Posted on 30. May, 2003 by Brian Reid in General
I have better things to be doing, but I thought I’d throw up a couple links, starting with this one about a DC-area playgroup in a DC-area free paper for parents.
Secondly — and I am remiss for not doing this reading earlier in the week — here’s the Supreme Court Family and Medical Leave Act decision, which seemed to shock the heck out of court-watchers. It certainly surprised me, as someone who assumes that the Supreme Court ain’t going to put family leave above state’s rights. Leaving the legal mumbo-jumbo aside, there’s something heartening about William Rehnquist standing up for the idea of gender equality.
A selection: “Stereotypes about women’s domestic roles are reinforced by parallel stereotypes presuming a lack of domestic responsibilities for men. Because employers continued to regard the family as the woman’s domain, they often denied men similar accommodations or discouraged them from taking leave. These mutually reinforcing stereotypes created a self-fulfilling cycle of discrimination that forced women to continue to assume the role of primary family caregiver, and fostered employers’ stereotypical views about women’s commitment to work and their value as employees.”
Damn right.