>>>Also worth pointing out that it can be the father who stays home.
>>>
>>>Tamar
>>Not OK if the woman has to stay home but OK if the man has to stay home.
>>Right.
>
>Don't know how you read that in. FWIW, I'm a believer that we should make it possible for every family to have a parent at home at least for the first couple of years. (I think you know that I chose what I do specifically because I could work from home and be here when my kids left in the morning and when they came home at night. I also recognize that I'm fortunate to have skills and interest in a career that lets me do that.)
>
>As I said elsewhere in the message that you're replying to, in my view, the big issue here is that the US doesn't have paid parental leave. Most western countries (and, in fact, most developed countries) do. Nice chart on that here:
http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/07/15/422957640/lots-of-other-countries-mandate-paid-leave-why-not-the-us. Looks like 15 to 20 weeks is the most common.
>
>Tamar
The problem with comparing different nations is a huge apples/oranges fallacy because of all sorts of factors (size, GDP, etc.)
For companies that can afford it, should they offer it? Of course. It's certainly a good way to offer a competitive advantage over other employers, and I'm sure would foster employee loyalty. But it's the same problem you have with minimum wage and other proposed mandates - there are some places that just cannot afford it. And candidly, what this administration has done to negatively impact small businesses over the last eight years just makes it that much tougher.
By the way, I had a bitter dispute with my employer at the time Katy was born. I had planned to take two weeks of vacation (which became even more critical because my wife had some post-birth complications and had to stay in bed most of the time). Well, I was harshly pressured by company executives (both a man and a woman) to do significant amounts of work while I was supposed to be away. I wonder if they would have done that if I had been female. So this gender thing can work both ways.
