this is my son Gabriel who I had while
living abroad in Germany not only does
Germany have great beer but great
maternity leave when I told my boss I
was newly pregnant he said
congratulations let’s talk about who
were going to apprentice in to your role
as it was expected I would be out for at
least a year
see I was entitled to one year
government stipend pay leave and up to
three years of job protected leave
during that year I was able to go on my
journey into motherhood and not worry
whether or not my job would be there
when I got back
I’d miss benefits or career
opportunities or be perceived as less
committed by my colleagues instead I
didn’t have to make that difficult
everyday choice between a newborn and a
job no guilt no fear just simple
acceptance that a mother should be with
a new baby now contrast that with the
birth of my second son here in the US
after we moved back to the US and we
were considering having another child I
quickly realized the conversation here
is framed more around career versus
family in addition it became evident
that there still exists many taboos in
the workplace for example when I’d ask
colleagues what do I need to do when
taking parental leave here in the u.s. I
was told to keep it hidden as long as
possible
now I lived in Germany for almost over
eight years at first I didn’t understand
what it was until I realized it was the
baby I was supposed to keep
the baby hidden as long as possible how
was I to do that some of the advice I
received was to tuck in my shirt wear
you may have heard the u.s. is the only
industrialized nation to not offer paid
leave when I hear that headline
I think of a map that looks like this
you know depicting industrialized versus
non industrialized countries causing me
to think surely there must be a bunch of
non industrialized countries that don’t
offer pay leave
however this headline does not paint an
accurate picture of reality the reality
is this this is how the rest of the
world thinks of paid maternity leave all
the countries in blue have a mandated
paid leave policy on the books all the
countries in black do not three Papua
New Guinea Suriname and the United
States now granted some of the countries
in blue do not afford the same level of
economic opportunity to women as in the
US but a 1996 report to the US Congress
on family medical leave policies found
that a hundred percent of the women who
didn’t take or who were eligible for the
unpaid leave and didn’t take it did so
because they could not afford to right
now in the United States the Family
Medical Leave Act or FMLA affords 12
weeks of job protected leave that means
your job is there for 12 weeks but you
do not get paid
and because FMLA excludes part-time
workers and employees who’ve been at
their companies for less than a year 40%
let me be absolutely clear it is
imperative the united states pass a paid
family leave law the data is undeniable
on the positive health and economic
outcomes a country experiences when
enacting paid parental leave research
has linked a laundry list of improved
outcomes with longer maternity leave
such as decreased maternal depression
rates increased child immunization rates
longer breastfeeding times a 2011 study
of a hundred and forty-one countries
found that with an increase of ten weeks
of paid maternity leave its associated
with a ten percent reduction in the
infant mortality rate elements of the
paid leave business case make into our
headlines on almost a daily basis and I
want to take a moment to thank the many
women and men who are currently fighting
for paid family leave in the u.s. today
their work is essential to the health
and prosperity of our country however
there is some information that doesn’t
make it into our headlines especially
how technology could help erase the
workplace taboos that I experienced
decrease the gender wage gap improve
equality in the work and home this
combination of policy plus technology is
something I like to call policy
effectiveness let’s go back to my
Germany example remember the generous
pay leave policy 14 months of government
stipend leave split between moms and
dads and up to three years of job
protection as generous as that may be
policy is not necessarily a panacea
because in Germany the generous policy
combined with lack of affordable quality
childcare actually encourages women to
to
acceptable alternatives to a
professional career so much so that by
the end of 2015 only 6% of managerial
jobs were held by women at the country’s
top 200 firms one of the lowest rates
across the entire EU now let’s turn the
lens back on the United States this
slide shows the number of states that
offer paid leave in the u.s. today
California New Jersey Rhode Island
soon-to-be New York and the District of
Columbia these states have leveraged
technology to support their policies but
with one major difference that we’re
seeing compared to these other countries
and that is they are supporting their
policies only on the form submission
process not on the decision-making
process so let me pause here for a
moment and relate this to some other
examples that we may be more familiar
with this is the equivalent of filing
your taxes online without the aid of a
software like TurboTax or applying for a
home mortgage loan without using an
online calculator to see if you can
afford it or withdrawing from your 401k
retirement count and not taking
advantage of the retirement planning
tools that are available what I’m trying
to say is that when we typically roll
out complex policies like tax and
retirement we usually combine them with
technology decision support tools
however when we typically talk paid
family leave policy which is equally as
complex as taxes and retirement we tend
to overlook the technology solutions let
me shed some light on the level of
comply
a working family must face when
navigating parental leave in the
workplace this slide shows the
categories of choices and decisions a
working family must consider when taking
leave the number of questions varies
from 30 to 60 depending on location and
type of leave and this is more than just
having a baby like we’ve been doing for
millennial this is real implications to
personal finances the company in the
workplace considerations for the baby
Korda nari coordinating healthcare
benefits numerous hours are spent at
work and at home researching all of
these individual choices essentially
recreating the wheel with every leave
this is why I founded leave logic
because we believe technology has a huge
role to play and making family leave
normal in the workplace these questions
aren’t just hard to answer like how much
time do I get off
how much is paid can I use a short term
disability policy how do I get a breast
pump reimbursed how do I get access to a
lactation room what are the benefits
available to me at my company what are
my rights they’re not just hard to
answer here but around the world and we
believe that because there hasn’t been a
technology solution an easy button to
push the unintentional message is loud
and clear to workers who are taking
leave you are not normal this is an
technology can also help erase the
workplace taboo for fathers as well
a recent study titled feminizing the
male leave requestor performed at
rutgers university found that men who
requested family leave were more likely
to be perceived as weak and uncertain
and less likely to be put forth for
promotion and pay raises in addition we
only see a little more than a third of
dads taking their full paid family leave
benefit a company such as yahoo and ey
this is why I’m standing here on the
stage today because I have never been
more excited about the opportunity to
shine technologies little light on this
very frequent occurrence in a woman
child and family’s life and in the very
near future make family leave just as
normal and certain as your taxes thank
you [Applause]