This paper reports the empirical findings of a nationwide study that addressed these questions

Empowering Shakespeare’s Sister: Parental Leave and the Level Playing Field Charmaine Yoest Cabell Hall Department of Politics University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22904 434.963.7930 ccy2c@virginia.edu Prepared for delivery at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 28 - August 31, 2003 Support for this research was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Bankard Fund of the University of Virginia. Additionally, I am grateful for the generous support of the Andrew Mellon Foundation and the Kohler Foundation. I would like to thank especially, Steven Rhoads, the Principal Investigator of the Family, Gender and Tenure Project, for giving me the opportunity to work on the study, and for his contribution to this paper in particular. Paul Freedman and Mary Stegmaier also provided much appreciated assistance on both the project and this paper. I would also like to thank James Ceaser, Lynn Sanders and Herman Schwartz for comments on earlier versions of this paper. Additionally, Darby Morrisroe, Iliev Radoslav, and Patrick Roberts provided helpful comments on this paper. Copyright by the American Political Science AssociationABSTRACT Paid family leave remains among the most commonly discussed public policy proposals for alleviating the work-family stresses experienced by increasing numbers of dual-career parents. The passage of the nation’s first ...