Systemic Racism and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA): Using Critical Race Theory to Build Equitable Family Leave Poli
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Systemic Racism and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA): Using Critical Race Theory to Build Equitable Family Leave Policies Shetal Vohra-Gupta 1
&
Yeonwoo Kim 2 & Catherine Cubbin 1
Received: 6 July 2020 / Revised: 26 October 2020 / Accepted: 26 October 2020 # W. Montague Cobb-NMA Health Institute 2020
Abstract Past and current policies have led to the creation and sustainment of systemic racism. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a key contributor to sustaining health disparities for working Black women in the USA. Black women have a longstanding history of disadvantage and the current family leave policies make this demographic more vulnerable to economic hardship and eventually disparate health outcomes. Using data from the Family and Medical Leave Act in 2012 – Employee Survey (N = 1266), this study conducts logistic regression analyses to examine if this policy disparately benefits white men and white women compared to women of color. Respondents were categorized into leave takers (those who took family and medical leave as needed), leave needers (those who had an unmet need for leave), and employed only (those who neither needed nor took leave). As hypothesized, Black working women (vs. White working men) have the highest odds of having an unmet need for taking a leave followed by Latina women. In addition, Black working women (vs. White working men) had the highest odds of difficulty in making ends meet when they did take leave. The authors also conduct a policy analysis of the FMLA through a critical race theory (CRT) lens to offer policy recommendations, which deconstruct the role structural racism plays in the structure and implementation of the FMLA. Keywords Critical race theory . Family leave . Health policy analysis
Evidence documents that paid family leave yields child and maternal health benefits across the life span [1]. Benefits for both child and parent span across education, health, and economic outcomes. Unfortunately, in the USA, one of the only high-income countries that does not offer paid family leave for working parents, family leave policies increase racial and class inequities because disadvantaged groups are not able to take leave without pay, and thus do not have the opportunity for living their healthiest lives [2]. In fact, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, which provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year (although not all employers or employees are included), prioritizes families who belong to privileged racial and
* Shetal Vohra-Gupta [email protected] 1
Steve Hicks School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Austin, 1925 San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, TX 78712, USA
2
Department of Kinesiology, The University of Texas at Arlington, 411 S. Nedderman Drive, Box 19407, Arlington, TX 76019-0407, USA
socioeconomic backgrounds, while marginalizing nonprivileged groups [3]. In short, the USA has a policy in place which widens the gap between those who are advantaged and disadvantaged. For those families
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