Actress and new mom Anne Hathaway was hard at work on Wednesday, as employers nationwide got a taste of what it would be like to go “a day without women.”
Hathaway attended the United Nations International Women’s Day special event, where she spoke about the reality of how current unpaid parental leave policies in America and across the globe make starting a family feel like more of an economic punishment instead of a joyous time.
According to the Department of Labor, the Family and Medical Leave Act entitles parents to 12 weeks of time off work during the first year of a child’s life or the first year after a child is adopted. After that 12 weeks, the law entitles new parents to go back to work with either their same position or one of equal seniority.
Any employee who works for a company with more than 50 employee and has been employed for more than one year is entitled to this time off. While companies can elect to pay employees during this time, federal law only entitles them to unpaid time off.
That’s the part Hathaway said makes it nearly impossible for many families to take the time to which they are entitled by law.
“If the practical reality of being pregnant is another mouth to feed in your home, and America is a country where most people are living paycheck-to-paycheck, how does 12 weeks unpaid leave economically work?” she asked before answering her own question. “It doesn’t.”
In her speech, Hathaway laid out the harsh reality of what that means in many American homes: One in four new moms are back at work only two weeks after giving birth because they can’t afford to stay at home longer. At this point in her own journey as a mother, Hathaway said, she could barely walk and still depended on her husband for help.
Other mothers, she said, rush back to work because the “motherhood penalty” could mean getting passed over for promotions and raises in the future.
Additionally, she said, the current policies leave fathers out as caregivers, when studies have shown that dads want to spend more time with their children.
The Department of Labor, however, makes it clear that fathers are equally entitled to the time off when a new baby arrives. Although Hathaway says the current law excludes same-sex couples, that was changed in 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples deserved the same rights during family building.
Despite that, Hathaway suggests that men disproportionately decide against taking unpaid parental leave because of long-held beliefs that women are the only caretakers in the home.
“The deeper into the issue of paid parental leave I go, the clearer I see the connection between persisting barriers to women’s full equality and empowerment and the need to redefine and in some cases de-stigmatize men’s roles as caregivers,” Hathaway said. “In other words, in order to liberate women, we need to liberate men.”
Hathaway said these social shifts are necessary to take on the policy changes that will ensure a system that provides up to 18 weeks of paid leave for moms and dads and works for families and their employers.
Hathaway said this way forward means positive change for men and women, citing instances of improved employee retention, reduced training cost, boosted productivity and morale among all employees in companies that have wider-reaching parental leave policies for men and women.
“Far from not being able to afford to have paid parental leave, it seems we can’t afford not to,” she said.
Watch the full video of her moving speech above.
