Childfree Issues: Benefits Project

From CyberOne Wiki

In a society that is becoming more sensitive to stereotypes and prejudices based on past discrimination, a group of people with no such history are nonetheless being overlooked. Parenting is so ingrained in American culture that many do not even perceive it as a choice, and certainly do not consider the disparate effect of many of our policies on the childless. Although rising rates of circumstantial and deliberate childlessness has increased the portion of non-parents in our society, there is still no centralized organization to advocate for their interests. Social stigma that discourages individuals from admitting their status contributes to the childless community’s lack of visibility.

This project establishes a blog as a clearing-house for advocacy issues and a website to begin the campaign for one issue: workplace benefits. By incorporating prominent leaders of the childfree and childless communities, this blog attempts to create a central platform for launching many such projects.

The workplace benefits campaign is centered on the idea that benefits packages of unequal value are a result of the lack of visibility. We advocate for a ‘cafeteria-style’ benefits plan which would allow each employee to select whichever benefits would be most useful, and ensures that each worker receives an equally valued total compensation package.

Although such plans benefit many different people, the advocacy here focuses on the inequality between those with and without children, since the project itself is aimed not just at achieving that end, but at motivating and organizing the childless behind an initial goal.

For more details, see the Project Website.

-- Lciaccio 15:15, 10 December 2006 (EST)