Americans vote to keep New Dads in the Workplace

Written By Judayah Murray

According to a recent YouGov poll, while the vast majority of Americans agree that leave after the birth of a child should be covered financially, only about half think that fathers should be compensated.

67 percent of Americans say that companies ought to pay their female employees for the time taken off after the birth of their child, but only 55 percent think that men should.

Paternity Leave, as it seems, is not a popular phenomenon in America where patriarchy leads society and the average household. Men are seen as a primary source of financial stability. Eileen Salazar, a student studying Print and Online Journalism at Howard University says she doesn’t understand the purpose of a man staying home after the birth of his child.

“Maybe because this is just how I’ve been conditioned in society, but the dude is always supposed to provide for the family so like…work. Yeah, I [would understand] the father being gone for maybe two to three days but I don’t see why a man would have to have paid paternity leave. It’s weird to me. I’m not grasping the concept of the man just being home all day if the woman is there,” says Salazar.

Eileen is not alone in her mindset. According to an article from The Guardian, 70 percent of men believe there to be a stigma against taking off time from work for childcare. As a possible result, 40 percent of fathers are choosing not to take their paternity leave.

On the other hand, there are numerous American men who are grateful for the opportunity to spend time with their significant other and newborns while receiving compensation for their legal absence. Kyle Murdock, the Director of Media Learning at the Cathy Hughes School of Communications at Howard University, is one of them.

Murdock is the father of two girls, the youngest was born on September 14, 2016. He expressed his gratitude to the university for allowing him to take a paid week off of work to help his wife get acclimated to life at home with the children noting that his previous job as a contractor did not give him the same financial security.

In the United States, paid parental leave–whether it be maternal or paternal–is distributed a case by case basis, meaning each company has the right to decide whether or not they will choose to implement it for their employees.
In Murdock’s case, it was very necessary for him to receive paid leave. He explains that his wife works as a full-time mom. For her, there are no sick days to take and no time off. He feels as though it is the father’s duty to be there, emotionally and physically, for the mother of his child at such a vulnerable point.

“I get it, society always says, ‘The man is the breadwinner and the provider’. Even the TV shows portrayals where the black man is working, like, three jobs and coming home to the mom who is always the one taking care of the children. But after seeing both sides, after having done it myself, I realized that my job was to be her assistant, especially because my other daughter at the time was only about eighteen months–a toddler. That’s a handful! I needed to deal with her, especially while my wife was nursing,” Murdock says.

The best part about getting to spend time at home, in Murdock’s opinion, was the bonding time that he would not have been granted, otherwise, with his eldest daughter.

Steven White, of Ossining, New York, remembers receiving even less time than Murdock stated to bond with his children. He says he was only granted three days of paid leave when two of the sons he bore with his wife, Priscilla White, were born. Meanwhile, Priscilla recalls receiving six weeks to care for the babies on her own.

“Parents parent equally,” Steven says, shaking his head, “A father should be allowed to help out more than the American society says he ought to.”

President Barack Obama has been making strides to push companies to voluntarily offer paid leave for both men and women and as of January 2015, he reportedly asked Congress to pass legislation to require the paid leave.

Not every American agrees that men need to stay home for some time after women give birth. With only a 55 percent popular vote, Obama and state officials may find great difficulty in getting the legislature passed and enforced.