When I was born, my 23-year-old mother took four weeks of short-term disability leave

from the small town newspaper where she worked in order to spend time recovering from

childbirth and to care for me.

She had to go back to work when I was so small I couldn't support my own head with my underdeveloped

baby neck muscles.

If my mother had wanted to spend more time taking care of her infant instead of crying

postpartum tears at her desk, her only other option was to quit the workforce.

It's what a lot of women did.

In the intervening years, we've had seven presidents, 11 fast and furious movies, and

two whole waves of feminism, but we as a country still haven't made much progress on paid

family leave.

Just ask anybody who recently had a baby, like Jasmine Graham of Washington, D.C.

Jasmine didn't get paid leave when her son was born at the very end of 2019, because the

restaurant where she worked as a server didn't provide it.

When I was like, so do you guys offer any paid leave or any programs that I could be in

so that I can still be able to support myself while I can't work?

And they said unfortunately they only offered to employees that had been with the company

for more than two or three years.

And I had only been with the company for about a year, which was absurd, but it is what

it is.

Jasmine faced the predicament that parents and caretakers across the US have faced for

generations.

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