Where in the world are working women equal to men? According to an international report released by the World Bank earlier this month, the nations that make this esteemed list are Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Canada. These nations had a perfect “100” score according to the World Bank’s Women, Business and […]

It’s been a big month for reducing the stigma of pregnant women at work: First, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, 37, became the first world leader in three decades to give birth while in office (and only the second world leader overall ever!). Second, in a move aptly billed as “an ace […]

As part of the national trend to pass state and local laws guaranteeing private-sector workers paid leave for family and caregiving responsibilities, Washington D.C. is poised to join California, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington state in offering this benefit. And I’m not alone in saying: it’s about time. A study conducted by […]

Under the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), eligible employees are entitled to take up to 12 weeks of protected leave every year to attend to certain medical and family matters and up to 26 weeks to care for a family member injured during military service. Although the FMLA undoubtedly has made it easier for many […]

Beginning January 1, 2018, New York’s Paid Family Leave Program will provide employees in New York State with a range of new benefits. Here’s what you need to know: Under the Program, employees will receive paid leave and continuation of health insurance coverage (subject to the employee contribution) for 8 weeks beginning in 2018, increasing […]

In a 2007 study, Cornell sociologists Correll, Benard, and Paik examined the motherhood penalty, a phrase sociologists use to describe the systemic disadvantages that working mothers often encounter in hiring, pay, promotion, and other aspects of their employment. In the United States, mothers suffer a per-child wage penalty of approximately 5%, controlling for similar qualifications […]

The metaphor of ships passing in the night originated (at least according to Google) from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in a compilation called Tales of Wayside Inn. There, Longfellow laments the disconnectedness of the human condition in lines that seem equally applicable to modern life: Ships that pass in the night, and speak […]

The District of Columbia is on the brink of becoming the most generous place in the country to become new parents.  If the Universal Paid Leave Act of 2015 becomes law, DC workers will be entitled to 16 weeks of paid leave for the birth of a child or other qualifying family or medical event. […]

Last Mother’s Day, John Oliver noted the inconsistency between companies that market to customers based on the holiday but fail to offer their employees paid maternity leave. While continued efforts are needed to require companies to offer paid maternity leave, more attention needs to be paid to the leave policies of American cities. Many city […]

July 2015 marked a new era in Maternity Leave Policies for women in the Navy.  Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced that, effective immediately, women who serve in the Navy and Marine Corps will have eighteen weeks of maternity leave available to use during the first year of their child’s life.  The purpose of […]

Many readers may have seen the popular story being shared on the internet, with the caption, “This Is What It Looks Like When Men Are Allowed To Take 480 Days Of Paternity Leave” (although that article could just have easily been captioned, “This is What It Looks Like When Humans Are Allowed to Take 480 […]

In his November 13, 2014 post “On Parenting and Careers,” my colleague, Matt Schmid, wrote about his recent decision to take three weeks of paternity leave.  Matt noted that even though we work at a firm that frequently represents women who have been discriminated and retaliated against on the basis of their care-giving responsibilities, he […]

Working mothers are rejoicing in light of a new study which shows that over the course of a career they are more productive than their childless (female) peers. After crunching the numbers on the career trajectories of academic economists, researchers working for the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis concluded that mothers outperformed women without […]

I took three weeks of paid paternity leave to be home with my wife and my second son when he was born 17 months ago.  The law firm I work for offered me more paid time off, but I did not take it because I thought doing so would make my attempt to balance family […]

Most people would probably agree that an employee who requests “light duty” while eight-months pregnant should be entitled to that slight accommodation.  “Light duty” generally refers to work that is physically less demanding than the employee’s normal job duties; for example, “light duty” could mean not pushing or lifting over 20 pounds during a certain […]