The essay discusses the need for maternity leaves for working women and men. It also highlights the need for equality among men and women. The report also discusses whether businesses have ethical obligations to support the needs of families.
A few businesses have ethical obligations that support the needs of families. They consider the needs of their employees and their respective families. Family and work are life together and they are not separate issues. The best companies allow flexible and effective workplaces, which make employees more engaged with their work. Flexible practices increase adaptability. In Norway the men have automatic three-month paternity leave. This is for only a few companies but not for the working mothers in the U.S (Slaughter, 2017). The working mothers are not allowed to use their vacation days mostly after giving birth to a baby. Eighty eight percent of working does not get paid leave after giving birth. The unpaid leave is also not easy to avail for. There are countries that do not offer national paid leave to new mothers. Among the first eight United States is one of the examples.
Men and women do not require the same amount of leave for the birth of a child. After the birth of the child, the mother goes through a number of stages. The source of food is attached to the body of the mother hence the mother needs to spend more time with the child. The mothers get emotional, suffer from anxiety, some get depressed, they experience tears on their bodies while giving birth (Shortall, 2017). Childbirth is an enormous psychological event for women (Fortune.com, 2017). There are many post-partum mood disorders. The mother to be is not prepared as to how the experience will be with the child to be born (Baker & Milligan, 2015). The health of the baby is a priority for the mother and the baby needs to be with the mother from six months to one year with the mother.
The utilitarianism theory is used to support the respective ideas and perspectives. Utilitarianism refers to the step one takes to increase utility. Utility means the well-being of the sentiments of an individual. Here, the well-being of the parents especially the mother is necessary. Utilitarianism takes into consideration all the interests equally. Thus, the interests of the working mothers after giving birth to a child are to be taken care of. The companies should be aware of the problems faced by the working mothers during and after the birth of a child (Sheng, 2012). The parents should be given leaves for the needs of their families and be caretakers for the betterment of employees not only at home but also at work. The importance of happiness of the working mothers is important so that they can be efficient at work in the office.
Thereby, this essay concludes by stating the need for leaves for a mother after birth of a child. The equality of men and women has also been highlighted along with ethical obligations followed by businesses to support the needs of families of their employees.
References
Baker, M., & Milligan, K. (2015). Maternity leave and children’s cognitive and behavioral development. Journal of Population Economics, 28(2), 373-391.
Sheng, C. L. (2012). A new approach to utilitarianism: A unified utilitarian theory and its application to distributive justice (Vol. 5). Springer Science & Business Media.
Shortall, J. (2017). The US needs paid family leave -- for the sake of its future. Ted.com. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from https://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_shortall_how_america_fails_new_parents_and_their_babies
Slaughter, A. (2017). Can we all "have it all"?. Ted.com. Retrieved 22 July 2017, from https://www.ted.com/talks/anne_marie_slaughter_can_we_all_have_it_all?language=en
Fortune.com. (2017). Yahoo's CEO missed her chance to rethink parental leave. Fortune.com. Retrieved 28 July 2017, from https://fortune.com/2015/09/11/yahoo-marissa-mayer-parental-leave/
