NON-FICTION RESPONSE: ANNE HATHAWAY UN SPEECH

1. The main idea of the text was that parents, both men and women, should have paid
parental leave and also that it shouldn’t just be limited to just women but also men as
well.
2. The connections I can make between this text and other texts that I’ve read is that there
are a lot of stereotypes surrounding men and women and one stereotype being that men
shouldn’t have paid parental leave because they aren’t the ones having the babies.
3. The author’s purpose is to both persuade and also inform the people that having paid
parental leave is something that should be given to parents. The specific words that led
me to this were when she was saying “Paid parental leave is about creating freedom to
define roles”.
4. The audience can be anyone but it is mostly directing to bosses because after all they are
the ones that have the power to give parents paid parental leave. I know this because of
the topic. The choice of audience affects the text by it directing itself to a specific group
of people.
5. The most relevant details the author uses to argue their position is that there are many
stereotypes surrounding men and women about parental leave and she also says that she’s
a mother herself so she can relate.
6. The most prevalent in the writing is logos. Three examples are: “American women are
currently entitled to 12 weeks’ unpaid leave. American men are entitled to nothing”
(Hathaway). “One in four American women go back to work two weeks after giving birth
because they can’t afford to take any more time off than that. 25 percent” (Hathaway).
“In fact, a study in Sweden showed that every month fathers took paternity leave, the
mothers’ income increased by 6.7 per cent” (Hathaway). The author exercises their
credibility by saying that she herself is a mother.
7. A possible theme for the text can be that parents should have paid parental leave but not
just for the mom but also for the dad. The three sections that led me to this conclusion
were; “The deeper into the issue of paid parental leave I go, the clearer I see the
connection between persisting barriers to women’s full equality and empowerment”
(Hathaway). “So why do we continue to undervalue fathers and overburden mothers?”
(Hathaway). “very real stereotype that not only discriminates against women, but limits
men’s participation and connection within the family and society” (Hathaway).
8. The text helped me by providing a strong argument and evidence to support it like
statistics.
9. I don’t think i would change anything about the text because I like her argument.
10. I think that women, as well as men, should be offered paid parental leave. I think that
they should both be offered paid parental leave because not giving them paid parental
leave limits the time that the parents have with their children. The time that they are
supposed to be spending with their kids is being pushed back because the parents need to
go back to work otherwise they won’t get paid. In the text it states that, “Paid parental
leave is not about taking days off work; it is about creating freedom to define roles, to
choose how to invest time, and to establish new, positive cycles of behavior” (Hathaway).
This shows that giving paid parental leave is about having time at home to build a
relationship with someone’s child. I think parents should get paid parental because it’s
very helpful and essential.