Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Life, Liberty, And The Lack Of Paid Parental Leave: An Analysis Of Media Framing Of Parental Leave In The United States, Marissa A. Baly

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Because the United States is the only developed country without mandatory paid maternity leave, I felt called to study unpaid maternity leave in the U.S. for my research in the Political Science Honors Program. The study, “Life, Liberty, and the Lack of Paid Parental Leave,” is an analysis of media framing of parental leave in the United States. In the study, I conducted a content analysis of over 200 news articles of the New York Times, and also created an Institutional Review Board-approved survey distributed to introductory political science classes. In the content analysis, I found that maternity leave is …