Table of Contents
The following was submitted by eighth-grade students from the McCall Middle School for their civics project: Katie Baucom, Eva Ganz and Aishani Kumar.
Gender Discrimination - Paid Parental Leave
Parental Leave
Employees who have completed three months of full-time employment shall be granted parental leave of eight weeks upon the birth or adoption of a child under the age of 18 or the adoption of a child under the age of 23 if the child is cognitively or physically disabled. Accrued sick leave and/or vacation benefits may be used concurrently with parental leave at the discretion of the employee.
The employee is required to give at least two weeks’ written notice in advance of his/her expected departure date and state that he/she intends to return to her position. In many situations, parental leave runs concurrently with Family and Medical Leave.
Gender Discrimination
Gender discrimination is a form of prejudice and refers to the unfair or unjust treatment of an individual, based on their gender. It can be used in many forms such as unequal access to opportunities, unequal pay, or even harassment or discrimination based solely on gender. Gender discrimination can limit access to education, employment, healthcare, and other fundamental rights. This can create a severe imbalance between certain genders in our society. Gender discrimination can occur anywhere and everywhere, however, it is most common in workplaces.
So, what are some of the big issues of gender discrimination?
Though you may think that it isn’t happening in your area, many teachers and nurses struggle with gender discrimination.
Why is this?
The issue of gender discrimination in these areas of work is happening because traditionally, teaching and nursing was a woman’s job. That means that these jobs like teaching are underpaid and underappreciated.
While maintaining a conversation, a female teacher said that she only gets 8 weeks of maternity leave while her husband, working at a different company, gets 6 months. This is a huge issue as women need a lot of time off to recover and spend bonding time with their new kid. It is an issue specifically in Winchester, this is because a female teacher noted that in a different town, teachers get 10 days off before their water breaks and then 10 weeks of maternity leave.
Call to Action
Support us as we create a petition to give teachers equal and fair paid parental leave of up to 6 months!
