Back to Work? by Ellen Bravo

Posted 28 April, 2007 in Uncategorized

Paid sick days and paid family leave will help the lowest-paid women, but they’ll help many other women — and men — as well (”Off to Work She Should Go,” April 25). Half the workforce has no paid sick days. Most women lack paid disability benefits and few men have paid paternity leave. Caring for a new infant or a parent with a stroke is not a vacation, yet that’s the “paid time” most employees use for caregiving. Establishing minimum benefits also helps higher-paid workers by challenging the corporate culture that says committedworkers are those willing to meet, move or travel at a moment’s notice. 

California and now Washington state won paid leave not as a gift from women in powerful positions but by organized efforts at the grassroots. Women will benefit from changes in the tax laws. But especially they’ll gain by working together for changes in public and workplace policy. Of course, men need to share work in the home. More will do so if they’re not punished for it in the workplace. 

Ellen Bravo is former director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women, and author of “Taking on the Big Boys, or Why Feminism is Good for Families, Business and the Nation.” 

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