Essay: Treatment of mothers in the workplace

According to Successes and Further Goals for Women in the Workforce by Rosa L Delauro,  “Right now, more than 6.4 million single mothers and nearly 4.3 million displaced homemakers in the United States struggle below or just barely above the poverty line.” Facts here show that mothers and their children are struggling to make ends meet. Studies also show that mothers are paid significantly less than what they should earn. Acts and laws have been passed in the past to protect women and people of color but it seems that parents have fallen to the side and go by unnoticed. If everyone was paid the proper amount for what they worked and not discriminated against just for being a parent, there would be a lot less homelessness and a lot more happy children. People like Investor Paul Tudor Jones and President Dwight Eisenhower, says Rosa DeLauro and Molly Hardwick from Human Rights and Creative Kids, have argued back and forth with Congress and the people of our nation for years about equal pay for equal work. While some may say that parents are distracted, mothers and fathers should not be treated any differently in the workplace because parents need time and money to support their families, and parents naturally have different strengths that are beneficial to their job. It has become increasingly easier for employers to discriminate or underpay their workers solely for being parents. New or stronger workplace discrimination laws such as ENDA, which stands for Employment Non-Discrimination Act, should be put in place outlining how an employer can treat employees.  If an employee has children, it doesn’t affect their work ethic but rather increases it, because parents have more motivation now that they have families to support.
2. CLAIMS
Maternity leave is on of the first things most people think of when they hear when someone mentions controversy in the workplace. While maternity leave is extremely important for the moms to get acquainted with and learn the habits of their babies, paternity leave is much more uncommon. Dads are just as important and they shouldn’t be held up at work, missing the most important steps (literally and figuratively) of their children’s lives. Paternity leave is an afterthought and many fathers are fighting for it. One of the many benefits of paternity leave is it will help push down gender barriers that dictate who stays at home and who should care for their babies. Lauren Serrano from To Get Out, Or Not To Get Out?: Gender Crisis in the Marine Corps informs that in order for men to take care for their children the same way mothers do, they need to take and increase paternity leave. Fathers who learn how to feed, hold, change a diaper, and treat a baby can be so beneficial to the child’s life. Learning how to do all these things after work or just on weekends won’t be enough, leaving the father confused and the baby uncomfortable. It can help out the mom because she knows that her baby will be equally happy if not more. When the mother is working, busy supporting her family she needs to have trust in her husband or partner. A website article written by the Economist called The Gender Gap says that a survey taken earlier in 2017  shows that only 13-37% of men slowed down their work pace after their partner gave birth which is shockingly small compared to a women’s 44-75%.  It could because men do not feel the need to slow down or they have no option too. Either way, showing men there is another option can be cery helpful. Many workplaces don’t even offer paternity leave and if laws are put it place requiring paternity leave to be offered, many fathers can rise to the occasion.
Speaking mothers working, evidence taken from Successes and Further Goals for Women in the Workforce say that “the parents of more than 28 million school-age children work outside the home, and a third of those children are poor or would be more if there mothers didn’t work.”  So many parents work and their families rely on them to support and protect them. Imagine if the parents of those said 28 million didn’t work. Those kids would be put in life or death situations possibly going to bed hungry every night. Shelter, clothes, and schooling would become an even bigger issue than it already is. Missing out on payments for rent or the mortgage would be regular, leading to an increase in the rate of homelessness of families. Money is one of the most important things needed in a working relationship. Having the confidence in being able to come home to a clean bed and fostering healthy relationships with a partner makes work easier.  The article 78 cents to a dollar says a couple needs money to “pay rent and pay for food,” pay bills and cover medical expenses especially in “a large household”. Close to “1.6 million couples rely on only the women’s pay”. Sadly some women still experience trouble finding jobs just because they have children, which is called today a “motherhood penalty”. A motherhood penalty doesn’t even make sense because if anything, mothers (and fathers) need the maximum amount of money they can get for their work because they have more than just themselves to pay for.  “A recent American study put the motherhood penalty-the average by which women’s future wages fall- at 4% per child, and 10% for the highest-earning, most skilled white women” says an website article called The Gender Gap by Economist. It may not seem like much but it surely adds up. Around 400,000 to 2 million dollars over a lifetime are lost do to gender inequality and a married person versus a not married person states Successes and Further Goals by Rosa DeLauro. A new mother should not be punished for creating a family and making a life for herself. While many people have planned and chosen to be parents, what they did not plan for was people at their place of work treating them differently than anyone else and their payroll suffering because of it.
When someone becomes a parent, their whole life changes. Most importantly they will gain new knowledge and new skills. They will learn how to be patient, and loving, tactful and kind. As someone who is interested in hiring, management definitely looks for these skills. Mothers and fathers look for these kinds of traits so that whatever the company, looks its best. Parents acquire these natural talents that push them to be the best worker or employee that they can be. For the mothers that work in the military it can be even harder. But, thanks to the select people working hard for mothers and fathers in places such as the USMC (United States Marine Corps) they are working on “policy changes that retain the talents of such capable women and make balancing these two roles more manageable” says Lauren Serrano who wrote To Get Out, Or Not To Get Out?: Gender Crisis in the Marine Corps. Acknowledging that these women work equally hard at their job and home life and trying to help the will improve them at work because they will feel more comfortable and not have to juggle all the responsibilities. Lauren Serrano who says that as someone in the Marine Corps she thinks that “recognizing that women bring different physical strengths to the Marine Corps allow us to better utilize all marines and their specific talents” Everyone does not always have the same strengths but realizing that and working with people’s weaknesses can greatly improve the Corps. Some companies such as BHP Billiton have “found that sites with more women are run more safely.”(from the Economist).  This could simply be a more natural, more deeply ingrained trait predominantly found in women. This is a benefit of having women in the workplace and men have different but equally as beneficial, traits too. We all know that males cannot get pregnant and cannot breastfeed. Accommodating for women who can though is important to including women.. With properly equipped rooms, mothers could get work done and still being contributing to their job. They might even get more done because of the time they can take out of their day to do something for themselves and touch a sort of “home-base.” Many places of work do not believe in a lactation room or a room for new mothers to peacefully pump. If laws were put in place then it would not be as such a stressful or daunting task to new moms.
3. COUNTERCLAIMS/ REBUTTALS
One of the two major arguments against stronger discrimination laws that will help out parents, is that even after all the laws to promote fairness, nothing will ever be fair. Since men and women are not biologically exact they will never be fair, always one less than or better than. While it may be true that we are all born unique we can still be treated equally for the same amount and quality of work. Lauren Serrano  mentions that, “Pretending and expecting that all women and men can perform the same physical tasks to the same effectiveness is ignoring reality.” Completing the same ask as effectively might be a little bit more difficult but a man is able to complete something of equal “hardness” just a different task. As mentioned before parents might have inherently different traits, they are still beneficial and contribute equally compared to someone single with no offspring. Another problem is the time it would take for a mom to pump, and how long maternity or paternity leave can be. The Gender Gap by the Economist claims that “When maternity leave is longer than a year, it reduces women’s overall participation in the workforce and widens the gender gap…long periods away from work can make skills rusty.” They are saying that when you might fix one problem, it worsens another. Maternity leave does not have to be a year though. If a mother or father feels they need a year or longer than to help not worry about losing skills they can always work from home to keep their skills sharp. But when a mother shows commitment to pumping and raising her baby right, employers view it as a sign of leadership potential (also from The Gender Gap.) Even when there seems to be a problem there is either a lot of good that comes out of it or a very simple way to fix it.
4. CONCLUSION
We as humans have a lot of progress to make in the race of becoming the happiest and healthiest environment for everyone. Of the many wars we face, we need to still keep fighting for parents and how they get treated at work. Moms are not getting the time they need to provide for their children and dads are barely getting to see their children at all. The military is one of the hardest places for a mom to be as some of her priorities get pushed to the side and work takes over. Mothers should not be penalized solely for wanting to foster a family and love who she wants to love. Strengthening the laws that surround parents and their children will create happier people and make going to work an all around safer place. It is important to remember the minorities and put oneself in their shoes to see how it would feel. Keep this in mind and the world will realize how we need to change it to make it better for everyone.