying on recent research in psychology and linguistics according to which patterns in languages offer a window into their speakers’ dispositions, we collected new data on the number of gender-differentiated personal pronouns across languages to capture societies’ attitudes toward gender-based discrimination. We first confirm, using within-country language variation, that our linguistic measure is correlated with attitudes toward gender-based discrimination. Then, using cross-country data on length of maternity leave, while controlling for other parameters, we find a strong correlation between our language-based measure of attitudes and the length of maternity leave.

Struggling with Maternity Leave Policies and Practices: A Poststructuralist Feminist Analysis of Gendered Organizing

Unlike previous research on maternity leave using Department of Labor statistics, survey data, or analyses of single cases or texts, this study explores 15 women's discursive constructions of their workplace experiences while pregnant, on maternity leave, and upon return to paid work. Through a poststructuralist feminist analysis, findings not only show how these women positioned themselves and others vis-à-vis gendered discourses and organizing, but also how this positioning process shaped possibilities for practice in particular ways. The ironies and contradictions exposed by participants' discourse reflect ongoing feminist debates about the productive management of dialectic tensions and suggest directions for change in micropractices and macroprocesses of gendered organizing.

The Liberalization of Maternity Leave Policy and the Return to Work after Childbirth in Germany

German federal law has increased the potential duration of maternity leave five times since 1985. A theoretical model demonstrates that the cumulative return probability at potential duration cannot decline unless the mother's employment conditions or career expectations change. We estimate return to work hazards from the German Socio-Economic Panel for women bearing children in the period 1984–1991 and predict cumulative return probabilities for first-time mothers and mothers with a previous birth. The pattern of cumulative return probabilities as potential duration increases is consistent with the hypothesis that employment conditions or career expectations frequently change for mothers taking longer leaves.

Reducing Income and Wealth Inequality: Real Utopian Proposals

ERIK OLIN WRIGHT University of Wisconsin Juster, Susan and Maris Vinovskis. 1987. Changing Perspectives on the American Family in the Past. Annual Review of Sociology 13: 193-216. Kamerman, Sheila. 1996. and Family Policies: An International Overview. Pp. 31-48 in Children, Families, and Governmerlt, edited by E. Zigler, J. Kagan, and E. Hall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kelly, Erin and Frank Dobbin. 1999 forthcoming. Civil Rights Law at Work: Discrimination and the Rise of Maternity Leave Policies. American Journal of Sociology. Kessler, Ronald and Jane McLeod. 1984. Sex Differences in Vulnerability to Undesirable Life Events. American Sociological Review 49: 620-31. Kilbourne, Barbara, Paula England, George Farkas, Kurt Beron, and Dorothea Weir. 1994. Returns to Skill, Compensating Differentials, and Gender Bias: Effects of Occupational Characteristics on the Wages of White Women and Men. American Journal of Sociology 100: 689-719. King, Rosalind B. 1999. Time Spent in Status among Adults in the United States. Demography 36: 377-85. Lasch, Christopher. 1977. Haven in a Heartless World: the Family Besieged. New York: Basic Books. Louv, Richard. 1990. Childhood's Future. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Manning, Steven. 1999. Students for Sale: How Corporations Are Buying their Way into America's Classrooms. Nation, September 27: 11-18. McLanahan, S. and J. Adams. 1987. Parenthood and Psychological Well-Being. Annual Review of Sociology 13: 237-57. Monson, Rene. 1997. State-in and Gender: Collecting Information from Mothers and Fathers in Paternity Cases. Gender and Society 11: 279-95. Preston, Samuel. 1984. and the Elderly: Divergent Paths for America's Dependents. Demography 21: 435-57. Riflin, Jeremy.1994. End of Work. New York: Putnam. Simon, Robin W. 1995. Gender, Multiple Roles, Role Meaning and Mental Health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 36:182-94. Sonenstein, Freda L. 1991. The Child Care Preferences of Parents with Young Children: How Little is Known. Pp. 337-53 in Parental Leave and Child Care, edited by J. S. Hyde and M. J. Essex. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Sprague, Joey. 1996. Seeing Gender as Social Structure. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York. Waldfogel, Jane. 1997. The Effect of Children on Women's Wages. American Sociologzcal Review 62: 209-17. Wolman, William. 1997. JuEs Economy: Triumph of Capital and the Betrayal of Work. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Wright, Erik. Olin. 2000. Reducing Income and Wealth Inequality: Real Utopian Proposals. Contemporary Sociology 29:143-56. Zelizer, Vivian. 1985. Pricing the Priceless Child. New York: Basic Books.

Maternity Leave Policies: A Comparison Between Children's Hospitals And Fortune 500 Companies. † 586

Maternity Leave Policies: A Comparison Between Children's Hospitals And Fortune 500 Companies. † 586

Maternity and Parental Leave Policy

Maternity and Parental Leave Policy