From the most recent issue of my newsletter:
Regardless of their differing beliefs about abortion, workers nationwide have benefitted from the increased presence of women at all levels of the workplace. The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), for example, imperfect as it is, would not exist were it not for women’s demands that the workplace adapt to their needs as caregivers. Nor would the concept of family leave even exist if maternity leave had not existed first. Indeed, the whole concept of a healthy work-life balance has its roots in women’s refusal to define themselves solely in terms of their jobs, the level of commitment employers have long believed it reasonable to expect from men.
Women’s leadership has brought other benefits to the workplace as well. They fought to redefine the “old boys network” as a form of sexual discrimination, which helped not only women, but also workers who might have been excluded from those networks for reasons other than gender; the laws against sexual harassment, which were originally intended to protect women, have made the workplace (at least relatively) safer for all genders and sexualities; and there is even evidence to suggest that greater numbers of women in the workforce leads to higher wages for all workers. None of these benefits and protections are perfect; none are distributed fairly throughout the nation’s workforce; but they all demonstrate that women have helped redefine in progressive ways what it means to be a worker, regardless of gender, something that would not have been possible if they did not have control over their own reproductive lives.