AAUW believes that creating work environments that help employees balance the responsibilities of work and family is good public policy. In fact, AAUW’s member-adopted Public Policy Program is committed to "greater availability of and access to benefits and policies that create a family-friendly workplace environment,” which are critical for women to achieve "equitable access and advancement in employment."[i]

Despite the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and a patchwork of state laws and employer-based benefits – many of which AAUW members helped to pass – family and personal sick leave remain elusive to many working Americans. Further, despite the relative wealth of the United States, our family-oriented workplace policies lag dramatically and embarrassingly behind those in much of the rest of the world, including all high-income countries and many middle- and low-income countries as well.[ii]

While American workplace policies have lagged, the past fifty years has seen substantial changes in the composition of the American workforce. Two-thirds (64 percent) of women with children under six are in the labor force.[iii] Nationwide, 22.9 million families provide care for an adult family member or friend, and nearly 80 percent of those care recipients are over the age of 50.[iv]

AAUW will work to advance policies that will improve workplaces for employees with family responsibilities of all kinds. Such protections and improvements are critical to women's equal opportunity and economic security.

For more information, call 202/785-7793 or e-mail VoterEd@aauw.org.

AAUW Public Policy and Government Relations

[i] American Association of University Women. (July 2007). 2007 – 09 AAUW Public Policy Program. Retrieved April 8, 2009, from http://www.aauw.org/advocacy/issue_advocacy/upload/2007-09-PPP-brochure.pdf

[ii] Hegewisch, Ariane and Janet Gornick. (May 2008). Statutory Routes to Workplace Flexibility in Cross-National Perspective. Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Retrieved April 8, 2009 from http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/B258workplaceflex.pdf.

[iii] Lowell, Vicky. Institute for Women’s Policy Research. (May 2004). No Time to be Sick: Why Everyone Suffers When Workers Don't Have Paid Sick Leave. Retrieved April 8, 2009, from http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/B242.pdf.

[iv] National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. (April 2004). Executive Summary. Caregiving in the U.S.: Findings From the National Caregiver Survey. Retrieved April 8, 2009, from http://www.caregiving.org/data/04execsumm.pdf.