Pregnancy-Related Bias Widespread in the Workplace
In 2014, you wouldn’t expect a woman who decides to have a baby to find that her condition has jeopardized her work and promotion potential. However, according to a new study that was released recently, pregnancy-related job discrimination does not just exist in American industry, but is also fairly widespread.
The analysis was based on a review of 75 cases involving women who had filed pregnancy-related discrimination complaints against their employers with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission from 1986 to 2003. The researchers found that 40% of gender-based workplace discrimination complaints involved pregnant women. In 30% of those cases, the employer cited poor performance by the pregnant employee as the reason for the discrimination. In 10% of the findings, the employers stated that the reason for the firing was based on “business needs, profit and efficiency.”
Very often, employers seem to get away with using the “efficiency” and “business performance” ruse, when they want to fire a pregnant worker. The industry has found it very convenient to perpetrate a stereotype that pregnant women are unreliable, do not take their job seriously, and may require additional accommodations in the workplace that are impractical. Some employers believe that pregnant mothers are likely to be distracted not just currently, but also in the future.
Not all pregnant women in the workplace realize that their rights are protected by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act which prohibits employers from terminating an employee just because she’s pregnant. However, the problem is that these days, employers don’t fire women outright because they are pregnant. It is a slow process that usually consists of giving the woman poor performance grades, spotlighting workplace inefficiency, and using other methods to ease her out from the job.
