Cite as: 538 U. S. 721 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
68, p. 77 (1991) (minority views of Sen. Durenberger) ("[S]o few states have elected to enact similar legislation at the state level").
Furthermore, the dissent's statement that some States "had adopted some form of family-care leave" before the FMLA's enactment, post, at 750, glosses over important shortcomings of some state policies. First, seven States had childcare leave provisions that applied to women only. Indeed, Massachusetts required that notice of its leave provisions be posted only in "establishment[s] in which females are employed." 6 These laws reinforced the very stereotypes that Congress sought to remedy through the FMLA. Second, 12 States provided their employees no family leave, beyond an initial childbirth or adoption, to care for a seriously ill child or family member.7 Third, many States pro-6 Mass. Gen. Laws, ch. 149, § 105D (West 1997) (providing leave to "fe-male employee[s]" for childbirth or adoption); see also 3 Colo. Code Regs. § 708-1, Rule 80.8 (2002) (pregnancy disability leave only); Iowa Code § 216.6(2) (2000) (former § 601A.6(2)) (same); Kan. Admin. Regs. 21-32-6(d) (2003) ("a reasonable period" of maternity leave for female employees only); N. H. Stat. Ann. § 354-A:7(VI)(b) (Michie Supp. 2000) (pregnancy disability leave only); La. Stat. Ann. § 23:1008(A)(2) (West Supp. 1993) (re-pealed 1997) (4-month maternity leave for female employees only); Tenn. Code Ann. § 4-21-408(a) (1998) (same).
The dissent asserts that four of these schemes—those of Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, and New Hampshire—concern "pregnancy disability leave only." Post, at 752. But Louisiana provided women with four months of such leave, which far exceeds the medically recommended pregnancy disability leave period of six weeks. See n. 4, supra. This gender-discriminatory policy is not attributable to any different physical needs of men and women, but rather to the invalid stereotypes that Congress sought to counter through the FMLA. See supra, at 731.
7 See 3 Colo. Code Regs. § 708-1, Rule 80.8 (2002); Del. Code Ann., Tit. 29, § 5116 (1997); Iowa Code § 216.6(2) (2000); Kan. Admin. Regs. 21-32-6 (2003); Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 337.015 (Michie 2001); La. Stat. Ann. § 23:1008(A)(2) (West Supp. 1993); Mass. Gen. Laws, ch. 149, § 105(D) (West 1997); Mo. Rev. Stat. § 105.271 (2000); N. H. Stat. Ann. § 354-A:7(VI)(b) (Michie Supp. 2000); N. Y. Lab. Law § 201-c (West 2002); Tenn. Code
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