Reading Comprehension

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 GMAT 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


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 the highlighted text 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 maternityleave
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 maternityleave
programs prior to passage of the FMLA but
disagree about employers' motivations for doing
so.
E. They agree that employers created maternityleave
programs prior to passage of the FMLA but
disagree about how widespread those programs
were