This Masculinity Influencer Is Loud and Wrong About Paternity Leave

For a brief shining moment in 2021, it seemed like there was a tiny chance that, thanks to the Build Back Better Bill, the United States would give its citizens at least some paid parental leave. It would have been only four weeks, but even that never happened. At the time, I wrote a column explaining how overwhelmingly popular paid leave was (and continues to be). I wondered if part of the problem was that only women and liberals were talking about how badly they needed paid leave after giving birth, and how, if we had more men and conservatives talking about their experiences postpartum, it might be more politically effective.

Christine Matthews, a public opinion pollster who had conducted focus groups with rural men and Republicans, told me five years ago about how much members of both groups wanted paid leave. “They’re talking about having jobs that are very inflexible, where they don’t get time off to support their wife who has had a baby or........

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