Episode #39: Dawn Huckelbridge
Welcome to our latest edition of WonkCast: People Power Policy.
It takes real capacity to turn even the most popular idea into a durable agenda for action.
Paid leave encapsulates many of the friction points requiring that capacity to take an idea from popular concept to durable enacted framework.
Most Americans can tell you that we’re among only a handful of developed countries without a national paid leave policy, even though the concept has widespread support.
Where divergence emerges is on why.
There are earnest debates over the best way to develop a policy and why, how to craft engaging messages about it, and the advocacy and political strategy to advance one.
What is less debatable is that paid leave has moved from popular idea to credible policy.
A national proposal came within a vote of enactment in 2021. 13 states and DC now have mandatory paid leave policies, and another ten have voluntary ones.
Whenever you see policy acceleration of that kind, it’s worth looking beyond the individual efforts and organizations to the infrastructure making them possible.
Today’s guest plays a pivotal role in building the capacity meant to make paid leave inevitable.
Dawn Huckelbridge is the Founding Director of Paid Leave for All, a national campaign advocating for paid family and medical leave.
We talked about what infrastructure was necessary to create prominence and momentum for the issue of paid leave, what went into that capacity building effort, and why.
The takeaways go beyond paid leave itself to the designing, building, and stewardship of infrastructure for any big policy target, which will be beneficial for anyone who has led or funded an advocacy campaign, or wondered why their powerful policy idea keeps hitting resistance.
