scandals; DeGeneres, Ellen; Dole, Bob; Education in
the United States; Elections in the United States,
midterm; Elections in the United States, 1992; Elec-
tions in the United States, 1996; Homosexuality and
gay rights; Lewinsky scandal; Religion and spiritual-
ity in the United States; Republican Revolution;
Television; White House attacks.
Family and Medical Leave Act
of 1993
Identification Legislation to provide emergency
medical leave for American workers
Date Signed on February 5, 1993
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 was the first
federal law in the United States to mandate that employees
who were ill, had new children, or needed to attend to imme-
diate family members’ medical emergencies be allowed a
leave of absence from work without penalty.
The movement to create the Family and Medical
Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) began when the U.S. Su-
preme Court struck down a 1972 Equal Employ-
ment Opportunity Commission ruling that busi-
nesses that allowed medical leaves must also provide
maternity leaves. Congress included the same provi-
sions in the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.
Under pressure from constituents, Congress passed
a more comprehensive family leave act in 1990 that
provided mandatory sick leave for employees and
their children, spouse, or parents, as well as mater-
nity leave, only to have it vetoed by President George
H. W. Bush. President Bill Clinton had promised to
support such legislation during his 1992 campaign,
and, at his urging, Congress passed the FMLA, which
was the first bill that he signed into law.
The dramatic increases in both female full-time
labor force participation and the percentage of mar-
ried-couple households in which both spouses were
employed had created strong support for the FMLA
within the population as a whole and both major po-
litical parties. This federal law, which was drafted by
the National Partnership for Women and Families,
mandates that an eligible employee may take twelve
weeks of unpaid annual leave to care for a new son or
daughter (by birth, foster care, or adoption); care
for a sick spouse, child, or parent; or recover from a
debilitating illness. Any employee who has worked
for twelve months and has worked 1,250 hours dur-
ing those twelve months for a business that employs
fifty or more employees within a seventy-five-mile ra-
dius is eligible. The employer must allow the em-
ployee to return to the same position or one with a
similar salary and responsibilities, with no loss of ten-
ure or benefits, and any existing group health insur-
ance must be maintained during the leave.
Impact Research showed that, in spite of some crit-
ics’ concerns that low-income workers would not
benefit from the FMLA because they could not af-
ford to take unpaid leave, employees felt that a tem-
porary loss of income was better than dismissal be-
cause of a personal or family emergency, regardless
of their socioeconomic status. Overall, employees
returned to work sooner after taking an FMLA leave
than they did in work places without emergency-
leave provisions before the act’s passage. The fact
that both men and women are covered under the
FMLA, unlike earlier maternity leave laws, has re-
duced the perception that women are “more trou-
ble” and “more expensive” to employ. Women’s
movement and elderly activist organizations agree
that this limited relief for family caregivers repre-
sents an important move toward equity in the Ameri-
can workplace, although it falls far short of provi-
sions in other industrialized nations.
Further Reading
Aitchison, Will.The FMLA: Understanding the Family
and Medical Leave Act. Portland, Oreg.: Labor Re-
lations Information System, 2003.
Decker, Kurt H.Family and Medical Leave in a Nutshell.
St. Paul, Minn.: West Group, 2000.
Jack CarterSee also Bush, George H. W.; Business and the
economy in the United States; Clinton, Bill; Employ-
ment in the United States; Supreme Court deci-
sions; Women in the workforce; Women’s rights. Farrakhan, Louis
Identification Leader of the Nation of Islam
Born May 11, 1933; Bronx, New York
Farrakhan was one of the most high-profile leaders of the Af-
rican American community during the 1990’s.
In 1978, Louis Farrakhan formed his own sect of the
Nation of Islam, a Black Nationalist and separatistThe Nineties in America Farrakhan, Louis 323