Maternity Leave

Ouch. While I was in Santa Clara attending the Blogher conference I ran across an article from the Associated Press about the state of American Maternity leave.

"The U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act provides for 12 weeks of job-protected leave, but it only covers those who work for larger companies.

To put it another way, out of 168 nations in a Harvard University study last year, 163 had some form of paid maternity leave, leaving the United States in the company of Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland."

I read the article at the same time I was being introduced to the concept of  Mommy Bloggers--a genre I just hadn't been exposed to but one that I will definitely share with my niece Rashelle who is becoming a mom in September.

Here's the thing. Even though my kids are now 16 and 21, I love reading the mommy bloggers.There's everything from the traditional online baby magazine format like Blogging Baby to Heather Armstrong's edgy Dooce, My friend Nancy White is blogging about a new genre of Mommy Blogging being offered by the March of Dimes called Share Your Story.

"Take a look at the amazing stories these women are writing. They are writing about their experiences of having a premature baby or a baby who has to spend time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)). Look at the comments. I hope a few dads start blogs as well, to bring their perspectives. (A fantastic daddyblogger is Snowdeal, dad of Odin who was also born prematurely. I'm in love with Odin - what a beeyouteeful kid!)"

Which brings me back to the status of American Maternity Leaves. According to some experts, including Jane Waldfogel a professor a Columbia University, the reason we are in the sad state of deplorable maternity leaves is that the American feminist movement didn't fight for it.

"The American feminist movement didn't want to hear anything about mothers," Waldfogel says. "They wanted equal rights for women and didn't emphasize special treatment."

The U.S. feminist movement has moved away from this viewpoint, but that hasn't led to a change in maternity rules. One reason is that U.S. women are used to having about three months off and consider it the norm, Waldfogel says."

What Waldfogel is saying may be absolutely true. I have no way of knowing. But my gut says to single out the early feminist movement as the root cause for nonpaid maternity leave is a bit like the entire male population of the universe blaming all their woes on their moms.

Way too Sigmund Freudish for my sensibilities.