Ep. 12 - Maternity Leave Matters

Over 80% of U.S. women have babies by the time they’re 44 years old, and three-quarters of moms are now in the labor force, but our family economic security policies are still stuck in the dark ages.  That’s right: Even though 177 other countries have some form of paid family leave for new moms after the birth of a child, the U.S. doesn’t.  It’s no wonder that having a baby is now a leading cause of poverty spells in our nation—which is a time when income dips below what’s needed for food and rent.   But while millions of women struggle after the birth of a new child, a few highly paid women are stepping back from taking leave after the birth of a new child at all--and sparks are flying. The announcement of Marissa Mayer, the new chief of Yahoo, that her maternity leave would be “a few weeks long, and she’ll work throughout it,” ignited a firestorm of feedback.    For one thing, not all women have the same choices and options for childcare as a millioniare CEO.  For another thing, Marissa Mayer's comment flew into the face of a long fight in the women’s movement for everyone to have access to paid family leave, which is a policy proven to decrease poverty, save taxpayers and businesses funds, and to help build healthy families.   Joining us in our lively conversation on this show about maternity and paternity leave are policy experts, celebrities, real moms, and advocates, as well as real moms who’ve been able to take family leave, and moms who’ve needed family leave but couldn’t take it

*Thank you to special guests including: Benjamin Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP; Christy Turlington, model and founder of Every Mother Counts; Debra Ness, National Partnership for Women and Families; Marilyn Watkins, Economic Opportunity Institute; Selena Allen, MomsRising mom; as well as Elisa Batista, Monifa Bandele and Ruth Martin of MomsRising.