2016年4月，《纽约邮报》发表了一篇名为“我想要所有产假的好处 - 没有任何孩子。”它介绍了“元性”的概念。作者建议，没有孩子的妇女应该能够像同伴的母亲一样进行12周的假期。
大多数人知道，这篇文章的旨在宣传她的书。虽然我确实知道这是意图，但它的真正目的是阐明了美国的产假被极其误解。
在拥有自己的孩子之前，我一直在一家Fortune 100公司工作，我认为产假对于新妈妈来说是一个不错的假期。实际上，有时我很嫉妒，甚至有点沮丧，我不得不拿起额外的工作。
在20多岁的时候，我从不关心围绕产假的事实。我不知道生孩子有多么困难，然后被迫在12周后没有休假时间重新上班，一个没有睡觉的婴儿，一个流水的银行帐户以及一种迫在眉睫的产后情绪崩溃的感觉。
Even worse, I had no idea that my job situation was not the norm and I was extremely lucky since I did receive 12 weeks and partial pay. The easiest way to combat the stereotype of maternity leave being a 12-week vacation is to understand the facts. So, let’s do that.
40％的妇女没有资格Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)which grants 12 weeks of protected job leave, unpaid, at the federal level.
Only 12 percent of women in the private sector have access to any sort of paid maternity leave.
There is no federal paid maternity leave — it’s left to the states to figure out.
The only states with an active policy are California, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.
25 percent of women are forced to return to work within 2 weeks of giving birth to support their families.
The United States is the only high-income country to not offer paid maternity leave on a federal level. Paid leave is guaranteed in 178 countries, the United States not being one of them.
我认为每个人都可以同意这些事实非常令人沮丧和令人失望。作为一个国家，我们未能适应不断变化的经济。妇女占美国的很大一部分GDP。如果妇女不工作，我们将无法维持我们的经济状况。如果妇女继续退出婴儿或由于经济压力而继续生育更少的孩子，那么我们都会遇到麻烦。
We need to change the conversation from maternity leave being a privilege and start discussing the real implications of not viewing it as a human right.
也许比事实更令人不安的是，缺乏联邦产假政策对妇女和儿童的影响。
在世界28个富裕国家中，美国的死亡率最高，每1000个分娩时为6.1。
The birth rate in the United States is at 1.83 per woman, a record low. If we do not maintain our population, it will impact our GDP and economic standing.
1 in 10 women suffer from postpartum depression in the United States.
We must do better. Over and over again we are forced to confront the fact that poor maternity leave policies are bad public policy. With the majority of families in the United States depending on women to earn an income, we can’t ignore the obvious and deadly problems that plague all mothers regardless of their economic standing.
Maternity leave is a necessity.
Circling back to the article on meternity, the author says that the time mothers spend away from their desks on maternity leave gives moms the ability to “find themselves.” She states that her choice to work late is because she is picking up the slack for her mom coworkers. Perhaps the most dangerous assumption is that every woman has access to a 12-week, paid maternity leave. It simply is not the case.
假设所有妇女都获得相同的产假权利是危险的。甚至我也相信所有妇女都有权获得12周的保护休假。为什么一个年轻女子在没有亲自影响她的事情时会认为否则？妇女需要停止因从事职业和生孩子而感到羞耻。除非妇女工作并继续为下一代生育孩子，否则我们的经济将无法生存。出生率已经落后于今天维持该国所需的东西。让我们停止谈论产假是假期，并开始尊重未来孩子的妇女。许多其他国家都设法弄清楚了这一点。我们为什么不能？