Regardless of how many women win, advocates say the attention candidates are bringing to the issue should resonate in the new Congress and potentially change national policies.

With every other developed country except the United States guaranteeing workers paid leave, the feasibility of paid leave has been well-tested across the world. But nevertheless, there still remains an underlying fear that it’ll somehow be bad for businesses in this country.

Future mothers and fathers, currently pregnant women and soon-to-be dads, new moms and dads, seasoned parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, friends and coworkers: We all need to speak up. Our voices can effect change for the next generation of working parents. Here’s how to get informed and fight for paid leave.

Failing to provide paid leave has especially devastating consequences for people of color that compound and exacerbate deep-seated and longstanding discrimination, institutionalized racism and vast income and wealth disparities.

Before I became a parent, it never once registered that “paid leave” was about so much more than new parenthood.

“You shouldn’t have to rely on the generosity of your co-workers to meet the needs of your family and protect your job,” [Tiffany Joekel, policy and research director for the Women’s Fund of Omaha] said.

Researchers say Hoosiers are ready for a government program that ensures all workers have access to paid family and medical leave.

“I think as a country we value hard work, supporting our family and being there for them, yet the policies to do both are not there,” Vasu Reddy, senior policy counsel for workplace programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families, said.

It’s been 25 years since the Family and Medical Leave Act was approved by the federal government, and in the years since then, half of the states haven’t moved beyond the basics related to protection of unpaid leave.

The [American Enterprise Institute/Brookings Institution] working group’s shortcoming is especially disappointing because there are so few issues today upon which policymakers on both sides of the political aisle in Washington can agree. Paid family leave to care for a seriously ill loved one should be among them.