Journal Entry-Social Policies Such as Parental Leave and Their Effect on How Many Women Serve in Government and Other Jobs

Journal Entry-Social Policies Such as Parental Leave and Their Effect on How Many Women Serve in Government and Other Jobs

Description

Social policies like parental leave truly affect the number of women serving in governments and other occupations. This happens because women are viewed at a negating standard compared to men. Notably, the US society expects and considers women to stay at home to care for children and accomplish their roles as parents as opposed to men, whom they believe must work to provide for the family. According to statistics, in the US in 2015, females only occupied 20 percent of the congress positions (Rutgers, 2017). The percentage is much lower than that of Sweden, where in 2014, women held 43.6% of the Swedish Parliament positions (Sweden, 2021). According to these statistics, the Swedish women percentage is nearly equal to the seats men occupy in the Swedish assembly. This happens because Sweden, as opposed to the US, possesses strong social policies and robust promoters of gender equality.

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Therefore, issues such as parental leave impact the number of women in government and other occupations because most times, employers (particularly in government) reject women’s employment opportunities due to their feminine roles and all that it takes to be a female. For instance, most employers’ primary concerns with employing women involve dealing with their absenteeism in the future because of parental leave and pregnancy. On the contrary, society lacks such expectations and roles for men. As a result, there are more men in Congress than women.

Interpretation and Reflection

Paid parental leave has numerous benefits to society. Most importantly, it assists parents with the costs of caring for a newborn, contributing to their maternal health and healthy development, and boosting healthy development and families (Popovich, 2014). Paid medical leave also allows parents to care for themselves and other children when they need medical attention by helping to reduce financial constraints during such moments. Paid leaves also advantage employers by enhancing productivity, worker retention, and improving labor force participation. Only nine states have mandated some degree of paid parental leave in the US, and the federal laws only guarantee new parents just six weeks of unpaid time leave which not all employees qualify for (Popovich, 2014). This implies that the United States, despite being among the world’s wealthiest and most developed countries, still lacks stable paid leave programs. Therefore, the US should make adjustments by developing permanent parental leave in all states and ensuring everybody qualifies without considering the impacts.

References

Popovich, N. (2014, December 3). The US is still the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity leave. The Guardian. Retrieved from. https://www.theguardian.com/us­news/2014/dec/03/­sp­america­only­developed­country­paid­maternity­leave.

Rutgers. (2017). Women in US Congress 2015. Retrieved from http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women­us­congress­2015

Sweden. (2017). Gender equality in Sweden. Retrieved from https://sweden.se/society/gender­equality­in­sweden/

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You have been asked by your company to talk to a group of political leaders here in the United States. As you scan the crowd, you see only a few women in the audience. One week later, you give the same talk in Sweden and find there are a lot more women in the crowd. You ask yourself why.

Journal Entry-Social Policies Such as Parental Leave and Their Effect on How Many Women Serve in Government and Other Jobs

Review the following statistics for women in government:

In the United States in 2015, women held 20% of the seats in Congress (Rutgers, n.d.).
In 2014, women held 43.6% of the seats in the Swedish Parliament (Sweden, 2021).

Parental leave was a hot topic in the United States during the recent election. Parental leave policies may affect the representation of women in politics. Review the following statistics on parental leave (Popovich, 2014):
The United States currently offers 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave to working mothers.
Sweden offers 60 weeks of paid leave, which can be split between both mothers and fathers.
The following chart provides a visual comparison of paid maternal leave as of 2015 of several countries including the United States and Sweden (Popovich, 2014):

Comparison of Parental Leave Chart
Journal Entry

Write a journal entry which is 1-2 double-spaced pages in length that addresses the following questions. You are not required to include a cover page, but if you refer to information from other sources, be sure you provide in-text citations in accordance with APA requirements. Make sure you refer to the rubric to ensure you address all the requirements for the paper.

Description: Do social policies such as parental leave affect how many women serve in government and other jobs? How?
Interpretation and reflection: What are the benefits of paid parental leave for society, for the population, and for health? What types of changes, if any, do you think the United States should make to its current parental leave policy?
Assignment Criteria Proficient Descriptor Points
Content Description Journal Description:
• Provides personal response to the issues raised in the scenario
• Demonstrates critical thinking in connecting the given scenario to key course concepts from readings and other academic resources.
• Makes relevant inferences through contextual explanations and examples. /20 pts.
Interpretation/Reflection Journal reflection:
• Demonstrates insight and awareness of the relevance of the questions and their cultural implications to the world and society
• Examines personal assumptions and explores alternative perspectives.
• Includes what was learned from engaging with the questions and how it will inform personal behavior in the future, demonstrating growth and awareness. /20 pts.
Writing Quality Journal response is well-articulated, including in-text citations and references in accurate APA Style as needed, and is free from grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling errors. /10 pts.
Total /50 pts.