Times generation gap article

Parental leave shouldn't be shared, imo.

Both parents should have a right to have time off with their children (possibly fathers a little less than mothers) That way women wouldn't be discounted from jobs due to having kids as the men also would have parental duties.

Nothing to see here, look, Snopes has debunked the case where a woman claimed she was discriminated against for breastfeeding. According to them, "men can breastfeed too" wasn't the key factor in her losing her case, only a small contribution to it.

And there's no proven link between breastfeeding and being female. It's in Snopes, it must be right, right?

www.snopes.com/news/2015/02/06/milkman/

Why on earth would inclusive pronouns result in Cadi being made redundant?

You’re missing the point. Discrimination against mothers happens anyway, “inclusive” language or not. The “inclusive” language stops women organising about and even talking about maternity discrimination and other instances of systemic sexism that are directed at women because we’re female.

Ffs that’s so exhausting to type, because so damn obvious. That’s one of the ways it works. Make people keep stating the obvious over and over so they can’t get anything done. Start union meetings with a pronoun circle, derail feminist discussions with demands to call women “birthing people”, make people so fed up they stop organising anywhere you might show up - so, anywhere public. The assault on basic simple language is a way of exhausting people into compliance.

I know there are trends within generations but I do hate it when people act like all under 40s afree with Cadi and co. I'm 29. I bought into the "inclusive/twaw" stuff until about 25 and then saw how damaging it was becoming. Women cannot have our existence whitewashed with "neutral" language that hides reality. If we can't define ourselves, how can we defend our rights? And that is an argument I recently had to make to a woman in her 40s (who did not have to suffer the indignity of being called a "birthing person" or "menstruator" etc when she was having children).

Because it hides the sex of the person who is taking maternity leave is always, always female. And then once taken maternity leave finds her career sidelined. And the easy option to make redundant, for a fabricated reason because an employer knows full well that it is illegal to fire someone for her biological sex.

Cadi will one day experience this, sadly. And it is really difficult to fight it when you have to talk about the group of people that have or might take maternity leave and will need specific healthcare around the fact these group of people might or have taken maternity leave. Sometimes sex matters and the fact sex matters should not always be seen as a negative thing.

My husband took his full entitlement of shared leave after I went back after 3 months. Whilst maternity is not actually 6 months at full pay, this was a life saver for us. I have no issue with the term parental leave (in addition to and not replacing maternity leave) and I think the world would be a better place if more men took a portion of it.

In the UK, women must take a minimum of 2 weeks maternity leave from employment following birth. That recognises the impact of birth on her body and means companies cannot pressure a woman to take no leave.

I agree paternity/adoption/fostering leave could be renamed parental leave without any fuss especially since the partner of a pregnant woman won't always be a man. Maternity leave is important to name though since it must take account of the needs of the woman who has gone through birth.

Well I was definitely on matetnity leave not paternity leave. It wasn't my partner so poorly he was counting down the days until he could legally start his leave. It was also me, the mother who was made redundant on maternity leave. I think after everything I have been through, I am allowed to choose my own labels. Mother, maternity, WOMAN.

They will be busy with whatever batshittery the next gen comes up with.

Wheras I think maternity leave is essential for the recovery of the mother and very often starts before the birth due to pregnancy complications or even just the practicality of certain jobs in the last few weeks and I think it should be ring fenced at a high rate of pay and then followed by parental leave of year which should be shared.

Wow. I wonder how Cadi will feel in the future when their maternity leave is blighted by finding themselves redundant for reasons that they will probably no longer even possess the language to articulate.

Well I do think that maternity leave as a term is outdated and should be called parental leave especially since there is shared parental leave and we should be encouraging men to take it instead of kowtowing to the socialisation that only the mother can be home with a baby on leave.

But switching pronouns to they/them when you still use the term maternity leave is ridiculous.

Here:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5f76e3cc-18af-11ec-a4b1-45d6202ceafe?shareToken=9c3afe44bb14c5e39e08ab4ff391fbd9

It’s not inclusive though. It’s exclusive and only a small minority genuinely want this (bandwagon jumpers would be queueing outside the pet shops if you said it was the thing to torture small puppies)