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About ten years ago, Rhena Hicks鈥� husband didn鈥檛 get any paternity leave from his employer, and their state, Virginia, wasn鈥檛 among those that had enacted a paid family leave program. So the only time he could take off around their son鈥檚 birth were the ten days of paid time off he had been able to save up. 

Hicks said her husband had hoped to spend those days at home bonding with his son and helping her before returning to work, but life had other plans. After she gave birth, their son was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for ten days, which consumed all of his time and meant he had to return to work immediately after they brought their son home from the hospital. 鈥淚t would have been so nice for him to experience our son, taking him home,鈥� Hicks said. 

Instead, Hicks was 鈥渏ust completely alone鈥� with a newborn while her husband was working, she said. 鈥淚 was just in a daze.鈥� Her memories of the time are clouded, she now thinks possibly by postpartum depression, which she believes would have been prevented if her husband had been able to take paid family leave to be with her and their son. His absence in those early days also set up a 鈥渨eird imbalance鈥� where Hicks felt she had to take on more than her share of parenting. That pattern, once established, can be hard to undo. Studies that, if fathers take parental leave, they are more involved in domestic work later on. Meanwhile, her husband lost out on spending time with their son when he was a newborn who changed daily. Given that such young babies sleep a lot during the day, Hicks distinctly remembers telling her husband to rush home from work while her son was awake. 鈥淚 was like, 鈥楬urry, his eyes are open,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 those little moments he didn鈥檛 get to experience.鈥�

Paid family leave 鈥渋s something that you want to be there for your worst days and your best days,鈥� Hicks added.

Hicks, who is now co-director of Freedom Virginia, a political advocacy organization, was part of an effort that has now ensured that future Virginia parents won鈥檛 have to experience what she and her husband went through. On April 22, Governor Abigail Spanberger legislation into law that makes Virginia the 15^th state to pass a paid family and medical leave program.

The program will start paying benefits in December 2028 and is expected to cover private-sector workers, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families. Eligible workers will receive of their average weekly wages up to a cap for up to 12 weeks a year to welcome a new child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or recover from their own medical events. Employers will have to give them their jobs back when they return. 

鈥淢illions of families across Virginia won鈥檛 have to choose between their paychecks and taking care of themselves or their loved ones or bonding with a new baby,鈥� said Elizabeth Gedmark, vice president at A Better Balance, a nonprofit advocacy organization. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really strong program.鈥�

Virginia鈥檚 statewide paid family and medical leave program is also the first to be passed by a Southern state, which advocates say could create more momentum for the policy nationwide. Spanberger called it a 鈥渉istoric step forward鈥� in a after signing the law, saying, 鈥淭hanks to this landmark law, millions of Virginians will no longer be forced to give up their paycheck when they welcome a child, or when their loved one faces a serious illness.鈥� 

鈥淭his is a really huge victory for families in Virginia, for the movement nationally, and for the whole region,鈥� Gedmark said.

Advocates have been fighting to enact paid family leave in Virginia for about a decade, Hicks said. The coalition of organizations behind it was able to learn from the that had already passed bills. It also courted the support of small business owners who wanted to be able to offer such a benefit and compete with larger entities but couldn鈥檛 afford the overhead. Those business owners needed 鈥渁 state program that evens the playing field against large corporations,鈥� she said. There was also pressure to compete with Virginia鈥檚 neighbors: Lawmakers in Maryland a paid family leave bill in 2022, while Washington, D.C. has had a program since 2020.

But Hicks said momentum for paid family leave in Virginia 鈥渞eally picked up鈥� about five years ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The crisis 鈥渟howed us that social structure and social net that everyone needs,鈥� she said. At the same time, younger candidates, especially women, started winning seats in the state legislature, bringing new perspectives and life experiences, Hicks said. Freedom Virginia intentionally supported candidates who said they would support paid family leave. Paid family leave legislation 鈥済ot really close鈥� to passage in the last two years, she said, but ran aground on opposition from former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who bills that the general assembly had passed. 鈥淭he support was there, and it was growing,鈥� she said.

Then Spanberger, who has school-aged daughters, ran for governor to sign such legislation into law. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a really long time since we鈥檝e had, not just a governor with school-aged children to understand what working families are going through, but someone who鈥檚 had the experience of motherhood and giving birth,鈥� Hicks noted. Both Hicks and Gedmark said they think Spanberger鈥檚 vocal support for family leave helped her win. 鈥淚t just goes to show, if you campaign on giving workers and their families concrete action that improves their lives and helps pocketbooks,鈥� Gedmark said, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a really good political strategy.鈥� 

Both Hicks and Gedmark argued that it matters to have a state in the South enact paid family leave. Nearby states will 鈥渇eel pressure to act,鈥� Gedmark said, 鈥渂ecause they鈥檙e competing for the same talented workforce, competing to try to draw in business.鈥� It will also offer other Southern states a relatable example. They can no longer write off paid family leave as something only happening in coastal blue states like California and New York, Gedmark said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a similar culture, there are similar industries, even similar weather, which matters a lot,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n the South, they all want to keep up with the herd.鈥� She expects to see more states in the region follow suit.

Gedmark also believes Virginia鈥檚 example will ripple across the country. Advocates in other states are already starting to talk to A Better Balance about replicating the state鈥檚 success, she said. 

She also thinks it will create momentum at the federal level. 鈥淎s the saying goes, 鈥楢s goes the South, so goes the nation,鈥欌�� she said. First, there is the fact that Virginia is right next door to D.C. and many lawmakers鈥� staff live there. But there鈥檚 also the fact that Virginia will prove that this isn鈥檛 a policy that can only exist in deep blue states. 鈥淭here is so much that can easily be dismissed if it seems to be sort of just a coastal elite thing,鈥� she said. Now it 鈥渃an no longer be dismissed.鈥�

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