Tag: Work

The Best Present for Minnesota Mothers: Paid Family Leave

In April 2020, my daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Caring for my medically complex daughter was one of the hardest things I have ever done. 

I am thrilled that my home state of Minnesota just approved paid family and medical leave—joining 11 other states and the District of Columbia in offering this program. Signed into law on Thursday by Gov. Tim Walz (D), Minnesota’s new plan recognizes the incredible labor that family caregivers—the vast majority of whom are women—put into caring for their loved ones, often at financial, physical and emotional cost to themselves.

The next step is for Congress to pass federal paid leave and expand access to FMLA.

Aren’t We Workers, Too?

Our work as street vendors seems invisible—and up to 2 billion workers worldwide are not recognized as workers and do not have labor rights. We are the workers of the informal economy: the street and market vendors, the hawkers, the mobile traders and the domestic- and home-based workers, many of whom are women sustaining households by themselves.

Whether in the rain or scorching heat, we sell affordable products to workers bustling to and from their jobs in urban centers, because we cannot afford not to work.

#MeToo Victory: Biden Signs Law Limiting NDAs and Protecting the Right to Speak Out About Sexual Abuse

Since Alyssa Milano’s #MeToo tweet went viral five years ago, 16 states have passed laws blocking employers from requiring employees to sign agreements prohibiting them from speaking out about their experiences of sexual harassment and assault on the job.

Now, Congress has created a new national standard prohibiting this behavior: On Dec. 7, President Biden signed the Speak Out Act, limiting the enforceability of non-disclosure agreements and non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) for sexual harassment and sexual assault disputes.

Caring Work and Its Discontents

The basic problem in many fields today, including politics, is the discounting of so-called feminine skills we all count on—but generally fail to acknowledge by anything more than annual flowers and apples. Both nurses and teachers of any gender are paid as little money as possible, and command too few resources for taking care of their tasks. Because they care, this matters.