Pregnant Women Discriminated Against in the Workplace

on March 6, 2009 at 12:30 PM

I can't say I'm terribly surprised by this news, but I sure can say I'm disappointed by it.

Two recent studies found that workplace discrimination worsens in a lousy economy and pregnant women often suffer badly.

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It makes sense that discrimination on the job would increase in a bad economy -- everyone's on edge, and worried about their own job security. But expecting women, already at a high risk to be discriminated against, are especially vulnerable to a negative bias.

In one study, pregnant women were overlooked for jobs seen as traditionally "masculine," such as a corporate lawyer, high school math teacher, or general surgeon.

According to the researchers, even people who typically support diversity programs have shifting attitudes in times of economic crisis -- and employers justify the discrimination against pregnant women with comments such as the applicant "would complain a lot" or "would expect to have their work done for them."

Um, WHAT?!

Pregnant women were also found to be the victims of too much touching and overly-friendly behavior.

For what it's worth, The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 is intended to protect pregnant women in federal jobs and in companies with at least 15 employees. But we all know businesses are good at finding ways to get around rules.

Have you ever been discriminated against as a pregnant woman on the job?

Filed Under: recession guide

Comments (28)

laura7485

on Mar 6, 2009 at 12:55 PM

YUP! I was in a temp-to-hire position, put in my 520 hours, took their "aptitude" test. I found out I was pregnant. I took ONE day off to see a dr, I was about 3 months along, and I got a call from the temp place saying that I was released from the assignment. I couldn't legally do anything about it because I was a "temp", eventhough I was in the process of being hired on full time. I am still upset and it happened 3 years ago! I was afraid to get a new job while I was pregnant, I went on 3 interviews and you could just tell they weren't willing to hire a pregnant lady....

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MommaCocoaButta

on Mar 6, 2009 at 1:32 PM

wow...this is terrible

Peajewel

on Mar 6, 2009 at 2:12 PM

Wow that isawful. It goes right up there with equal pay for equal jobs. I am always amazed at how, as women, we have come so far but are still so behind! I always wonder how much time you would get for maternity leave if men gave birth! hee hee

AmaliaD

on Mar 6, 2009 at 2:22 PM

i am 8 months pregs. i have worked at the same school for 5 years, i do not think my job is in jeopardy at all but i could be wrong... i think people do go too far to help you along, make too many accommodations for you, think that your health is suddenly their business to talk about and the same lady who is not my friend does keep touching me without asking to.... i am about to rub her fat ass and see how she like it.. well probably not! gross but some of that is true, some of it is not, i think you have to earn you keep just like a man, i do think people question if you can come back after baby but when you do, you are respected even more for it...

jcsg

on Mar 6, 2009 at 3:37 PM

I've been hiding my pregnancy from my employer. Because a few people have mentioned that they do not like to have pregnant women working there. Its a family owned company and they have about 15/16 people working there. I believe they would fire me on some trumped up reason. They tend to get rid of people that don't fit their belief system. Only my work partner knows I'm pregnant.

Lanasmom

on Mar 6, 2009 at 3:42 PM

I think it depends on your boss-- I worked at wal-mart for 5 years, and rarely took time off-- my brother died and i only took off a weekend, i miscarried a baby and i worked through it--didn't take off any time, but then i got pregnant again, our store manager was an *** -- I told him i was preg., we had a whole discussion about when i was due, morning sickness, etc. --Then a couple weeks later they told me i was working as a stocker ( i was usually a cashier) and i told them that i couldn't lift anything over 20lbs, and i got called to the managers office, and my manager asked why i didn't tell him that i was pregnant and told me that apparently i wasn't thinking--I figured it would only make matters worse to tell him that the person was him! --So i just left it at that. But he continued to make things harder for me--i was working 2 jobs and he wouldn't let me reduce my availabilty--he told me that i had to pick which job i wanted, even though i knew other people had accomodations made for them for other jobs--so i quit.

mrsmommy2007

on Mar 6, 2009 at 4:28 PM

laura7485 Mar. 6, 2009 at 12:55 PM

Laura,

That might be the case but I want to share my story. I have had worked for great companies. I worked for a Photography studio and never had any sort of discrimation from them. And I worked my whole pregnancy there. But I decided that a instable job like a studio was one that I could not work at and raise a family so I interviewed for a position at a Call Center for a Hotel chain and I was 8 months pregnant. NO DISCRIMATION AT ALL. She even held the job for me the 3 months until I could come back to work (He was 2 weeks late, and I took 2 months off) And they were amazing!

There are some good people out there!

katzmeow726

on Mar 6, 2009 at 4:46 PM

i actually lost my job a week before I found out I was pregnant! But this place only hires through a temp agency, and from what I hear you miss ONE day, they let you go, doctors excuse or not. On top of that I know for a fact they discriminate. You work on this computer program called big brother. Basically you have to enter your location into the program at all times, so if a manager needs you they can find you. But employees can use it as well to find others, and send messages. I got bored one day so played around for a few minutes during my break and looked up random people, and found one lady with the ntoe "on extended maternity leave" underneath the note? terminated. Aparently they didn't like that she used her accrued time off along with FMLA (I asked one of hte girls next to me). I got fired the week before when I woke up puking (morning sickness yay!) I thought I had a stomach bug. The next day, I was out.

kateloveslance

on Mar 6, 2009 at 5:39 PM

I worked as a feedlot cowboy when I got pregnant with my second one. The lady in charge of HR at our location told me that I could take FMLA because the heat was making me sick. I filled out all the paperwork, and she conveintely "lost" it then called me two and a half weeks later to get me to re-sign them.. turned out I WASN'T eligible for FMLA and since I had been gone more than two weeks (after she told me that it would be FMLA), I was fired. Unfortuneatly, I didn't keep my original paperwork and didn't know that I could still sure them because I had witnesses who saw me sign it. I wanted to sue them because they used people wrong all the time, and I wanted to make it better for other women so they wouldn't have to face what I did. I cried myself to sleep every night for two weeks and most night for another two months because I really loved my job, went above and beyond, and believed in my company then they did that.

aeryka310

on Mar 6, 2009 at 5:48 PM

my former employer threatened to fire me when she found out that i was pregnant. she proceeded to tell me that i was stupid and immature for getting pregnant. she constantly told me that i should get an abortion and even offered to pay for one. all because i was pregnant and she thought that automatically meant i wouldn't travel for work anymore. the funny thing is that if she wouldn't have flown off the handle about it and said and did all the things she had, i would've continued to travel as long as it was safe and i probably wouldn't have quit. OH WELL!