Jessica Shortall: The US needs paid family leave -- for the sake of its future
杰西卡•肖托尔: 美国是如何辜负新晋父母和他们的宝宝的
Jessica Shortall is a working mom of two and author of Work. Pump. Repeat: The New Mom's Survival Guide to Breastfeeding and Going Back to Work. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
this is what you'll be told.
得到的图片可能是这样的。
what you'll actually produce
敲出来的是这些东西,
with a baby on your lap.
在电脑前工作的结果。
职场妈妈真正的样子。
We'll look at a lot of them.
你会发现一个共同点。
of every American workplace.
into any Google image search engine,
输入谷歌图片搜索引擎,
还是在新闻报道里,
blog posts and news pieces,
and the lie that they tell us
因为它们在说谎,
to new working motherhood in America,
millions of women back to work
刚刚生完小孩的女性
and kind of horrifically soon
速度之快,令人震惊,
why it's an economic problem.
为什么这还是个经济问题。
with the unreality of these images,
in a parody series of stock photos
自己来拍一组素材照片,
of going back to work
确实会遇到的尴尬情况,
is attached to your body.
是固定在妈妈身上的。
like leaking breast milk
奶水透过裙子渗出来了,
no baby in this photo,
its contents are aerosolized
脏东西会呈气雾化散开,
that they can find to make food
a whole dozen of them, into the world.
好几十张,发到网上。
was opening a door,
from all walks of life
for them to go back to work
生完孩子数天或者数周后,
10 of their stories with you today.
some of them are very raw,
有些还很残酷,
looks anything like this.
service member at a federal prison.
allowed eight weeks for my C-section.
这是我能拿到的最长假期。
that I had been out on 'vacation,'
“休了个长假”很不满意,
while I was pumping breast milk
with inmates in the hallway."
完全陌生的女性,
total strangers, send to me now,
to work after seven unpaid weeks.
在7周无薪假期后开始上班。
during labor, and major tearing,
还有严重撕裂伤,
也无法坐立或行走。
to use my available vacation days
我不能用自己的假期,
situations like these in the eye
无法接受这些情况,
then we have to do something about it.
总会做点什么来避免。
and believe, this image.
并且相信这样的照片。
what's going on in this picture,
甚至有点让我心里发毛。
and slightly creepy.
and all of their babies, are fine.
所有的婴儿,一切都好。
down into two parts.
that women have chosen to work.
47 percent of the workforce,
or primary breadwinner.
of the engine of this economy,
一个零件,很重要的零件,
for the engines of our families.
our paid work is not optional.
有偿劳动是必须的。
are choosing to have babies,
the consequences of those choices.
can sound correct.
when that happened.
ignores a fundamental truth,
on a national scale is not optional.
从国家层面来说是必须的。
working women, are having today,
——今天生下的孩子,
protect our shores,
on a national scale is not optional.
生育是必须的。
We need working women to have babies.
我们还需要工作的女性生孩子。
那我们至少要保证
doing those things at the same time
women in America do you think
有多少比例的职场女性
will not get one minute of paid leave
It's called FMLA. It does not work.
《家庭与医疗休假法案》。但是没什么用。
all kinds of exceptions,
I had to take off work.
to qualify for FMLA,
不适用《家庭与医疗休假法案》,
to meet my newborn son,
hide another reality, another layer.
另一件事实,
to just that unpaid leave,
不带薪假期的女性,
to take much of it at all.
for short-term disability
短期无劳动能力的标准,
was considered a preexisting condition.
and half of our savings
和一半的积蓄,
but emotionally it was worse.
精神压力也让我濒临崩溃。
being away from my son."
让我难受了好几个月。”
to go back to work so early,
driven by family finances,
看起来合情合理,
身体而言太可怕了,
into the world is messy.
at work five weeks postpartum.
我5周后回去上班。
major surgery after giving birth,
我在产后动了个大手术,
working mothers in America
within two weeks of giving birth.
average of 75 hours a week while pregnant.
怀孕期间平均每周工作75小时,
before my baby was a month old,
to afford 10 days off with her baby."
with economic and physical implications.
经济状况和身体健康。
an enormous psychological event.
它也会对心理造成巨大影响。
eight weeks after my son was born.
to returning to work were unbearable."
简直让我难以承受。”
after having a baby,
from postpartum mood disorders
可能性就越大,
consequences of those disorders,
可能带来的诸多后果中,
most common cause of death
它在妇女产后一年内死亡原因中
but I find it hard to get through.
但她的故事让我难以释怀。
that I lost an essential,
因为我失去了
time with my son.
这段时间是无法弥补的。
left me feeling absolutely broken.
让我筋疲力竭。
is the screaming: colic, they said.
而大声呻吟,他们说这是疝气。
how much longer I could do it.
while I rocked and shushed
只能关上办公室的门,
so I wouldn't get in trouble.
every damn day
while I washed out the pump equipment.
清洗挤奶器的时候也在流泪。
and all the way home again.
我都只能以泪洗面。
I didn't get done during the day,
白天没干完的工作,
wrong with me that I can't swing this."
而且我自己无法解决。”
about the millions of babies
职场女性每年生育的
and tax-paying and military-serving age.
工作,纳税,服役时才开始的。
等你们满18岁再说吧,
is that babies whose mothers
那些可以在家陪伴宝宝
and their well checks in their first year,
并且更关注宝宝的健康,
from deadly and disabling diseases.
不易夭折,也不易患病致残。
behind images like this.
类似这样的照片背后。
who work and for their babies.
以及她们的宝宝传递这样的信息。
you should be grateful for it,
都应该心怀感激,
runs through a lot of the stories I hear.
我在许多故事中都能听到。
after my C-section
had failure to thrive.
was very understanding.
of countries in the world
paid leave to new mothers.
in total population.
Suriname and the tiny island nations
和几个小的岛国,
Nauru, Niue, Palau and Tonga.
还有瑙鲁,纽埃,帕劳和汤加。
the United States of America,
of national paid leave work
of the future of those countries,
在工作,在生育的人们,
"We couldn't possibly do that."
will solve this problem,
offer even more paid leave to the women
我们欢欣鼓舞,
and highest-paid among us.
就接受了最好的教育,拿着最高的薪水。
are not going to participate in that.
根本无法享受这些。
economic, financial, physical
需要我们从经济、财政、生理和心理
decided, not an accident,
不是意外发生的,
on to working mothers and their babies.
职场女性和她们的宝宝身上。
for low-income women,
低收入的女性们更加沉重,
for women of color.
so-called choices to have babies
not to have babies.
It shouldn't be traumatic.
本不应如此痛苦的。
our family now,
to care for myself and a new baby.
多少时间来照顾自己和宝宝。
the same way as with our first,
to keep the population stable
working women from doing that.
创造充分的条件来实现它。
to innovation, to GDP,
of this country were to decide
to do this thing more than once?
国内生产总值意味着什么?
one idea worth spreading,
for the most powerful country on Earth
of the future of this country
在为美国的未来拼搏的妈妈们,
who represent that future.
for small businesses,
to be shared between partners.
should have to go back to work
一瘸一拐,还流着血
to drain their savings account
of rest and recovery and bonding.
from the incubator to day care
all of their meager time
将仅有的那一点点假期都用于
should be told that the collision
and their needed parenthood,
这两种身份的矛盾,
to a new family, it is consuming,
一个新家庭时,会很让人伤脑筋,
is more financially vulnerable
to speak up on her own behalf.
为自己的利益发声。
as a mother's issue,
that these images tell us.
why we're told that this can't work
everywhere all over the world.
that this American reality
what a working mother looks like.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jessica Shortall - Strategy consultant, social entrepreneur and authorJessica Shortall is a working mom of two and author of Work. Pump. Repeat: The New Mom's Survival Guide to Breastfeeding and Going Back to Work.
Why you should listen
What do breastfeeding and paid leave for working mothers, sustainable eye care, hunger, green investing, giving shoes and the business case for LGBT equality have in common?
For Jessica Shortall, they have all been opportunities to change the world: challenges that need sustainable solutions and require a deep understanding of market forces, audiences, and cultures. They all require an intense dive into data, and they all benefit from powerful storytelling.
Shortall has provided strategy consulting to dozens of businesses, social enterprises, non-profit organizations and campaigns in the US, UK and beyond. Her first book, Work. Pump. Repeat: The New Mom's Guide to Surviving Breastfeeding and Going Back to Work, was inspired by her own experiences of circumnavigating the globe with a breast pump. She interviewed hundreds of working mothers and dozens of HR professionals to create a practical, relatable, judgment-free guide for women who want to try to continue breastfeeding after they've returned to work.
Shortall started her adult life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uzbekistan, and she haven't stopped searching for ways to change the world since, across non-profit and for-profit worlds. In the early 2000s, she co-founded and franchised a non-profit organization that is now active in more than 40 communities. In 2006, she received an MBA with honors from the University of Oxford, as a Skoll Scholar in Social Entrepreneurship. She went on to spend three years providing consulting services to social entrepreneurs. From 2009 to 2014, she was the first Director of Giving at TOMS Shoes, hired to build out the now-iconic One for One giving mission and strategy.
She currently lives in Dallas, TX with her husband Clay and her two children.
Jessica Shortall | Speaker | TED.com