Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Equal time: Breastfeeding Leave for Men

Men get to take "breast-feeding" leave, after baby is born.

Even if the mother of the baby is not employed, and is staying home.

No, really. In Spain.

Why is it that these arguments about equity seem to be most powerful when some bunch of whiny MEN think they have been denied something? I mean, it's true that if the man were staying home, and the woman were working, the woman would get an hour paid leave to go breastfeed. But, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, there is a difference in equipment we're talking about here. (And, vive la difference, by the way!)

And how long is it before Europe just closes completely? These people are batshit crazy.

(UPDATE: Could this be a way of subsidizing babies? Spain's birth native born birth rate is very low, 1.32 children per woman, only Greece is lower...That would be clever, right? ....Nah, can't be)

(Nod to the Ward Boss)

3 comments:

Barry said...

Sigh, the Europe bashing on this blog is getting very tired very quickly. Mostly I enjoy this blog, and I appreciate there is a humorous aspect, and there is a lot of snarking at stupid things in America as well, but three Europe bashing items in a short period of time is in danger of killing the joke.
Another way of looking at what is going on in Spain is that a left wing Socialist government is fighting organised labour to push through valuable economic reforms. E.g.
Spanish workers staged their first general strike since 2002 last month to protest labour market reforms which cut Spain's high cost of firing workers and gives companies more flexibility to reduce working hours and staff levels in economic downturns. Unions are also fighting steep spending cuts, including an average state employee salary reduction of five percent, and plans to gradually raise the retirement age to 67 from 65.
http://news.ph.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4392359
Something similar applies in France, yes it's deeply disappointing that so many French people are willing to strike against necessary reforms, but the story is also that even a grotty little opportunist and egomaniac like Sarkozy is pushing through reforms against entrenched opposition.

Anonymous said...

Same scheme exists in Quebec. Up to 32 weeks.

Anonymous said...

Mungo, you're too entertaining to be limited to the Internet. You should take over Scott Fitzgerald's old timeslot on WPTF. Medium market AM Radio > Interwebs