p How the Family Medical Leave list upOf 1993 Effects the Lives and C atomic number 18ers of WomenIntroductionIn 1993 , professorship report Clinton signed into fairness the Family and Medical Leave deed (FMLA . This rectitude provided treasureion for millions of occupyees forced to concentrate off the put to kick the bucketforce each course of study callable to medical and family problems . This law ensured employees of up to four calendar months of un pay egress to destiny with these problems . Covered in this law were issues much(prenominal) as pregnancy , illness of an immediate family constituent , and the credence of a kidskin . The FMLA does not cover certain categories of molders for object lesson throwers in companies that employ less than fifty passel . The employee moldiness to a fault confound worked for the familiarity for a just category , or 1 ,250 hours in to receive benefits . The FMLA as well(p) as guarantees that the employ will be given upon returning to work any the same trading , or one that is comparable in salary and benefits to the one they leftMany of the people covered under this law are women . agree to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (v2 ) 80 of running(a) women will give take at slightly cartridge clip in their parcel outer , and they will be mandatory to take advantage of FMLA for childbearing and recovery , or to care for nauseous and injured children . Women are also much seeming than men to give way the responsibility of caring for elderly parents or disabled married persons . As a moment of this the FMLA can name more of a positive or negative imp colde on women than on men since they ca-ca been traditionally seen as the caretakers in the family settingLiterature Reviewpage numbers not cited articles found on INFOTRACThere have been some(prenominal) studies and review articles in recent social classs looking at the impact of the FMLA on women in the work force . According to Reuter (2006 ) variation against obtains in the work force still exists despite legislature much(prenominal) as , the FMLA that is supposed to legally protect them from secernment . Reuter states that upon to returning to work after pregnancy , or family problems women have been denied wage increases , tenure , and seniority , and give distressing performance evaluations Employers in many cases still view female employees as liabilities cod to the fact that 80 of women will at some point in their career precede to have a childThe FMLA is not the first piece of legislation to share the issue of pregnancy and motherhood in the workforce . In 1978 congress enacted the Pregnancy variation Act ( organiser ) which banned discrimination against pregnant women in the work force . Reuter indicates that while the PDA recognized that there were problem it did little or goose egg to take awayer a solution for the problems that exist even immediately . She steps that no existing laws adequately protect women from beingness discriminated against due to parental status . Reuter states that current law is either being interpreted by narrow minded judges when unite with inadequate protections to begin with has left women little better off than they were before the FMLA was passed . Reuter hints as a solution something that she calls the Parental Discrimination Act which would make it illegal to discriminate against anyone as a get out of one s role as the primary angel dust in a family . This would also include granting compensable fall in if a mother (or father ) had to pass along work due to pregnancy , or illness in the family , and would seek to improve factors such as childcare , and conciliative work schedules for parentsSome authors have indicated that FMLA legislation moreover truly provides protection to women working in professional handle that have a secondary income (e .g . cooperator or lotner s income , investments , disability benefits etc ) and the uphold systems necessary in to be able to take the four months of unpaid convey provided under the FMLA . Selmi and Cahn (2006 ) state that most women do not in fact , work in professional fields and that a substantial number of women are employed in fields that offer low pay and few of the types of benefits that would allow a working mother to take advantage of FMLA if askSeveral solutions have been proposed to unthaw this issue , starting with better paying , more flexible area successions jobs . They also feel that the FMLA should include financial incentives for companies that offer benefits such as onsite daycare , flex time , the ability to telecommute and workdays that match a child s hours in indoctrinate . Finally , Selmi and Cahn propose that the FMLA be expanded to cover situations of interpersonal violence . Many women in the work force jazz violence from married persons or partners and their attendance , and performance on the job suffer for it . Selmi , and Cahn feel that expanding the FMLA to cover court appearances due to disassociate or witness in criminal proceedings against pique partners , requiring companies to enforce restraining s against the offending spouse and strictly enforcing silence policies would also greatly assist women in situations of domestic violenceIt has been tell that pregnancy leave laws (MLL ) such as the FMLA can only tack together the lives of working women if the leave time provided by their company is less than that provided by FMLA , and then only if the womanhood flora for an eligible company . Baum (2001 ) feels that MLL can have positive personal effects on mothers returning to work after accouchement . Factors such as the health of mother and child , and a woman s likelihood of returning to the same job after childbirth are solely dependent on MLL and how their company prefers to hold them Finally , companies that do not properly enforce MLL are likely to suffer economically as a result of employee absence seizures and loss of the money they spent training the employee than are companies who close follow MLL such as FMLAThe United States is a latecomer when it comes to fling protections to pregnant women , and working mothers . The FMLA is also portrayed by Winegarden and Bracy (1995 ) as sort of inadequate since in many countries motherliness and family leave is paid , and women are given more time and flexibility to spend with dependent children . They hypothesized that in countries where the laws provided adequate paid gestation period and family leave was offered that infant mortality rates would resolve , women would be more likely to return to work after childbirth , and that birth rates would rise . They looked at companies from 17 modify countries with a substantial number of female employees . They found that although infant mortality rates could not be predicted based on maternity leave and family leave policies , women returning to the workforce and change magnitude birth rates were significantly predictable based on company and national maternity and family leave policies . The United States rated rather poorly in this study . According to Winegarden and Bracy the primary yard for this is that women who live in countries where paid maternity and family leave is paid at least partly women are more likely to return to work , and more likely to have children . They recommended that changes be made to the FMLA allowing that at least half of the four month period be paidThe inadequacy of the FMLA to recognize the pauperizations of women are made more apparent by the fact that many employees were al interprety covered under company based maternity policies when the FMLA was enacted in 1993 . Many of these polices were developed in response to title of respect VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act , and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 . As such the authors feel that FMLA is somewhat redundant . They hypothesized that companies would be more likely to implement maternity leave policies as a result of FMLA and other family and maternity leave laws than they would otherwise . Kelly and Dobbins (1999 ) also hypostasized that companies would also develop more extensive maternity leave policies as a result of negative condense , and lawsuits based on the legislations . The authors looked at 279 employers and found that while red-hot legislation did not effect the development of new maternity leave policies , factors such as press coverage and lawsuits did make companies more likely to develop new leave programs , or expand their existing programs . The authors state that FMLA has appeared to have little effect either positive or negative on how working mothers are perceived in the work placeAccording to Mencimer (2001 ) the FMLA was a unfavourable ruling in regards to women s rights . Conservative members of Congress kept the FMLA on the table for more than three years before President Clinton finally signed it into law in 1993 . The attitude of the more conservative members of Congress seemed to fit the stereotype that women belong in the photographic plate with the kids . According to Mencimer this did zero point to take into billhook non-traditional families , or to storm the stereotypes of working mothers . She feels that at best the FMLA pays lip run towards women s role in the family , and that many women do not fall into one of the accepted categories of the FMLA due to Part time work , or the company not employing more than 50 people . She also feels that many women cannot afford to take the motiveed centre of time off if it is unpaid . As a result Mencimer feels that this has caused the birth rate amongst working women to declineWhen women do not have the financial wherewithal , or the die hard system from work , and the association to have children , they don t . Mencimer (2001 ) states that between institutionalized discrimination against those who choose to parent , and the fact that existing legislation does little to combat this discrimination women are simply choosing not to have children . Mencimer proposes several(prenominal) solutions including : paid maternity leave , Part time jobs with undecomposed time benefits , and social security benefits for stay at home mothers that is not dependent on the existence of a spouse . Finally , Mencimer feels that either the work day needs to be re-structured to accommodate the children s school day , or that it needs to re-structured to meet the work schedule of parentsWomen have been traditionally looked to when it comes to the care of dependents be they children , or elderly parents . Feder-Kittay (1995 feels that policies based on neutral sexuality comparability have missed on many fronts . Primarily they fail to address the role that women play in caring for children and sick or injured family members .
The FMLA remedies this somewhat but fails to take into account financial considerations since many women are single parents , or their income is needed to help support the family . According to the author FMLA does recognize the need for dependent care but fails to provide adequate support systems for women who need to leave the work force temporarily to deal with the needs of children , or other family membersConclusionAccording to the literature that I ve read for this the FMLA has had both positive and negative effects for women . The positive effects include guaranteed leave in the case of a family taking into custody , or giving birth , as well as the continuation of one s health care coverage heretofore these effects only seem to apply to professional women with full time jobs and benefits . These women often have the safety net of either investments , retirement plans that allow then to access funds for emergencies , or a the income of a spouse or partner to curse upon Working women simply cannot afford to money they lose by taking advantage of four months of FMLA guaranteed leave from work . In countries that promote paid maternal leave policies women are sh let to be more likely to return to work upon having a child , and they are more likely to have children at allThe FMLA has also done very little to combat institutionalized discrimination against women . Women who take leave from work to care for families , or have a baby are still seen and high danger employees . They are still denied promotions , wage increases and seniority at work due to taking leaves of absence or missing work because of childcare issues Many women still receive poor work evaluations after taking an extended leave of absence as well . Women still seem that have difficulty decision jobs that allow them the flexibility that they need to care for their families , and men who act as the primary caregivers in the family are few and far betweenThere have been several solutions proposed to change the FMLA . The authors that I read intimately all agreed that having at least some part of the four month leave guaranteed by FMLA changed to a paid leave would be greatly beneficial to working mother s n the workforce . Proposals have also been made that the incentives should be given to companies who implement policies friendly to working mothers such as onsite daycares flex-time , and the ability to telecommute to work . Changes to the school day have also been suggested in to accommodate the schedule of the parents . Finally , several authors suggested that part time employees should be offered the same benefits as their full time counterpartsI feel that in to guarantee the rights of women in the workforce we essential first work to change the attitude still held by many employers that working mothers are a liability . develop s hours simply are not enough . Women need to feel confident that they will be able to take leave to care for their families , or themselves without having to worry about where the rent is divergence to come from . They need to feel confident that their children are being well cared for in facilities where the employees are well trained and well paid . They also need to feel secure that their benefits to a higher place and beyond health care will not sack in the case of taking a leave of absence . The FMLA as it is currently written does little or nothing to offer women a safety net if they must take leave of absence from work due to either their own illness or disability or that of a family member , and Welfare Reform has virtually guaranteed the utter absence of a safety net for many women . Finally , I would propose that the FMLA be changed to include paid rather than unpaid leave . I also feel that if this does not happen that a woman should be allowed to collect Welfare and Food Stamps to support her children during this four month period if she has no other means of support such as investments , or a spouse . This temporary welfare should not count against the two year limits that exist in many states , and the woman should only need to show proof of her leave of absence from workWorks CitedHillstrom , K , and Hillstrom , L , eds . The Encyclopedia of Small Business : Detroit Press 2001 , v1-2Reuter , Allison , knowing yet pervasive discrimination against mothers and pregnant women in the body of work : Fordham Urban Law Journal , v 33 , n5 (Nov , 2006 , p1309Selmi , Michael , and Cahn , Naomi : Women in the workplace : Which women which agenda ? Duke Journal of Gender Law and polity , v13 (Spring 2006 p7-24Baum , Charles , and L : The effects of maternity leave legislation on mothers labor supply after childbirth : Southern scotch Journal , v69 n4 (April 2003 , p772-800Winegarden , C .L , and Bracy ,: Demographic consequences of maternal leave programs in industrial countries : Evidence from fixed effect models : Southern stinting Journal , v6 , n4 (April 1995 , p1020-1036Kelly , Erin , and Dobbin . Frank : Civil Rights law at work : Sex discrimination and the rise of maternity leave policies : American Journal of Sociology , v105 , n2 (Sept , 1999 )455Mencimer , Stephanie : The Baby Boycott (decline in birth rates attributed to Family Medical Leave Act : Washington periodical , v33 , n5 (June 2001 , p14Feder-Kittay , Eva : Taking dependency seriously : The Family Medical Leave Act considered in the light of dependency work , and gender equality (Feminist ethics and social policy : Part 1 : Hypatia , v10 , n1 (Winter , 1995 )99 , p8-30PAGEPAGE 10 ...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website:
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