Paris — I spend a lot of time listening to parents around the world complain. In Kiev recently, a working mother told me the joke about how Ukrainians are raised by same-sex couples: their mothers and grandmothers.
How hard or easy it is to raise kids, especially while working, is a big part of people’s well-being everywhere. This topic rarely gets much traction in American politics, but it’s become an issue in this election. Even Donald J. Trump, when he isn’t boasting that he can grab women by their genitals, claims he wants them to have a better work-life balance.
.. Ukrainian dads may not change enough diapers, but their government offers paid maternity leave; practically free preschool; and per-baby payments equivalent to eight months of an average salary.
.. While Nordic citizens often don’t realize how good they have it, Americans seem not to realize how terribly they are being treated,”
.. Ms. Partanen points out that many Europeans pay only slightly higher income taxes than Americans do, while Swedes and Britons pay less, and all get far more in return.
.. Mr. Trump (who once boasted that he never changed a diaper, which could explain why he married two Eastern Europeans) said a year ago that he was skeptical of paid family leave and opposed universal pre-K.
.. I’ve already mailed in my ballot. It’s a vote to make America great, by making it a bit more like the rest of the world.
Ivanka Trump champions working moms — except the ones who design her clothes
But the company that designs her clothing line, including the $157 sheath she wore during her convention speech, does not offer workers a single day of paid maternity leave.
.. Trump, however, has dedicated her advocacy to what has since become her signature hashtag: #WomenWhoWork.
.. Her message starkly contrasts with past words of her father, who has blamed his wives’ careers for troubles in his previous marriages. In 1994, Donald Trump told ABC News, “I think that putting a wife to work is a very dangerous thing.”
.. Ivanka Trump, who is executive vice president of development and acquisitions at her father’s company, told the New York Times that she took off eight days following the 2011 birth of her first child, Arabella.
.. Last month, British newspaper The Independent revealed most of the Ivanka Trump brand’s clothing was manufactured in Vietnam and China. Donald Trump, whose apparel also is largely made overseas, has made decrying outsourced jobs central to his campaign.