When I was a working single mother in Boston in the 1980s, finding a balance between work and parenting was a constant struggle. My son needed more from me, and I needed more help balancing the opportunities at work and my responsibilities as a mother—a balance that is still, for so many working parents, a question with no simple answer.
It is the one question that I never feel I answer well when asked, as I often am, how I navigated my career while being a single parent. “Not well enough” is the most honest answer. Legislation moving through Congress this week would make that struggle a little easier for so many working parents in America. And it’s about time!
The plan for paid leave is part of the Build Back Better Act, a $3.5 trillion reconciliation budget bill that could give all workers up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, beginning in June 2023. The vast majority of American voters—