Cultural Studies Essay: Social Policies and Women's Roles in the US

This essay examines the influence of social policies, specifically parental leave, on the representation of women in government and other jobs within the United States. It highlights the importance of parental leave as a critical factor for women when considering employment, especially given the time needed for recovery after childbirth. The essay references data illustrating maternity leave status and changes in women's earnings post-childbirth, emphasizing that organizations with effective parental leave policies are more likely to retain female employees. It argues that paid parental leave benefits society by increasing women's representation in various roles, reducing inequality, and improving the economic conditions and health of both parents and children. The author suggests the US should amend its parental leave policy to include a six-month government-paid leave, benefiting employers through employee retention and improving the country's maternity leave index ranking.

Running head: CULTURAL STUDIES
Cultural Studies
NAME OF STUDENT:
NAME OF COLLEGE:
AUTHORS NOTE:
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Discussion
Social policies such as parental leave affects how many women serve in government and other
jobs in US as social policies such as parental leave is an important criteria which women take
into consideration while choosing a job role in the company. Parental leave is a very vital and
sensitive issue especially for women as they require considerable amount of time to recover after
giving birth to a child.
Fig 1: Maternity leave status of US
Source: Bloomberg (2018)
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Fig 2: Change in earning of women after child birth
Source: Vox (2018)
Various organizations around the world, both government and private have effective parental
leave policies in order to encourage women to return to their job positions in a successful manner
after taking leave due to the birth of their child. If any organization does not have parental leave
policy in place, then women feel reluctant to work in those organizations as there is no job
security for them after they give birth to their babies and therefore social policies such as
parental leave affects how many women serve in government and other jobs.
As opined by Sladek (2016) the main benefit of paid parental leave for the society is that it will
help in increasing the representation of women population in various government and private
jobs. The other benefit of paid parental leave for the society is that it helps in reducing the
inequality in the society as both men and women remains subjected to equal employment
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opportunities. The main benefit of paid parental leave for the population is that it helps in
improving the economic condition of the population as both men and women have equal job
opportunities and securities. As opined by Miller (2017) the other benefit of paid parental leave
for the health is that it helps in improving the physical and mental health of both the child and
the mother which is very crucial for the growth and development of the child. In my opinion,
The United States should make adequate changes to its current parental leave policy by
amending and make provision for six months of government stipend paid leave which would
eventually benefit the employers, as hiring a new employee costs many times greater than
retaining an employee. Also amendment in current parental leave policy will improve its position
in maternity leave index because as of 2018’s Bloomberg data US lags in parental leave policy
for women.
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References
Miller, S. (2017). Trump's paid-parental-leave plan plays catch-up to state and corporate
programs. HRNews, [Online] Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/2022190981?
accountid=30552 Accessed as on 16/01/2019
Sladek, C. (2016). Examining the evolution of paid parental leave. Benefits Quarterly, [Online]
32(3), 37-40. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1802710610?
accountid=30552Accessed as on 16/01/2019
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