Meghan Markle showed her support for working moms by helping to establish the “National Business Coalition for Child Care” as shown in a press release on Wednesday, May 11. The Duchess of Sussex spoke about how the COVID-19 pandemic affected so many working families, especially mothers, and she emphasized how important child care is to help mothers be able to work. “Families everywhere, and especially working moms, are asked to shoulder so much,” she said.
Meghan continued to say that child care is important to help businesses thrive for women in the workforce. “This has only been heightened by the pandemic, with increased caregiving responsibilities, rising prices, and economic uncertainty. As it’s been said many times, it takes a village to raise a child. Today, we’re sending a message that childcare isn’t just a community imperative—it’s a business imperative. Creating a stronger workforce starts with meeting the needs of families,” she said.
The new initiative is only the latest move from the Duchess to advocate for working mothers. She’s frequently been an outspoken supporter for paid family leave for new parents. She wrote an open letter to Congress making the case for it, while also speaking about her own experience after the birth of her and Prince Harry’s second child Lili. “No family should have to choose between earning a living and having the freedom to take care of their child (or a loved one, or themselves, as we would see with a comprehensive paid leave plan),” she wrote.
Meghan continued to advocate for national paid family leave in the States during a November 2021 summit with The New York Times. “Paid leave, from my standpoint, is just a humanitarian issue,” she said. “To come back [to the U.S.] and now be a mother of two and to see that the U.S. is one of only six countries in the entire world that doesn’t offer any form of national paid leave just didn’t make sense.”