A reader writes:
What is the qualification for being “working class“? I work as support staff in a mid-sized for our city law firm. In the last month of pregnancy, I developed gestational hypertension, a potential precursor to preeclampsia, high blood pressure, edema in my limbs, etc. But I couldn’t slow down my work production or take any time off without having it docked when I would need it most, during my maternity leave. In Connecticut, the law requires 6 weeks unpaid leave for a regular delivery and 8 weeks unpaid for a C -section. You can use your accrued vacation time to soften the blow of losing your income for 6 or 8 weeks, unless of course you had to use it beforehand because you were sick during pregnancy. It wasn’t until my healthcare provider mandated bed rest (after a night in the hospital being monitored) that my own, self-pay, short-term disability insurance kicked in. Thank goodness for that money.
This isn’t an issue that just impacts “low income” women. The Republicans in power put far greater value on the life of an embryo or a fetus than they do a newborn and its mother. Pop it out, plop it in daycare and get back to work.
Another also shares a personal perspective and then highlights a dilemma for the GOP:
I practice law in a very red state that is getting redder by the election cycle. My practice focuses on civil litigation of all types. I typically have full weeks and work a few hours each weekend, unless I’m in trial, in which case I’m usually pulling 15 to 16 hour workdays. My wife is an attorney as well, who has been a member of the State bar association for 12 years, and has had her own practice for 10. She handles criminal matters of all types in both state and federal courts. In her office, it is just her and a receptionist/legal assistant. We are expecting our second child in October. There will be no maternity leave for her.
She gets no break on her rent from her landlord. Her clients will still have court dates and trial dates. About 30% of our local bench is female, and about 50% of them recognize that they may have to continue hearings/trials for my wife. We have been INCREDIBLY fortunate in that her first pregnancy (though miserable) went smoothly with only a minor complication at delivery. We have been INCREDIBLY lucky so far in this pregnancy that she has gutted out the Braxton Hicks and early relentless vomiting, and hasn’t had anything more severe. The conundrum arises at delivery.
She is lucky that I am a member of the bar and can appear if necessary to continue matters or advocate for her clients at an uncomplicated hearing or sentencing. However, she will have clients get arrested, violated on probation and the like, and they will face penalties requiring her special skill set and relationship with the prosecutors. If I were not an attorney, there is no way she could have a child and keep her business afloat, because to get other attorneys (competitors) to “cover” her for a few weeks requires her to compensate them, making paying her own staff and bills impossible.
As more and more women are entrepreneurs and own their own business, the question arises: should government step in to provide assistance to female small business owners with children to give the equivalent of the maternity leave mandated by the FMLA and other acts? Should a bar association such as my states’s have something in place to help fund the attorney’s practice to allow maternity leave for solo practitioners?
It’s a fascinating conundrum for those who advocate for women’s rights, as well as for those who champion entrepreneurship. Many of those (i.e. GOP voices) who advocate for job creators and entrepreneurs and rugged individualism are also the same voices championing the need to support family values and the need to support moms bonding with their newborns. What do you do when the two are a mutually exclusive? I do not perceive this problem to be unique to my household or my profession, and I expect as more women become breadwinners and entrepreneurs and business owners, it is a problem that will grow.
As an aside, I was first row above the first base dugout for Mississippi State’s game Monday night versus Indiana. Those are some scruffy-looking fellas. But the beards seem to be working, as they are 2-0 in the College World Series and progressing towards a championship game.
The Dish 