American Women and Children Groan under the “Statue of Liberty”

 2022.2.10.

https://www.mfa.gov.kp/view/article/14200

The “Statue of Liberty” stands on the estuary of the Hudson River in the U.S., which represents the so-called freedom and equality of the world.

Then what about the situation of the American women and children living under that statue?

The U.S. is one of the two countries in the world that never adopted the system of paid maternity leave. It is also one of the three countries which did not sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The U.S. has the system of maternity leave with the period of 6~8 weeks. But, as it is an unpaid one, a lot of women are feeling afraid to become mothers for fear of losing their jobs and spending a staggering expense to bring up the children.

In December last year, a video was posted on one of the social network services where a woman was talking in tears about her pitiful situation of having to go to work just 12 days after her delivery, leaving the baby in the ICU, even though she gave birth to a 27-week-old premature infant.

It is said that this woman had to go to work just 12 days after her delivery in order to spend her time of maternity leave after the baby left the hospital and that she had trouble in feeding her breast milk to the baby dodging the eyes of other people at work.

Lamenting over her situation of not being able to stay with her baby in the ICU, she said “This is the U.S.”, cursing the social system of the U.S.

The delight and happiness to become a mother rather turns into tears of fear and pain under the “Statue of Liberty”. This society is just the true picture of the U.S. which boasts of the “world civilization”.

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