Women joined the work force in the United States roughly forty-six years ago. From that day on it has been a controversial topic. The reason it has been controversial is because of the assumption that women are nurturers. Many people saw women as creatures that were brought on this earth to keep a household running, nurture and nurse the children, and to be the left hand of their husband. In today’s day and age however, women are branching out of that stereotype that they fed into for so long. We, as women are beginning to become heads of households and are beginning to provide for our children not only emotionally but also financially. The question being raised now is: If mothers are now actively participating in the work force and having to return to work shortly after bringing a child into this world, how is the child in turn affected?
In contrast to many other countries, the United States does not guarantee a woman paid maternity leave. According to Wikipedia, countries like Mexico, the United Kingdom, Canada, and China all offer a range between 12 and 40 weeks of paid maternity leave. In the United States however, it is up to a woman’s employer to decide if they want to give a woman the privilege of bonding with her child and still making an income once he/she is born. Many women who are not offered this privilege are forced to return to work shortly after giving birth in order to continue providing for their family adequately.
Infants have some basic needs when they are brought into this world. According to Avery Aiken’s article in The Daily Toreador, one of these needs is having a primary caregiver whom they can form a bond with and attach to. She also states that at a young age infants do not understand object permanence. When a parent is gone for work, a child who is not cognitively developed is not capable of the complex thought that someone who is out of sight is not gone forever. Therefore, infants do not feel the security of having a primary caregiver. If while the parents are at work a babysitter is serving as the caregiver, a child will not know who to attach him or herself to. Aiken states that because of this, in the long run, a child suffers in terms of their social development. They cannot resolve conflicts as easily nor can they function under stressful environments as well as those infants who had positive attachment relationships. These children end up developing problems that stemmed from their initial attachment issues. This being said, other ways in which children may be affected as a consequence of the lack of parent attachment have not yet been studied. So in turn is it more worthwhile for the United States to mandate a paid maternity leave or is it more worthwhile to have to deal with children who will grow up with developmental issues? I personally believe that a paid maternity leave, for however long will be more beneficial to society as a whole than having none at all.