international women's day

For International Women’s Day, we should get paid parental leave and paid sick leave
By Sangita Nayak, March 6, 2009

March 8 is International Women’s Day, and it’s shameful that women in the United States are lagging behind in some crucial areas, like work policies.

Women here have a much harder time working and caring for their family members at the same time.

Even something so basic as getting paid time off to raise a baby is denied to most women in the United States. We rank last out of 21 industrialized countries in our parental leave policies, according to a recent study by the Center for Economic Policy Research. The United States mandates no paid maternity leave, virtually alone in this group of nations.

Equally as shocking, paid sick leave is not required in the United States, either. Almost half of women working in the private sector have no sick time. In the largest industry that employs women, accommodations and food service, 78 percent go without paid sick time.

We need to get paid parental leave and paid sick leave if we, as a society, are going to be as fair and just, as we view ourselves as being.

We can make some of these gains locally or statewide.

The entire story should be read . . .