The Illinois senator, due to be first to give birth in office, is working on better family leave – and wants Ivanka Trump to do more than just voice her support: ‘I’ve not seen anything concrete’

'We're in the 19th century': Tammy Duckworth on motherhood and the Senate

'We're in the 19th century': Tammy Duckworth on motherhood and the Senate

When Senator Tammy Duckworth has her second child this spring, she will make history as the first senator to give birth in office.



After sharing the news publicly, Duckworth received an outpouring of good wishes and sparked a national conversation about how women balance high-powered careers and motherhood. Some welcomed her pregnancy as a sign of progress for female politicians. While others saw it as a reminder of the slow pace of change – and of the gender gap that persists in Congress.

Duckworth, who was surprised by the response, tends to agree with the latter.

“I feel like the Senate is actually in the 19th century as opposed to the 21st somehow and that’s really unfortunate,” said the Democrat from Illinois, during an interview in her office.

“It’s a reflection of a real need for more women in leadership across our country, whether it’s legislatively or in boardrooms or the military.”

The senator, a veteran of the Iraq war, has spent a storied career in public service. Among the first women to fly combat missions in Iraq, she lost both legs when her helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in 2004. In 2012, she became the first disabled woman elected to Congress; the first member of Congress born in Thailand; and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress in Illinois.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Duckworth in a helicopter in Iraq. Photograph: Anonymous/AP

She had her first daughter, Abigail, in 2014, while serving in the House. That made her one of only 10 lawmakers to give birth while serving in Congress.

The attention around her second pregnancy has given her a platform from which to champion policies that help working mothers, including an ambitious plan for paid family leave.

“We seem to have this view that paid family leave is some sort of touchy-feely women’s only policy,” Duckworth said. “This isn’t just an entitlement. It’s really an economic imperative for our nation.”

She added: “I think this is where we’re behind other developed nations and economic powers around the world. They’ve figured out that there is an economic benefit to taking family leave.”



Among 41 developed countries, the US is the only one that does not require any paid leave for new parents, according to the the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. US law allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without losing their jobs for a new baby or if they or a family member fall ill.

In the Senate, Duckworth has joined Democrats in support of a bill that would provide up to 12 weeks of leave for family and medical purposes with partial pay. Introduced by New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand and known as the Family Act, the bill would establish a nationwide insurance program to pay for the leave, funded by employer and employee payroll contributions.

Paid family leave, long a Democratic cause, was made a priority by Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser, who has touted it as her signature domestic issue. But Duckworth said her advocacy has fallen short.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Duckworth addresses the 2008 Democratic national convention in Denver. Photograph: Paul J Richards/AFP/Getty Images

“She’s really not pushed for it,” she said. “She said this is what she wants to work on, but I’ve not seen anything concrete in the administration’s proposals.”

The White House did not reply to a request for comment. Trump is reportedly working with the Republican senator Marco Rubio on paid family leave that would allow employees to use their social security retirement benefits to take parental leave.

Duckworth said she was open to working with Trump and Republicans but her baseline was a “true family leave” plan.

Motherhood, she said, has allowed her to bring an “underrepresented” perspective to Congress. Shuttling between Washington and Illinois after the birth of her first daughter, she realized there was no designated place to express breastmilk at airports. Often she would be directed to a bathroom stall.

“We would never ask our fellow travelers to eat their sandwiches in a bathroom but there I was, expressing milk for my child on a toilet seat,” she wrote in Cosmopolitan last year.

Last year, she reintroduced the Friendly Airports for Mothers Act, which would require medium and large airports to provide lactation rooms, accessible for people with disabilities, for mothers to express breastmilk. The measure passed in committee as part of a broader bill and is awaiting consideration by the full Senate.

In the House, Duckworth introduced legislation to expand paid parental leave for members of the military. That bill would allow service members to take 12 weeks of paid leave regardless of their gender if they are a parent of a newborn, adopted or foster child.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Duckworth carries her daughter Abigail during a mock swearing in with Vice-President Joe Biden on Capitol Hill in 2017. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Duckworth, who will be 50 when she gives birth, is forcing a reckoning in the tradition-bound upper chamber.



While Duckworth offers her own staff 12 weeks of paid parental leave after birth, adoption or fostering of a child, there is no policy for senators. Duckworth plans to take 12 weeks of paid leave, but is still working with Senate leadership on the technicalities of how to do so.

The Senate does not allow votes by proxy, which means Duckworth could be summoned while on leave to take critical votes. But, unlike in the House, children are not allowed to accompany members on the floor. Meanwhile, if she needs to breastfeed during a vote, her best option would probably be the women’s restroom off the Senate floor.

Duckworth hopes that, like her predecessors who successfully lobbied for the installation of that women’s restroom in 1993, she will help the nearly 230-year-old institution adapt to the times.

“Something as simple as … not allowing children on the floor,” she said, “means that I can’t do what female legislators have done in other countries, where they’re breastfeeding, sitting at their desks waiting for a vote.”