This Women's History Month, we're highlighting contributions towards equitably advancing the health of women, their families and communities. Here, in her own words, longtime MAC collaborator and paid family leave advocate Dr. Phyllis Hutton Raabe reflects on her years of work in this area. She hopes to emphasize that social change can begin with just a couple of individuals, and that it can take a long time against a lot of opposition but that​ with a growing number of advocates, some progress can be made.

"In 2013, Katherine Theall, (a colleague in the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Director of the Mary Amelia Center), and I began discussing advocating for public policies that would promote better health outcomes in Louisiana. I have long championed enacting a national paid maternity leave in the United States. Shockingly, the United States is one of only 3 countries without such leave, and many mothers, children, families, and their health suffer without it. Although the unpaid 12 weeks of leave provided by the 1993 U.S. “Family and Medical Leave Act” has benefitted millions of Americans, many workers are not eligible to use it, and many cannot afford to take unpaid leaves. Some employers provide paid parental leaves, but often they only are available to higher level workers. By 2013, Europe and Canada had instituted paid parental leaves (for caregiving by fathers as well as mothers), and three U.S. states (California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island) had done so by enacting paid Family and Medical Leave insurance policies. Since much research shows that Paid FML promotes health and contributes to better family relations and financial security, in 2014 we decided to start advocating for Paid Family and Medical Leave in Louisiana.

As a first step, in March 2015, the Mary Amelia Center sponsored a talk by Heidi Hartmann (economist and President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in DC) on the “Economic and Health Benefits of Paid Family and Sick Leaves” which was open to the community at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Subsequently, Louisiana Democratic State Senator Karen Carter Peterson and Representative Helena Moreno introduced a bill providing for 12 weeks of Paid Family and Medical Leave in the 2015 legislative session. Although this effort was unsuccessful, it helped to generate more advocates for paid FML. Bills for Paid Family and Medical Leave insurance programs in Louisiana continued to be introduced in the 2016 and 2019 legislative sessions—without success. However, in 2022 a major step forward was legislative funding of an Actuarial Study of the anticipated costs to the State of implementing a paid FML insurance policy. Results of this Study led to a 2023 legislative proposal, the “Louisiana Family and Medical Leave Benefits Act.” Although this also was not enacted, increased advocacy now included important contributions from: Louisiana Budget Project, Louisiana Public Health Institute, United Way of Southeast Louisiana, Agenda for Children, A Better Balance, and others. Aside of legislative adoption of a paid FML policy for all Louisianans, another focus was on obtaining paid parental leave for state government employees.

With the backing of Governor John Bel Edwards, in the Fall of 2023, the state Civil Service adopted a paid parental leave policy for all classified employees, and Gov. Edwards signed an Executive Order providing the same for unclassified state workers. For the first time, 70,000 state workers now are eligible for 6 weeks of paid parental leave! It is gratifying to know that thousands of Louisiana parents and their newborns can benefit from this support. However, since a reliable 2020 survey showed that only 47% of LA employed mothers were able to use any paid leave after giving birth, much more needs to happen to expand the availability of Paid Family and Medical Leave in Louisiana."