Abstract
In this accessible and readable book and guide, Babygate: How to survive pregnancy and parenting in the workplace, Dina Bakst, Phoebe Taubman, and Elizabeth Gedmark of A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center detail the potential challenges and legal protections of getting pregnant; adopting a child; taking care of a new, sick, or disabled child; and being a participatory parent while working in the United States. The authors are clear that the book has a dual purpose, that is, to inform future and new parents of their rights in the workplace (and help them navigate asserting their legal rights and in thinking creatively when rights do not apply) and to bring supporters into the fold in the fight for a better balanced work and family life.
In their first aim—to inform readers—Bakst, Taubman, and Gedmark go well beyond simply reciting the law. Each chapter begins with a pop quiz, ends with a checklist and “Top Five Things to Remember,” and is chock full of real-life and hypothetical stories, how-tos, questions and answers, factsheets, and even sample letters. Lay explanations of legal terms and what, who, when, how, and why descriptions of important federal legislation, like the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the Equal Pay Act, filter unnecessary legalese and offer digestible and usable explanation of federal protections for parents. The authors emphasize realistic expectations about chances of experiencing negative treatment because of pregnancy and parenting and about the difficulties of proving discrimination, but also equip readers to be savvy about seeing warning signs, being proactive, and standing up for their rights.
The authors’ second goal of creating supporters for the cause of better workplaces for families, identified as “inspir[ing] a bit of outrage” (p. xii), succeeds mainly by showing readers U.S. family workplace policy as compared to every other wealthy country in the world (and many much less wealthy ones too!). Bakst, Taubman, and Gedmark explain that this is not to make American families jealous or feel bad about their situation but instead is to “show you that it is possible for countries to support working families through public policy, and they don’t have to be rich or risk their economic prosperity to do it” (p. 10). Additionally, the authors encourage book clubs and parent groups to read the book together and even include a list of discussion questions to spur conversation (and broader change) in this area.
The book concludes with a view to the future—listing proposed bills that will help fill some of the significant gaps for families in workplaces and, true to its dual purpose, includes a call to action to help make the needed change happen. The last 160 pages of the book, however, are dedicated to further resources for parents, namely, a state-by-state guide of workplace protections compiled by the authors, complete with citations to the law.
Considering that “ … pregnancy discrimination is the norm, not the exception, in today’s workplaces” (p. 3), this guide offers social workers the research and practical guidance needed to support working families. The authors have put together a creative, useful, and engaging piece that practitioners can turn to time and again for reference, if not to feed their own outrage.