Anti-woman, anti-child: Pregnancy discrimination on the rise
But let’s be honest. [Yahoo CEO] Marissa Mayer is an exception to a slow-changing rule.
In a New York Times Op-Ed urging the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, author Alissa Quart writes that women still fear pregnancy discrimination. “For the rich and powerful, pregnancy might not be an obstacle – it might even help one’s career. But for the rest of us, it remains a hindrance.”
Quart describes one friend who hid her baby bump from her boss until the second trimester and she points to another who worries that getting pregnant would stand in the way of a promotion.
“These fears are not unreasonable. Claims of discrimination to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from pregnant women are increasing, having risen 23% from 2005 to 2011,” she writes. In one instance, a Houston restaurant is accused of allegedly telling pregnant employees it was “‘irresponsible’ to keep working after they had become pregnant.”
I personally don’t have girlfriends hiding their pregnancies from their employers – but that’s because so many of them are choosing not to have kids at all. For me, it’s the articles I come across that are a constant reminder, advice pieces advising career-minded women to hide their pregnancies for as long as possible.
~ Alexandra Le Tellier, The Los Angeles Times, October 8
[Photo via isight.com]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
This is one area where it seems as if Pro-Life and Pro-Choice people would be making leaps and bounds of progress together. I wonder why not? :/
What true feminist worth her salt would advise a woman to hide her pregnancy?
This issue is easily solved - stop shaming women for being pregnant - but it means, in part, telling PP to shut-up.
It also means Western culture needs to resume valuing life, embracing a Culture of Life that doesn’t discriminate against the most vulnerable human beings.
The Culture of Death cowers in the face of the almighty dollar.
The work place today is overall hostile to families. We are looking at a society who views the pill as a career enhancer. I think femenists of modern day have ignored these issues and focused too heavily on sterilizing women and viewing babies and these career interrupters we should delay as long as possible. We should be fighting for accommodations for the family in the work place!
Completely agree, Musicbringsjoy. The assumption should be that all employees will be mothers and fathers someday, and the effort should be to create a culture (workplace and otherwise) that supports that rather than views it as “not my problem.”
One can’t help but wonder if there being an absolute way to “escape” pregnancy has helped to encourage these types of attitudes. After all, if a woman remains pregnant, it is in some sense “her fault”.
That’s right, JDC. And further, now that pregnancy is treated like an illness, and fertility is a disease to be managed by free contraception, expect this hostility toward pregnancy to increase and spread. Babies are a punishment and a burden, right? Naturally, it follows that pregnancy is something women are obligated to avoid. For the sake of healthcare costs, and business costs…
Sorry guys, I don’t believe that the Culture of Death is responsible for pregnancy discrimination. It was around and in full force way before the Pill and legal abortion. It is not bad advice to tell a friend to put off telling the boss they are pregnant, not if you care about the potential fallout for your friend! It is simply the reality, the economics of having an employee who – for whatever reason, not just pregnancy – is seen as less than 100% productive, 100% of the time. I am not defending this, just recognizing how things go round. I have been in the position of not being able to find an employer when I was pregnant; but, I was looking for a base job, where the employer had their pick of able-bodied people. Of course, you will sometimes run across someone who is morally and/or emotionally scarred by these related topics, who is in a position of power, who recommends contraception or abortion inappropriately to their employees. But this is the exception, not the rule.
But luckymama, don’t you think that viewing parenthood as something that is somehow an exception to the norm is part of the problem? And don’t you think that an anti-life, anti-family culture has helped to create an environment where parenthood is seen as (not actually is, but seen as) an exception rather than the norm? When a woman gets pregnant people just accept that, in choosing to continue the pregnancy, she “opts into” giving up her job, her education, whatever – rather than realizing that WE built this structure and questioning why we built it the way it is today.
Things weren’t better before – I’m not saying that. Then, pregnancy/parenthood were assumed, but nobody wanted to deal with the inconvenience so women were just kept out of the workforce, and men were thus kept out of the family. Women were flat-out discriminated against because it was assumed the would get pregnant. Now, women are not individually discriminated against in that way – but ONLY so long as they remain un-pregnant. We need to be working towards a holistic accommodation for who people really are, and who we’re best off having them be. People, men and women, who work hard, get sick sometimes, and have families – parents, children – who are the reason they work and not, as is currently believed, a distraction from work.
Playing devil’s advocate for a moment, I can also summon a small amount of empathy for employers. It’s simply a fact that pregnant women can require more time for doctor visits, and at any moment can be pulled away from their job indefinitely if complications occur and bedrest is required, for instance. That’s gotta be tough for a boss, not knowing for sure how long an expectant woman can remain on the job. I don’t know what the answer is, but I can admit that there’s two sides to this dilemma.
What does NOT ever help is the culture of death, the culture of contraception, the culture of casual sex and the general disdain of pregnancy and babies. It’s made much worse by the idea that fertility is a disease.
Before we find a solution to the workforce issue, we have to begin at the right place and that’s a reverence for Life, a respect for motherhood, and a commitment to children and families. Priorities have to rightly arranged.
Another problem is that the gender roles of women have changed in some ways that conflict with a woman’s biological reality. Too often, the only way a woman can be seen as liberated is if she takes on what was the traditional male career role in the same way as a man, i.e. working with taking very little time off for family matters. And although the intersection of biological realities with business realities makes it hard for women to take on a career in the same way as a man, supportive families (including husbands) make it easier for men and women, husband and wives, to both work if they choose. Families, more than governments, can better offset the financial and career setbacks, that accompany self-deterrmined career layoffs/sacrifices. This is one of the reasons why marriage was traditionally supported by the government, and should continue to be supported. Marriage does not only help men, it helps women too (which is a controversial thing to say in the day of the independent women.) Supporting marriage will help offset that financial burdens that money women and families face when trying to start a new family while productivity issues can be solved by businesses by being more flexible where possible, allowing such things as job-sharing, etc…
Another thing the government could do is support a Culture that does not put a premium on self-satisfaction, but praises the role and sacrifices of stay-at-home Mothers and Fathers who sacrifice their careers, personal time and adult conversation in order to be there for their children and their friend’s children. A government and cultures that values paretns who want to parent and make sacrifices to do so.
ALexandra, IMO, your holistic vision can’t happen in this world – and its proximate reality can’t exist in this world without the notion of sacrifice.
Tyler, we’ll have to disagree. I know people who work for companies with surprisingly good accommodations for the realities of their employees’ lives. Work will always be work but there’s no reason it should be “life.”
Never said work should be life, I just don’t believe in giving people false hope – whether that is hope for the perfect employer, or the hope for a benevolent government. In this life there will always be struggles for both sexes.
Well Tyler by that logic: I never said there was a perfect employer or that people should believe in and chase a struggle-free life.
I disagree that pregnancy discrimination is a result of pro choicers.
I know very few liberals/pro choicers who wouldn’t be in favor Of mandatory paid maternity leave (like pretty much every other developed nation. But many pro business conservatives abhor the idea. Furthermore Pro choicers are infamous for encouraging women to work outside the home, while pro family individuals encourage stay at home mothers.
But ultimately the discrimation against pregnant women and mothers is based on business data. While pregnancy is not a disease it might as well be one from an employer point of view. My employer woulRnt really care why I can’t go to work or need to go to the doctor he just cares that I am less productive. Pregnant women and mothers of young children statistically want more work flexibility– they factually aren’t as dedicated of workers. And from a business perspective this is highly undesirable.
I would love to see workplaces more friendly to women and mothers but I think the current form is discrimination has a lot more tO with the bottom line than the culture of death
Furthermore,
I am tying from my cell phone on my lunch break. Excuse the typos!
Shannon, why do you think young mothers want more flexibility but not young fathers?
My partner didn’t think much about the family-friendliness of his workplace until he found himself a single father. He, like so many people, had just implicitly considered “family” problems to really basically be “women’s issues.” Until he found himself rushing out early to get a sick child home from school, or leaving right on time to have dinner on the table early enough to leave time for homework, baths, and bedtime stories. Being an active, involved father has not made him a less valuable employee – but it has made him a more efficient employee. He demanded a more flexible schedule on certain days and got it – he is one of five fathers in his division; why is he the only one who ever even thought about the need for greater flexibility? Because flexibility at work is a “women’s issue” until there isn’t a woman around to deal with it anymore, I guess.
I think that anti-family mentalities at work are a bottom-line thing but I think that they have been exacerbated by the idea that pregnancy is a choice. There is a “well that’s what you chose” mentality to it now – I experienced it when I was pregnant unexpectedly in college, the presumption that if I went forward with the pregnancy, well then I would have “chosen” a lower-paying job, an unfinished degree, etc. And so there is a sort of blame. “If you wanted to work then you shouldn’t have had that baby.” No one says that, but when the two options are presumed to be morally neutral and moreover a choice between two possible futures rather than between the life and death of your child, it cannot help but be assumed that people chose a future, a situation, rather than just life.
Shannon, the best solution, better then a flexible work schedule, is staying married. However, some situations are unavoidable so flexible work arrangements are a way for businesses to demonstrate a sacrificial aittitude and a concern for a greater good. The only Culture that fosters the attitude of sacrificing oneself, or one’s profit for another human being, is a Culture of Life, a truly Christian culture. Any truly ethical progressive solution is a Christian solution and will always involve some form of self-sacrifice. The form of self-sacrifice needs to be publicly acknowledged as such, and our culture needs to give kudos to Christ for giving us the ultimate example of self-sacrifice.