Subject: Men's Issues Newsbriefs #52

From: [email-masked] (Dave Gross)
Date: 28 Sep 92 20:33:47 GMT

~Subject:  Men's Issues Newsbriefs #52

	* California Governor Pete Wilson signs several draconian
	  child support bills into law.
	* Even where it is offered, paternity leaves are rarely
	  taken.  Why does this happen?

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	Source:  Sam Francisco Chronicle (9/23/92)
	Original article by Greg Lucas
	WILSON SIGNS DRACONIAN CHILD SUPPORT LEGISLATION
	------------------------------------------------
Governor Wilson signed six bills changing the state's child support laws,
including measures to make it easier for state and local authorities to track
down delinquent parents.

"Overdue child support costs taxpayers $350 million per year for the 400,000
cases in which child support hasbeen ordered but not paid," said Wilson in a
statement announcing his signature of the bills.

The package of bills closes some holes in California's system of collecting
child support.  The system involves a hodgepodge of entities, including courts,
district attorneys, and state and local agencies.

"Custodial parents -- and the district attorney when necessary -- will now be
better able to make sure the parent who pays the child support actually pays,"
said Assemblywoman Jackie Speier, D-South San Francisco, the co-author of one
of the measures.

The key changes in child support laws, most of which take effect January 1,
include:
	* Eliminating the need to renew child support court orders.
	  Currently the orders must be renewed every 10 years.
	* Allowing child support payments to be made by credit card.
	  This change in law takes effect immediately.
	* Requiring banks, savings and loans and credit unions to
	  answer questions from district attorneys about the assets
	  of a noncustodial parent.  This also takes effect
	  immediately.
	* Forcing businesses to report newly hired or rehired
	  employees to the state within 30 days so the names can be
	  matched to lists of persons who either owe or are subject
	  to paying child support.
	* Creating a $50 bounty as an incentive for each case in
	  which a district attorney can get health coverage for the
	  child from the parent who pays the support.
	* Continuing child support until age 19 for full-time
	  students who are not self-sufficient and for children in
	  foster homes.

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	Source:  San Francisco Examiner (9/20/92)
	Original article by Armin A. Brott
	FATHERS RELUCTANT TO TAKE PATERNITY LEAVE
	-----------------------------------------
In 1987, when a male associate at one of San Francisco's largest -- and
supposedly most progressive -- law firms decided to reduce his work hours so
he could spend more time with his newborn child, he thought he was just taking
advantage of one of his firm's benefits.

"But it was clear from the start that it was a benefit no one wanted me to
use," the associate said.  He took it anyway -- and five years later, he's
still the only man at the firm to have done so.

Five years ago Campbell Soup Co. began offering all employees a three-month
unpaid leave for family care, with full medical benefits.  Since then, company
spokesman John DeEleuterio says, 95 percent of eligible women have taken the
leave -- while not a single man has.

Despite all the talk about men's increased interest in family issues -- one
survey by the Du Pont chemical company in April found that 57 percent of its
male employees wanted schedules that would let them spend more time with their
families -- there is a huge gap between what men say they want and what they
actually do.

Some companies have long allowed employees, including men, to take time off
for child care.  IBM, for example, has had a leave policy for 30 years that
workers may use to care for newborn or newly adopted children.  Twenty-eight
states require large employers to provide unpaid, gender-neutral family leaves.

But only 1.3 percent of eligible men actually use leaves, according to a 1990
survey by Robert Half International, one of the world's largest placement
firms.  A similar report comes from Levi Strauss of San Francisco, where nearly
all eligible women have taken family leave while only a few men have, a
spokeswoman said.

Even when men do take leaves, they rarely, if ever, take all the time to which
they are entitled.  PG&E, for example, found that women generally take four to
six months off while the few men who take the leave are gone "less than a
week," a spokeswoman said.

Trudi Saveriano, a spokeswoman for AT&T, suggests that the vast majority of
men don't use her company's leave plan because it isn't paid.  "If we got paid
while we were on leave," said one male AT&T operator who recently took a two-
month leave, "I think a lot more men would jump at the chance to be with their
kids."

Since the average woman still makes less than the average men, many families
conclude that they can survive the loss of the woman's salary more easily.  But
financial pressures aren't the only reason why men don't take family leave.
Even the handful of companies that offer paid paternity leave find that men
don't participate.

"There's a social and cultural stigma associated with men who take care of
children," said Amy Segal, senior associate at Catalyst, a not-for-profit
research and advisory group in New York.  Also, many men believe their careers
will suffer if they take time off work to care for their newborn children.
"And most working fathers are afraid to take that chance," said Max Messmer,
chairman of Robert Half International.

In fact, the specter of career derailment is so compelling that most of the
men interviewed for this article did not want their names used.  One young
San Francisco attorney who elected not to take advantage of his firm's paid
family-leave plan said, "I'd heard about one guy who had taken the leave;
suddenly, he was off the partnership track.  All the male associates knew it
would be career suicide."

The AT&T operator said his supervisor had told him that taking the leave might
affect his chances for a raise.

Many companies send their male employees mixed messages by offering liberal
paternity benefits while subtly, or even openly, discouraging their use.  When
Catalyst asked human resources directors and CEOs of companies that offer
leave to fathers how much time would be reasonable for a paternity leave, 41
percent said no amount was reasonable.

Dr. Joseph Pleck, project director at the Center for Research on Women at
Wellesley College, said that "because employers don't understand or accept the
idea of child-care leave for anyone, they find the concept of paternity leave
incomprehensible or simply frivolous."

Elle Hoffnagel, a human resources director in San Francisco, says some
administrators respond to requests for paternity leave "with a combination of
surprise and annoyance."  They feel that "since men aren't physically disabled,
they shouldn't take the time off," she said.

Catalyst's Amy Segal says that simply offering family leave to men is not
enough.  "Any hope for change is up to the employees themselves," she said.
"The more men avail themselves of family-leave options, the sooner it will
become an accepted practice."

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	Source:  Los Angeles Times, 7/30/92
	ALLEGED DEADBEAT DAD KILLS SELF AS OFFICERS CLOSE IN
	----------------------------------------------------
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A man wanted since 1986 for allegedly not paying child
support killed himself as federal agents moved in to arrest him, authorities
said.  Howard Spencer Wright, 58, shot himself moments after FBI agents
arrived at his apartment Tuesday, agent Allen Whitaker said.

-- 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- [email-masked] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Women don't kill men unless they've been pushed to a point of desperation."
		-- Dr. Lenore Walker, executive director of the
		   Domestic Violence Institute