Recently, when the question of what it costs not to have paid leave in America was posed online, the answers that flooded in were about money, yes, but many were even more profound. It cost me my milk supply, one person replied. Others said: My mental health and well-being; My marriage; My home; My recovery; My career; My ability to bond with my family. The one that floored me most: It cost me everything.
Here’s the thing — whether you want to birth or care for children yourself, or whatever form your family takes, we need stronger community in this country. We need the common-sense policy infrastructure that allows you to be financially secure while also living a whole life, and being able to care for yourself and your loved ones. We should already have paid family and medical leave, we should already have affordable child care and aging and disability care. We should absolutely have the fundamental freedom to decide whether or not to have a family, and the freedom and ability to support one if we do.
Many of us have fought for this for years. But something remarkable is happening. Both about the changing notion of political leadership and power itself, but the issues that inform it. And paid leave is connected to it.
Issues like paid leave, freedom, and family are kitchen table economic issues. They’re common-sense solutions to complex problems. But they’re also issues that unite us, across geography and demographics and walks of life. They’re issues that remind us why we are indeed here and alive, that remind us what matters most. They’re the issues that allow us health, prosperity, and security. They’re the issues that allow us to be present for moments of birth, of beauty, of loss, and of life. In a world that feels increasingly chaotic, it’s a reminder we are all connected.
We nearly passed paid leave for all in 2021, in fact we were essentially a vote away from it becoming law. The paid leave and care movement has been growing ever since, and the vibes and vision of a country alongside it. We need something that brings us together and allows us to look after ourselves and our families with dignity — like paid leave and care.
As Vice President Harris says, we are imagining what can be, unburdened by what has been. I think we’re ready to be a part of something much bigger than ourselves — and the Harris-Walz ticket is right on time.
Dawn Huckelbridge is the founding director of Paid Leave for All, Paid Leave for All Action, and Paid Leave PAC. She has spent her career in gender policy and political organizing, and before her work for Paid Leave for All, served as Communications Director for Supermajority and Coordinated Program Director for Community Outreach Group at Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She has written for Newsweek, MSNBC, The Hill, and more.
