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Invention · Germany · 1883

Parental Leave

Germany offered maternity protections in 1883, yet the United States still has no federal paid leave.

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Germany's Sickness Insurance Act of 1883, one of Otto von Bismarck's three social insurance laws, included provisions for women during childbirth. Working women received cash benefits for several weeks before and after delivery, making Germany one of the earliest industrial nations to offer statutory maternity protection.1

Sweden expanded the concept significantly. In 1974, Sweden became the first country in the world to replace maternity leave with gender-neutral parental leave, allowing either parent to take paid time off after the birth of a child.2 The policy reflected a deliberate decision to distribute caregiving responsibility between mothers and fathers.

1974, The year Sweden became the first country to offer gender-neutral paid parental leave

The International Labour Organization's Maternity Protection Convention of 2000 recommended a minimum of fourteen weeks of paid maternity leave. By 2021, 120 countries met or exceeded this standard.3

The United States remains the only member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that does not mandate paid parental leave at the federal level. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 provides up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for eligible workers, but roughly 40 percent of American workers are not eligible for it.4

Timeline

  • 1883, Germany's Sickness Insurance Act included maternity protections for working women.
  • 1974, Sweden became the first country to offer gender-neutral parental leave.
  • 1993, The U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act provided up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave.
  • 2000, The ILO recommended a minimum of fourteen weeks of paid maternity leave globally.

Endnotes

  1. History of Social Security, "1883-1884-1889," historyofsocialsecurity.ch.
  2. Ann-Zofie Duvander et al., "Swedish Parental Leave and Gender Equality," Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, 2010.
  3. International Labour Organization, Maternity and Paternity at Work: Law and Practice Across the World (Geneva: ILO, 2014), updated 2021.
  4. U.S. Department of Labor, "Family and Medical Leave Act," Wage and Hour Division, accessed March 2026.