Fahad's Blog: 7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

The who: Parents across the United States.
The what: They cannot afford to leave work to take care of newborn children or sick relatives, despite (unpaid) parental leave being offered currently.
The why: Establishing legislation that allows for paid parental leave might allow for many more employees to not hesitate before joining the workplace, may allow for more gender equality within the workplace, and also reduce the rate of infant mortality within the United States as parents can devote more time towards caring for children.
My Opportunity Hypothesis: I believe that creating legislation allowing for paid parental leave can accomplish the following:

My first interview was with a 18-year old female college student in the college of business here at UF. After being asked several questions about the current state of parental leave within the United States, she felt that more people should be made aware of this issue and could definitely see this as an opportunity to create that awareness.

My second interview was with a 19-year old male sophomore. He felt that this opportunity was needed to be expanded upon to allow protections for both parents to receive paid leave in case both needed to leave work. He did not have a strong need at the moment, but felt that if he graduated and ended up in a situation where he might have to take parental leave, would rather have this protection compared to not having it all under the current law.

My third interview was with a 24-year old graduate student who is engaged. As both he and his partner expect to join the workforce once they graduate from UF, he saw a need for this opportunity to be exploited as assuming his wife needs to leave work to take care of a child, it would make it much easier on the both of them if she were getting paid during the duration of her leave. He didn't have an immediate need for it, but felt like it should definitely be something worked on.

This interview was conducted with a 16-year old high-school student that I know is politically active when it comes to women's rights issues. They seemed to know a lot about paid parental leave regulations a lot and definitely felt that this was an opportunity that could be focused on. They believed that this regulation would make it easier for women to work nationwide as they also had a single-mother who worked. They additionally felt as if there was no immediate need of this for them at the moment, but felt that it should be an opportunity that is exploited.

This interview was with a mother in her late-40s who lives in my neighborhood. As someone who has had children, she felt as if this was an issue relevant enough to talk about, as while she was grateful to have a husband who was able to work while she was pregnant, she also did think that something like this would be good for employees who work enough that they should qualify under the current law. Despite this law not applying to her at the moment, she felt that it would be a good change to make to support working mothers.

Having researched this opportunity in other assignments, yet interviewed new people, I felt that this is definitely an issue that affects people of all ages and genders. Many people are unaware about how current laws within the United States affect both parents, and once being told about how the current leave law allows parents to leave work to carer for children, many interviewees jumped on board with this opportunity belief. I feel as if legislation that simply expands on existing protections is created, it would go a lot further than simply pressuring politicians to create new laws regarding this. I feel that adapting said legislations to help serve both mothers and fathers rather than mothers is definitely a refinement that I could use for this that could allow this opportunity to be successfully exploited and allow it to gain support.

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