The United States Is the Only World Cup Nation Without Maternity Leave

Okay, so I’ve been watching the World Cup like everyone else, which mostly means I’ve become a fake expert on 48 countries I maybe couldn’t have found on a map a month ago. I’m rooting for Côte d’Ivoire against Germany because some choices make themselves. And I’m basically spending every match day praying France doesn’t win. Sorry!! I don’t make the rules. It’s been a great time. The World Cup is just Love Island for men and honestly, I finally get it.

And then somewhere in the middle of all that, half paying attention, half doomscrolling, a thought just landed on me: every single one of these countries gives new moms some kind of leave after they have a baby. I know Iraq does. Uzbekistan too. Literally all 48 teams come from countries that figured this out. Except the one hosting the whole thing. Us.

For a country that loves calling itself the greatest in the world, we spend a shocking amount of time coming in last. We built the stadiums. We're charging $19 for a Bud Light. We can fly 23 grown men across the country, put them up in luxury hotels, and spend billions hosting the biggest sporting event on Earth. But the moment a woman gives birth, America turns into a broke boyfriend who forgot his wallet. Suddenly there's just no money, no plan, and no idea how any of this could possibly work. America’s social safety net is basically just a shrug emoji.

America worships motherhood and undervalues mothers. We love talking about moms as heroes, saints, and the backbone of society. We hand out flowers on Mother’s Day, tell women that having children is the most important job in the world, and build entire political movements around protecting families.But when it comes to giving actual mothers time to recover from childbirth, a process that can involve major surgery, life-threatening complications, and months of physical recovery, bond with their babies, and learn how to care for a newborn, suddenly we’re told that’s asking too much. For a country that claims to revere motherhood, we’re remarkably unwilling to support the people doing it. The gap between how much we celebrate mothers and how little we invest in them is so wide that even every other country in this World Cup can see it. Meanwhile the actual list of countries with no paid maternity leave is basically the US plus a handful of small island nations that never even qualified. That's the club we're in. Portugal gives moms six weeks, minimum. Bulgaria gives them over a year at 90% pay, which honestly made me open a new tab to see how hard it’d be to become Bulgarian. Countries you wouldn’t necessarily think of as progressive are just... doing this. It’s not some wild ask. We’re the outlier here.

We're always talking about American exceptionalism. Sometimes the exceptional part isn't a compliment.

And look, technically we have the FMLA, which sounds official but is really just 12 weeks off, unpaid, and only if your job is big enough and you've been there long enough, so almost half of workers don't even qualify. And besides, unpaid leave isn't leave, it's just permission to be broke for twelve weeks. The FMLA doesn't give you time off. It gives you the legal right to not get fired while you go bankrupt. So yeah I guess technically half of us are “allowed” to take three months off to recover from childbirth, in the same way we are “allowed” to buy a yacht.

And while America has a remarkable disdain for mothers, it’s not like everyone else is having a great time either. We’re also the only World Cup nation without universal healthcare. Every other country in this tournament has decided that access to a doctor shouldn’t depend on your employment status, your income, or your ability to decipher a health insurance portal. The United States remains committed to the radical idea that seeing a doctor should be complicated.

Anyway. Keep watching the games, they're genuinely great. I'm not trying to ruin anyone's summer. I just can't get over the fact that the country hosting the tournament is the only one that doesn't guarantee paid leave to the women who gave birth to the players we're all cheering for.

If you need something to put a pep in your step, watch our latest episode of Boy Problems! We talk about why eating disorders are the ultimate glow-down and how to make sense of all the red carpet photos of women whose visible ribs are being celebrated instead of questioned. And if you would like a substack about this topic, please sound off in the comments!!