Whenever i think about being a full-time working mother (mind you all mothers are 'working' mothers), I feel really lucky that the company i work for supports working mothers regardless of their roles. I think a big reason is that we are a global company, and our side of the business (formally Factiva) was from the start a Dow Jones/ Reuters company with a large European staff. Now that we are NewsCorp, and even bigger global company, i feel there is still good support for working mothers that perhaps is better then other American companies based on my experience of having a kid 9 months ago. My colleagues around the world however do have better benefits and longer paid maternity leave then we do here in the states, but obviously that is because our government does not support mothers (and fathers) like other countries.Yesterday morning, on my Mamas Circle mailing list i received a note about Lucia Ronzulli. Ronzulli is an Italian politician representing her country at the European Commission, i don't know what her day to day politics are and for this post it doesn't matter. On September 22nd she attended a Commission meeting carrying her 1-month old baby in a wrap as you see in this picture. According to the note i got, she got applause by all her politician colleagues, and then requested better rights for working mothers in Europe.
This picture made my day, probably my week.
3 comments :
Love it! Hard to vote down legislation that helps women balance work and child care when there's a 7 lb baby and her protective mama watching you...
exactly!
Well it raises very interesting issues, particularly in politics. Here in Australia we recently had a federal election where both major parties ended up with 73 seats each and the usual wheeling and dealing associated with coalition politics ensued with each side requiring 76 for an overall majority. Suffice to say, that the 4 independents suddenly hold an extremely powerful position (totally disproportionate to their electoral support, but anyway I digress). The whole thing has been thrown into disarray, because one member has just had a baby and taken maternity leave, so the current government has lost its carefully orchestrated and tenuous 1-seat majority...
The US is woefully behind in its maternity/paternity legislation. My wife took a full year of maternity leave (much of it on FULL pay) for both of our 2 children. In addition I was also allowed to take many months of paternity leave, also on FULL pay, which is permitted (by my company) anytime up to a child's 2nd birthday (though i did find it bloody hard work!)
Post a Comment