And on that count, American culture is decidedly anti-life. A recent comparison produced by the Pew Research Center shows that, out of 38 countries ranging from Estonia to Sweden to South Korea, the United States lags last in government-supported parental leave, with zero weeks of paid parental leave supported by the state and only 12 “protected.” Twenty-five of the 38 countries listed also offer paternity leave specifically, with Norway, Ireland, Sweden and Germany all offering eight weeks of supported leave or more for new dads. Here again, the United States comes in last. And yet, there still isn’t a very loud lobby for supported paternity leave in the United States. This is likely partially due to the half of our political contingent that hates state-supported anything, but also likely related to the “barriers” one United Kingdom study found when investigating the reasons men who have paid paternity leave available to them don’t take it: namely, cultures that don’t recognize the profound significance of family. If everyone at work views fatherhood as trivial and emasculating compared to the station of work, then naturally fathers will demur from taking time off to spend with new moms and babies. This is anti-life culture at work. Human beings, being by our nature profoundly social, need one another to grow and thrive. This is especially true of new infants, who depend entirely on others for the necessities of life.-Salon
Posted on: Fri, 11 Apr 2014 22:02:23 +0000
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