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Comments
04.22.08
Note: in the UK it is legal to ask if a job applicant is planning on getting pregnant in the next year. (or at least it was a few years ago when I was over there hiring)
And please keep some perspective, it is part of the interview process to be discriminating about whom we hire. Is it discrimination if you don't hire someone who can't read? Of course not. Most jobs require some level of reading skill.
Missing two months or so of work due to pregnancy is an issue that affects women. Not men. It is a biological fact, not a "discriminatory factor".
04.22.08
After seeing your post I went to Christine Haffler's column, which was horrendous. Pregnancy is something that our nation has to come to grips with. The FMLA is inadequate as you point out here. What if Haffler's letter writer needs to have a job? It is nice to talk about how she should put her career on the back burner for a while, but how will she and the baby eat, then? Anyway, if she was interviewing while six months pregnant it seems like a stretch to imagine that her new employer didn't know. I prefer what Penelope Trunk wrote in her blog about when to tell a potential employer that you are pregnant. Let's be realistic.
04.22.08
By the way, Stephen, if you were a woman it might seem to you like a discriminatory factor. Because then you would be dealing with a reality of finding it difficult to find a job. Women get pregnant, and that provides society with the new generation. We have to try harder to make accommodations for that. If corporations cannot, under current structures, that is not a good thing.
04.22.08
Stephen,
According to the BBC "Legally, a direct question to a potential employee cannot be asked," so I guess times have changed.
Women are then being discriminated against on the basis of that biological factor.
My dad was out of work for 2 months after triple bypass surgery, as were his friends (the majority of the guys in his department have had heart attacks+) and the beat went on while they were away, without a second though.
Pregnancy is also a medical condition, but it's treated differently.
Liz, thanks for pointing out Penelope had written on this topic. Here is the link for others who come along:
blog.penelopetrunk.com/2005/05/30/how-to-job-hunt-when-youre-pregnant/
04.22.08
Stephen, I have to agree with Liz. I *know* that I passed over for job opportunities recently...and have been told as much by friends in the hiring companies. Granted, if they are discriminating in this fashion, I probably don't want to work there anyway, but it does make me angry, and I have contemplated adding a brief statement to my career objectives: "Non-procreating Graphic & Web Design professional seeking a position in a progressive company."
Truly sad.
04.22.08
I agree that women should not be asked or discriminated against in the interview process over pregnancy. That is totally wrong.
But I'm not sure the government needs to step in and mandate paid leave for pregnant women. Getting pregnant is a choice everyone needs to make, rape victims aside. A women (or a couple) should not have children until they are financially stable enough to. That is, they have either saved up enough money, the spouse has a good job, or the mother to be has an employer with good benefits.
But I want to reiterate that an employer should not discriminate because a women "may" get pregnant in the future.
04.23.08
Relax. The market will regulate itself and force these women to stop getting pregnant in the first place.
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