GMAT Reading Comprehension - Many Politicians, Business Leaders, and Scholars Discount the Role of Public Policy

Reading Passage Question

Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of public policy and emphasize the role of the labor market when explaining employers’ maternity-leave policies, arguing that prior to the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, employers were already providing maternity leave in response to the increase in the number of women workers. Employers did create maternity-leave programs in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but not as a purely voluntary response in the absence of any government mandate. In 1972, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ruled that employers who allowed leaves for disabling medical conditions must also allow them for maternity and that failure to do so would constitute sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As early as 1973, a survey found that 58 percent of large employers had responded with new maternity-leave policies. Because the 1972 EEOC ruling was contested in court, the ruling won press attention that popularized maternity-leave policies. Yet perhaps because the Supreme Court later struck down the ruling, politicians and scholars have failed to recognize its effects, assuming that employers adopted maternity-leave policies in response to the growing feminization of the workforce.

‘Many politicians, business leaders, and scholars discount the role of public policy and emphasize the role of the labor market when explaining employers’ maternity-leave policies’ is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension. This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions.
The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed to test candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. It can be inferred that the author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements about government policy?

(A) Government policy is generally unaffected by pressures in the labor market.
(B) The impact of a given government policy is generally weakened by sustained press attention.
(C) It is possible for a particular government policy to continue to have an impact after that policy has been eliminated.
(D) A given government policy can be counterproductive when that policy has already unofficially been implemented.
(E) The impact of a given government policy is generally weakened when the ruling is contested in court.

2. The passage suggests that the relationship between the view of the author with respect to maternity leave policy prior to passage of the FMLA and the view of the politicians, business leaders, and scholars mentioned in lines 1-2 can best be characterized by which of the following statements?

(A) They agree that both the 1972 EEOC ruling on maternity-leave policy and the increasing feminization of the workplace had an impact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree about the relative importance of each factor.
(B) They agree that the EEOC ruling on maternity-leave policy had an initial impact on employers’ creation of maternity-leave programs but disagree over whether the Supreme Court’s striking down of the EEOC ruling weakened that impact.
(C) They agree that creating maternity-leave programs was a necessary response to the needs of the increasing number of women workers but disagree about whether maternity should be classified as a disabling medical condition.
(D) They agree that employers created maternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about employers’ motivations for doing so.
(E) They agree that employers created maternity-leave programs prior to passage of the FMLA but disagree about how widespread those programs were.

3. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) present an alternative to a commonly accepted explanation for a phenomenon
(B) reexamine a previously discredited explanation for a phenomenon in light of new evidence
(C) criticize politicians and scholars for failing to anticipate a phenomenon
(D) correct a common misconception about the impact a phenomenon has had on a government policy
(E) analyze the ways in which a phenomenon has changed over time in response to market forces

4. According to the passage, the 1972 EEOC ruling did which of the following?

(A) It provided a government mandate for maternity-leave policies that employers were already offering voluntarily.
(B) It provoked a controversy among employers regarding the proper implementation of maternity-leave policies.
(C) It required all employers to provide employee leave for pregnant women and people with disabling medical conditions.
(D) It gave pregnant women the same rights to employee leave as people with disabling medical conditions.
(E) It increased pregnant women's awareness of their rights to employee leave.

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