#EmbraceSisterhood, how are you doing this week?
This Tuesday, which is the eve of #WorkersDay, we’re checking in with working mothers, and by working mothers, we mean all mothers.
Whether your work in your home, in an office building, in fields, in classrooms, in hospitals and clinics – we want you to know we see you, we see each other, even when society doesn’t.
This #WorkersDay, we would like to remind society of the following:
- Though mothers are entitled to four months maternity leave, this leave is not necessarily paid. Claiming UIF is often a long and difficult process, filled with delays. As a result, many moms go back to work well before the four-month mark, whether or not they are ready.
- The Code of Good Practice on the Protection of Employees during Pregnancy and after the Birth of a Child stipulates that breastfeeding parents should get two feeding or expressing breaks of 30 minutes in addition to their lunch break. But research indicates that not only are such breaks not guaranteed, some employers deduct pay for those breaks, putting further pressure on breastfeeding mothers.
- While we pay lip service to the idea of all mothers’ work as important, we do not recognise domestic labour as such, nor do we have a clear understanding of the significance of this labour in our national economy.
Work is important. It is what keeps the engines of our world humming along. It can be a source of identity and self-worth. However, we still live in a society that largely does not place great value on the visible and invisible work that mothers do in our homes, for our families.
It’s high time this changed.
#HappyWorkersDay to some of the hardest working folks we know: mothers.
Have a great week.
#HappyTuesdayCheckIn
#MomTogether
#BuildingOurVillage
Yours in the sisterhood of mothers,
The Embrace Team