GWD28-Q26问题

  Many politicians, business leaders, andscholars discount the role of public policy and emphasize the role of the labormarket when explaining employers’ maternity-leave policies, arguing that priorto the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, employerswere already providing maternity leave in response to the increase in thenumber of women workers.  Employers did creatematernity-leave programs in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but not as a purelyvoluntary response in the absence of any government mandate. In 1972, the EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that employers who allowedleaves for disabling medical conditions must also allow them for maternity andthat failure to do so would constitute sex discrimination under the CivilRights Act of 1964.  As early as 1973, a surveyfound that 58 percent of large employers had responded with new maternity-leavepolicies.  Because the 1972 EEOC rulingwas contested in court, the ruling won press attention that popularizedmaternity-leave policies.  Yet perhapsbecause the Supreme Court later struck down the ruling, politicians and scholarshave failed to recognize its effects, assuming that employers adopted maternity-leavepolicies in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.

Q26:

Thepassage suggests that the relationship between the view of the author withrespect to maternity leave policy prior to passage of the FMLA and the view ofthe politicians, business leaders, and scholars mentioned in lines 1-2 can bestbe characterized by which of the following statements?

A.   They agree that both the 1972 EEOC ruling onmaternity-leave policy and the increasing feminization of the workplace had animpact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree aboutthe relative importance of each factor.

B.   They agree that the EEOC ruling onmaternity-leave policy had an initial impact on employers’ creation ofmaternity-leave programs but disagree over whether the Supreme Court’s strikingdown of the EEOC ruling weakened that impact.

C.   They agree that creating maternity-leaveprograms was a necessary response to the needs of the increasing number ofwomen workers but disagree about whether maternity should be classified as adisabling medical condition.

D.   They agree that employers createdmaternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree aboutemployers’ motivations for doing so.

E.    They agree that employers createdmaternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about howwidespread those programs were.