Elving, Roanld D.
Conflict and Compromise
Elving tracks the formation and legislative history of the Family and Medical Leave Act
of 1993. The book’s primary focus is on showing ‘how a bill becomes law’ and the
FMLA serves as a case study. The part you will find the most interesting and useful are
those dealing with the influence from feminists and feminist interest groups. The book’s
first chapter deals with the genesis of the original bill and touches upon the individual
rights issue. In addition, you will find it interesting to see how the family leave
proponents used the argument that leave would help reduce the number of abortions to
persuade conservatives to vote for the bill (Elving pp. 290, 208 and also Wisensale p.
150).
Colker, Ruth
American Law in the Age of Hypercapitalism
In American Law in the Age of Hypercapitalism, Ruth Colker makes the case that the
United States has moved toward a system of ‘hypercapitalism’ at the expense of the
general interest of the citizens. Under the current system, laizzes-faire economics and
financial interests take priority while the over-all well-being of the nation suffers. Colker
surveys a number of different aspects of American law to make her point—including
family and medical leave.
One of Colker’s main points in the chapter that deals with leave is the preoccupation with
the question of individual rights in determining legal outcomes. Colker is especially
critical of the way strictly economic rights of adult workers have taken precedent over the
interest of the family. She argues that it is wrong to view pregnancy protection laws as
special treatment of women and that they should rather be interpreted as special treatment
of children (pp. 105, 110 and in regard to the PDA p. 124). She also makes the case that
the choices parents make concerning their children and childcare usually are not guided
by rational economic or financial concerns—but rather the interest of their children (p.
111).
Using comparative evidence, Colker argues that for the government ease for example the
family responsibilities of parents doesn’t not necessarily conflict with a capitalistic
economic system (for example pp. 104, 109, 113-114).
Olsen, Marianne
Nye Fædre på Orlov (New Fathers on Leave)
Through a series of quantitative interviews, Olsen surveys how thirteen fathers on
parental leave spend their time off with their infant children. Initially, Olsen intended a
much larger scale investigation of families with the father at home and with the mother at
work. Fathers alone on leave, however, turned out to be few and far between and Olsen
settled on 13 included in the survey. In the first chapter of the book, Olsen reviews the
theoretical literature on gender differences. She then goes on to analyze the development
of leave legislation in Scandinavia and the way Danish parents spend their time on leave.
The last part of the book contains the interview findings.
The survey of the 13 fathers is briefly discussed in the English summary of the book (pp.
260-262). The chapter that deals with the interviews contains a large number of
anecdotes from the experiences of the 13 fathers. The English summary that I have
included does a good job at concisely describing the findings. If there are any parts of the
summary that you would like me to elaborate on, let me know.
Wisensale, Steven
Family Leave Policy
Wisensale investigates the development of family leave policies in the United States from
the first major state initiatives in the early 1980 to the FMLA in 1993. I have included in
PDF format the chapter that deals with the formation of the FMLA. Much like Elving,
you will be able to see how feminist interest groups reacted negatively to a policy that
was not gender neutral (pp. 134-141).