In the March issue of the ABA Journal, Becky Beaupre Gillespie and Hollee Schwartz Temple (presumably themselves liberated, in light of those very long names) wrote about Ariel Ayanna, and the new frontier in sex/gender employment discrimination cases. Ayanna was an associate in a Boston law firm, and has filed suit alleging termination in retaliation for his having exercised his right under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to take leave to take care of his new born baby and ill wife.
Ayanna suite alleges he was discouraged by the firm's corporate culture from taking FMLA leave, that partners "regularly bragged about how little time the spent on family obligations," and that he was pretextually terminated only four months after returning from his FMLA.
Beauapre Gillespie and Schwartz Temple write that his story extends beyond just the cut throat halls of big law. They observe that FM:LA cases in general are a new hot button. The Center on WorkLife Law reported in 2010 that lawsuits filed by caregivers have increased almost 400 percent in the last decade. (The FMLA was passed in 1993.) And when it is men seeking leave, the issue is fraught with generational and gender differences and stereotypes.
They argue that when women take FMLA they are viewed as poor workers but good women. However, they believe that when men take such leave they will mostly likely viewed as poor workers and men--"who wears the pants" after all...
However the authors to point to several law firms that allow and encourage the use of FMLA leave by male and female partners and associates. They also foresee eventual social change by dint of such example, because employers typically change their attitudes after several employees "forge ahead" and exercise their FMLA rights.
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