With the sound of a crying baby in the background, a teacher finally attempts to grade the stack of papers piled on her desk. Wishing she could ignore them and succumb to her crushing exhaustion, she knew the grading had to be done before she went to work the next day.
41 countries offer paid maternity leave, and the U.S. is not one of them. The lack of federal maternity leave law continues to cause a multitude of issues across the country, notably, a decline in employed women wishing to have children. Paid leave policies are necessary for mothers to recover from childbirth and care for their newborn child. However, the absence of universal paid maternity leave remains the standard, making it extremely difficult for women to work while supporting a family.
MCPS is no exception. Since MCPS is not legally required to give teachers paid maternity leave, they only offer what the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) outlines, amounting to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to eligible employees.
FMLA’s insufficient allowances limit female teachers’ ability to rest and spend time with their newborn babies, as they cannot support themselves on leave without a legitimate salary. This limitation promotes a kind of sexism in MCPS, despite officials’ work to combat gender biases throughout the county. It also sets a double standard for women working for MCPS. The Montgomery County Commission for Women continues to push for a county where women are granted full participation and access to resources. Despite this intention, a lack of paid maternity leave in the area does the opposite.
MCPS permits teachers to use up to six calendar weeks of sick leave to receive a full salary after childbirth. However, six weeks falls short of the recommended time doctors suggest new mothers should take off to spend time with their children. A recent study from the advocacy group Paid Leave US reveals that one in four women in the U.S. go back to work within two weeks of giving birth. Not only does the MCPS requirement increase the risk of health concerns for their child, but it can damage their mental health and make them more vulnerable physically.
Many mothers struggle with postpartum depression (PDD) after giving birth. With no guarantee of paid maternity leave, most mothers are forced to return to work too soon, worsening their maternal stress and increasing the risk of post-birth complications. Making paid maternity leave a requirement, employers leave little room for excess mothers’ financial anxiety.
Since the 1900’s, women have increasingly filled teaching positions. As of 2022, 73.8% of the teaching staff in MCPS are women, compared to only 26.2% being male. In a profession where women dominate and will likely continue to do so, paid maternity leave is crucial. It’s already difficult for teachers to live in Montgomery County — one of the most expensive in the country in terms of its average cost — because of their relatively low salary, but asking females to take unpaid time off of work and continue supporting their families becomes even more damaging here than in other areas.
Whitman AP Environmental teacher Colleen Roots expressed that it’s an unreasonable ask for teachers to support themselves without a salary.
“You can’t provide for your child because you don’t have any income,” Roots said. “It’s a ridiculous way to treat this so-called, highly respected profession.”
Roots joined the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) teachers union when she took a position at Whitman in 2005. Despite continuous protesting, MCPS employers continue to talk down to female teachers and ignore their cries for change, she said.
Sexism remains a part of the conversation. As in other careers, sexism in education has been present for decades but remains insufficiently unaddressed. Despite students’ and teachers’ attempts to level the playing field between males and females, through activism and raising awareness, the issue remains unabating.
Junior Grace Lazarous, enrolled in Whitman’s Leadership Academy for Social Justice program, voiced her disappointment with the unawareness of sexism in the county.
“I feel like it’s such a crazy thing, especially in a school like ours, where we’re pretty progressive,” Lazarous said. “Knowing that is so disheartening.”
The debate over the ‘proper’ age for women to start a family has also become a talking point in the modern era. People judge older women for remaining single, asking questions like, “When will you get married? Start a family?” These inquiries push stereotypes upon women, pressuring them to move along with their lives, even if they’re not ready. Pressuring women without economic stability to have children while continuing to have unpaid maternity leave sets them up for financial failure and affirms unrealistic expectations.
Whitman alumna Alexandra Robbins, an investigative reporter and the author of the New York Times bestselling book, “The Teachers: A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession,” is a substitute teacher at MCPS. She expressed her worries about the unfortunate reality female teachers are dealing with.
“People don’t realize how often teachers have to sacrifice time and resources for their own kids to take care of other people’s kids,” Robbins said.
More American women per capita are working full-time jobs and avoiding stay-at-home lifestyles, making it exceptionally tiresome to conform to societal pressures.
“It’s demoralizing,” Robbins said. “It’s as if MCPS doesn’t want teachers to focus on anything other than the job.”
As a teacher, Roots worries for the sake of her job as she is not guaranteed she’ll be able to return after sixty days of unnotified leave.
“MCPS will not fire you, but they will not hold your position for you,” Roots said. “That means you will remain an employee of MCPS, but you are not guaranteed to be able to come back to teach.”
Robbins interviewed hundreds of teachers while researching information for her book and her exposé article in the Times. She said throughout her investigations, the pronounced lack of respect for teachers was clear.
As MCPS continues to evolve and improve its teaching, it must address the issue at hand. To take a step in the right direction and hopefully rid the county of residual sexism, MCPS should implement paid maternity leave to assist hundreds of female teachers.
Whether these adjustments are in the foreseeable future or not, female teachers deserve their right to a full salary while they attend to their children and families. The end to gender inequality in schools is near, and individuals across the county continue the fight for full recognition of women’s rights and promote the new chapter for MCPS.
katja t • Jan 22, 2025 at 8:16 am
The research on this story is SO good – nice work macy!!