Yale Daily News

The authors of this piece did a good job with the policy bit -- it's shocking that Yale lacks paid pregnancy disability leave and paid parental leave. I'm not surprised that we lag way behind the rest of the Ivies there. Get with it, Yale! No serious large employer in the 21st century should offer ZERO days paid parental leave.

I'm less impressed with these reporters' choice to focus exclusively on mothers. What about Yale employees who are fathers? This is not the 1950s. Dads (who want to be full/equal parents) need time off to care for newborn and adopted babies too. Would it have killed you to find _one_ Yale dad to interview for the story?

I thought this was an interesting article, but seriously there are both mothers and fathers who want to take care of their newborns. Yale moms and dads have to balance their careers and their families.

It just goes to show that people still think that only mothers are responsible for caring for their children. This is why people guilt mothers for having a career but think it's perfectly acceptable if a father spends all his time at work.

well said, @2.

how could this article not examine the issue of paternity leave?

Nice piece, but what about the Dads?

I didn't expect that when I clicked on "comments" ALL FIVE of the first comments would be saying what I wanted to say. I'm glad other people care about this issue too.

So I'll just try to say it very slow & clear for you reporters: stop it with the sexist stereotypes. Men are parents too. We need benefits too if we're going to actually parent our young kids.

Also, just to add one more related point: this article was written as though you people had never heard of pregnancy disability leave before, and how that's different from parental leave. Well, here's how. Pregnancy disability is a temporary, physical disability that keeps you from being able to work. Parental leave is for all parents to care for a newborn. It's not just for biological mothers, but for fathers, adoptive mothers, and anybody else who has to care for a new baby. It's for parents. So don't act like this is some weird distinction Yale made up, and don't try to call policies "maternity" leave that are really parental leave. (If you're ever reporting that a school's policy really does offer different "maternity" and "paternity" flavors of _parental_ leave, then that's pretty serious discrimination that your readers should know about!)

Do reporters actually read these comments?

Agreed with all: of course, the article should have addressed paternity leave policies and rights.

But it's still a huge problem that even pregnancy disability leave is unpaid. If THAT is unpaid (assuming that the medical stress on women's bodies after childbirth or Cesarean section is different from either parent's need for paternal leave) when can we expect Yale to become progressive enough to provide paid paternity leave?

I love that the article has brought this to light, but I wish they had also mentioned that at Yale we don't have ANY short term disability insurance at all.

If you get injured in an accident driving in to work one day and need to take a few weeks off, you'd better have sick or vacation time saved up, otherwise you're out of luck with getting paid.

I think it's horrible that there is no short term disability insurance in place for all employees - which would also cover a standard 6 week leave for maternity.

Great article! Heads up to those who are interested--the Women's Center is hosting a talk on this topic this Wednesday at 9. There will be free food and great discussion, so come if you can!