One of the main reasons cultural regressives often like to run on a "family values" platform, is that it is an issue that doesn't require much legislative action unless you hate gays. In cultural regressive speak, family values are understood to be something that is promoted based on the idea that American families are still easily definable units and that they subscribe to a fixed ideology that frankly does not at all reflect the reality of most working families in America. We legislate as if America were the Cleaver family, not a blended or extended one.
Jody Heymann, of the McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy gave testimony to the US senate earlier this year and offered some highlights that illustrate the lack of family friendly infrastructure in the US. According to statistics she noted that
70 percent of women with children under 18 are in the workforce and about a 25 percent of adults in America are actively caring for a relative over the age of sixty-five. I imagine as my generation ages, that 25 % will increase as families find it harder to find affordable elder care homes for parents and other aging family members, and chose to provide care in the family home.
The US is one of the few countries that provides no kind of policy strategies to support the family friendly vibe cultural regressives love to crow about. They like to talk the talk and then pretend that American families do not agonize over affordable supervision for their kids or elderly parents while they work. The typical strategy employed by some working mothers might look a bit like this. A young RN with two young children decides to work nights because it is a little extra money and then her husband/partner/family member can look after the kids while she is at work. The young RN works twelve hours and then goes home to take the kids to school and catch some harried rest before picking up the kids from school feeding them giving instructions and rushes back into work. She is sleep deprived. If the kids are sick she can't focus on work or she calls in sick to work. If the kids aren't in school then when she goes home she catches furtive naps when the little ones nap while the partner/family member is at work.
We are one of the few nations in the world that provide no guaranteed paid leave for mothers in connection with birth. That puts us in the same company as Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland. At least 66 percent of the 173 countries studied allow fathers the right to some kind of paid paternity leave. Sure, you can get unpaid leave with FMLA, but in the private sector it can only be taken if there are at least 50 paid employees. If the new mom is working at a small employer with 49 employees she won't even qualify for unpaid leave.
So, what happens? Well, as many mothers and fathers in Kossack land can attest to, maternity leave here consists of whatever sick time can be banked up if the employers even offers sick time. The net result is that many mothers come back to work tired, financially stressed, and only because they need the money. In my little universe, sympathetic colleagues often take up the slack in work load for the returning parent. The new mom isn't lazy or incompetent, but she is frequently not working at even 80% of her abilities. Workers who are tired, stressed out, and frazzled with worry over unexpected bills are sadly not that uncommon in the American workplace.
Despite the fact that women are often plagued with guilt and uncertainty about whether to breast feed, in America we just make them feel guilty when they don't, and fail to provide any support when they do.
Heymann found that in many countries there are laws in place that protect a woman's right to breast feed at work and 73 countries provide paid breaks to do so.
Just to recap so far, family values in America, means that there is no legislation to provide paid leave after birth and we let you fight it out about how and when to pump milk or breast feed. It sounds to me like we just really don't want women working outside the home so we make it as difficult as possible for mothers to do so. We like challenges in America. We like to leave it all up to individual gumption, know how, and all American ingenuity. In other words, we like to watch people flail around trying to be both workers and parents.
In America sick people just aren't very productive. So, the US is one of the few countries that provides no national standards or mandates for paid sick leave and oddly enough, the private sector here has not exactly stepped up to the plate. About half of all private sector workers have no paid sick leave. That worn out old argument that the private sector is more efficient and can just regulate itself is patently untrue when it comes to workers who become true. The private sector doesn't care if you get sick, illness makes you inefficient, illness fucks with the bottom line. Americans are hardy cowboy types who can sail through work after a heart attack.
Yeah, the problem with all those people living in those other countries who have guaranteed paid sick leave is that they just aren't tough enough. Here in America we just don't need frills like paid sick leave, paid parental leave, and support for basics like breastfeeding.
Democrats don't need to cede such import ground to Republicans. There is no reason to shy away from the debate about family values in America, there is a need to redefine what family values means and how we can truly support families in substantive ways. Right now, saying one supports family values has about as much meaning as saying one supports the troops with a bumper sticker made by a company who is not donating the profits to help troops.
Let's talk about family values, what it means, what we mean when we talk about family, and how we can provide the legislative framework to promote family well being in America.