America's Big Week-o-Gender
#PaidLeaveCantWait, Pete Buttigieg & a new White House gender strategy
Gender is not often the focus of American conversations, so I am loving this week.
I talked about the Congressional discussion of paid leave last month, and the conversation has only heated up since then. Democrats are now struggling to determine if they can keep the paid leave policy in the Build Back Better bill, or if they’ll have to drop it to get the bill passed.
Obviously, I desperately hope the paid leave policy stays. There are many reasons to support paid leave for all – but the one I will champion today is this: We will be a big step closer to household gender equality if all Americans have access to paid leave to fulfill caregiving responsibilities.
If this is important to you, then call your congresspeople! (Especially if you’re BFFs with Kyrsten Sinema or Joe Manchin.) If you’re still not sure why this is important, consider registering for the Fathering Together panel on paid leave tomorrow October 28. Sign up here.
Mayor Pete is a dad! Congratulations!
The backlash against the U.S. Secretary of Transportation did not shock me – but it still made me sad. Tweets like this fall back on harmful gender stereotypes that belittle a father’s role in a baby’s life. Not much to do since you’re not breastfeeding, huh? Um, I can think of a couple of things dads can do to care for a newborn. And I’m guessing Pete and Chasten Buttigieg can too.
Thankfully there has also been an outpouring of support. Thanks to Josh Levs and others who wrote a passionate defense of parental leave for all. Those first weeks of a baby’s life pass by so quickly; I am personally glad Pete Buttigieg is staying home with his babies, and role modeling this form of caregiving for other new dads. I hope someday every American parent will have the same opportunity.
I have a whole section in Equal Partners about parental leave. Not surprisingly many of the men I interviewed for the book talked in great detail about the importance of parental leave to establish early caregiving patterns. I heard many stories from men who were thankful for their own parental leave; many stories from men who were disappointed their workplace did not offer paternity leave; and many stories from men who were frustrated that their employer offered paternity leave - but workplace culture pressured them not to take it.
But not one dad told me they regretted taking parental leave. No one said, "I spent way too much time with my kids when they were little. I really let my boss down. I should have worked more."
This week the Biden/Harris Administration released the United States’ first-ever National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality. I was relieved to see that, in addition to policy solutions, the document calls for “a shift in the social and cultural norms that undermine gender equity and equality, undervalue work traditionally and disproportionately carried out by women, and prevent rights on paper from being fully implemented in practice.”
If you don’t want to read all 42 pages, there’s also a quick fact sheet.
I think The Lily did a great job of analyzing this strategy. Yes, the document can feel broad, vague, and lacking in implementation details. But it also offers a great deal of hope. This direct, inclusive and intersectional strategy gives us a glimmer of what could be – and elevates the gender conversation the highest level of national government.
Happy Halloween! Thanks for reading. As always, please feel free to share this with a friend who might be interested.
This is the part that gets me (from the Fact Sheet: National Strategy on Gender Equity & Equality): "This moment...requires that we acknowledge and address longstanding gender discrimination and the systemic barriers to full participation that have held back women and girls." A true National Strategy on Gender Equity & Equality would address gender discrimination and systemic barriers to full participating that have held back women and girls and men and boys. Look at the above story re Mayor Pete and parental leave. Gender discrimination and systemic barriers have limited and affected fathers' abilities to be caregivers.