In recent years, the United States' failure to provide paid maternity leave has met with scorn from everyone from U.S. senators to late night comedians. This is well deserved: the U.S. remains the only industrialized nation that doesn't guarantee at least some paid leave to new moms, despite its proven benefits for both maternal and child health. Yet the bigger issue globally is paternity leave. Today, while 96% of countries provide paid leave to mothers, only 49% provide any leave to fathers--and among those that do, it's often for two weeks or less. By granting leave only to mothers, governments worldwide have embedded inequality in the law.