Mothers Work Case

The negative mind-set of employers on pregnant employees plays an important role in causing discrimination. Women’s performance ratings were seen to decline after being pregnant, from “superb” to “terrible” as shared by one victim of pregnancy discrimination. This is because they are perceived as “overly emotional, often irrational, physically limited, and less than committed to their jobs” as compared to their non-pregnant woman counterparts and are hence “less valuable and dependable.” There is also the problem of additional workload for remaining staff or the potential need to hire temporary staff to tide over the maternity leave period. To compound the issue, employers suffer uncertainty as to when the employee will return to work, or worse, the employee leaves for good after their maternity leave period. In fact, a study done shows that only 60% of women go back to work within two years of their maternity leave. It is hence unavoidable that employers, being cost sensitive, worry that all the extra cost incurred will ultimately become a meaningless loss if their pregnant employees do not return to work.

As more women in the United States join the workforce, policy needs to reflect and benefit these working mothers. This creates a balancing act between gender equality, a popular issue amongst political candidates, and paid maternity leave. America cannot expect to have one without the other.

Women may find themselves in some accommodation requirement circumstances at work, due to the ability to be both pregnant and employed. This does not mean that they do not have the ability to work. In fact, because of their medical requirements related with their pregnancy, they would need to have some work accommodation made by their employer to make it easier and possible. As result, women have been struggling for years, when it comes too social and workplace equality.

“Although national laws are beginning to curb overt acts of sexual harassment, such as demands for sexual favors in return for a promotion, women still experience less obvious sexual advances, most often from men in higher positions” (Black Enterprise). Harassment at work involves people overpassing their limits. Such as, them singling you out or treating you any different than your coworkers. “Unwelcome sexual conduct in this context sends the victim a clear message that she is an intruder in the workplace by reminding her of the historical myth that a woman’s place is in the home” (Chan). The myth sets standards for women which lock people into a certain belief and idea in their perspective towards single mothers. In the same article it states “It is not shocking that a single mother in an unskilled position would allow her supervisor to sexually harass her in exchange for the paycheck which enables her to feed her child” (Chan). Single mothers will do anything to fulfil the needs of their children. Even when that means, permitting harassment to take place against them. “Bias against one subset of employees: caregivers, particularly working mothers. This type of discrimination has a name: “maternal wall bias.” It takes the form of comments like “Don’t you feel bad leaving your kids at home? Don’t you miss them?” (Williams). Coworkers harass the single mothers into thinking that going to work makes them an

Besides the previous reasons stated, one of the most common problems for women in the workplace is being discriminated against due to pregnancy. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated seeing a 65 percent increase in complaints about discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace between 1992 and 2007 (Chaney, 2008). Example of pregnancy discrimination are refusing to hire a pregnant woman, firing or demoting a pregnant women, denying a woman the same or similar job when she returns, or treating a pregnant employee differently than other temporarily disabled employees. Many women get laid off and even fired from their jobs because they get pregnant. Often male bosses will give excuses for these situations saying that the woman is unable to do their job or that their missing attendance will be a problem due to their pregnancy. Some bosses simply give the reason that women will not be as interested in their job once the child is born, which is an outrageous assumption to make.

It also undermined the Congressional goal of eliminating discrimination in the workplace” (National Women's Law Center). Women also face discrimination because they are often penalized for having children. Women must face outdated ideas of what a woman can accomplish if she’s pregnant or already has children. The jobs that are considered traditional for women and are more understanding about women being mothers, are usually the lowest-paying jobs.

In her interviews with woman she was sure to interview very well educated women and those that strived for mere perfection. One thing is that the men in the lives of these women were not supportive and not mentioned of much. The men and society of today have placed a lot of responsibility on a woman’s shoulders when it comes to the child. It is the woman who makes the decision or is given the task to make the heavy decisions regarding the child’s future. Because of this many women choose to stay at home to be sure that the children will receive everything that they deserve and that they are not lacking in any area. Another issue that she reviews is that employers do not work with moms at all. For example she talked about the scenario where two moms brought a solution to their problem to management yet it failed to receive approval instead one mother was offered more money (Guest, 2011). Employers are not very flexible when it comes to mothers and don’t provide the proper care that is needed for a child. Since men are the ones that don’t carry the responsibility of the child’s well-being having proper day care is not a factor for them. Then there is the cost of day care which is high and can at times not compare to what the individual is making.

This paper explores three published articles that report on how many women lack job security when working while pregnant. Many are either denied the special accommodations or forced to quit their job. The Pregnant Worker Fairness Act (PWFA) is a bill currently pending in Congress, that would help to end any type of discrimination towards pregnant workers and ensure that they would be able to continue working to support their families. The articles all agree that the PWFA would put in place rules and guidelines for employers to follow that would help protect the job of the pregnant employee. Brown (2016) states that much has changed for women in the workforce during the last half-century, but treatment of pregnant workers remains frustratingly

It caused the economy to go down as close as the bottom. Thus, women who made up half of the population were no longer ignored. They were able to work, and therefore, helped to improve the economy. Even though women are able to work, they are excluded from most of benefits provided by their employers since most of those jobs are part-time and temporary. Not only do they not receive benefits like permanent employees, they are easily to get fire as well. These types of jobs have little regulations for female employees. Nevertheless, female full-time workers are no better than those part-timers. The author of Under The Bus and a labor law practiced person, Fredrickson admitted that those labor laws abandoned numbers of women. They do not get either paid or unpaid family leave, or even overtime benefits. They only receive limit paid sick leave and healthcare from their jobs. Some employers even drop the working hours in order to not giving out these benefits. The worse treatment that women suffer in addition to the above disadvantages is that they are obliged to go to work immediately after they give birth to their children. This is extremely ridiculous. It shows that employers do not concern about their employees’ health at all. Imagined how tiring it is to give birth and how much the newly born children need their mothers for feeding or taking care especially in poor families that could not even afford for nannies (2015). As a result, the labor laws that established to protect employees did not include women at all. Thus women still have limit access to those benefits that they supposed to get. Forcing women to work without thinking about providing those protections or advantages would not only affect their work performance, it also affects their family

One law that I do see broken in this assignment is the “Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.” It’s very unnecessary and unprofessional to ask any applicant how they are going to take care of their child while they are at work which would make it very discriminatory. If the applicant meets the criteria and experience plus having a child, then the managers should have no right to treat the women any different or not find the female qualified during the hiring process.

It has been argued that maternity leave is not only harmful to business but also to women themselves, and that it can be a burden on businesses so they may think twice about employing women. (7) Where leave is given, whether paid or unpaid, businesses have to fill the position vacated by the parents and this in itself creates additional work and cost for employers who have to pay for job advertisements, background checks and time for interviews. They are also faced with the cost of training the temporary

The case of Kathryn Mc Neil deals with the issue of separation in the workplace regarding the nonperformance of a single mother whose work was suffering because of the tremendous additional burden of raising a child. The case was written in 1994 but in the intervening years significant decisions have been made by the law (in the US) protecting the rights of the single mother. The debate is no longer exclusively about professionalism versus corporate responsibility but the new phenomenon of a third gender in the workplace.

The change in policy that allows women and men to bring their newborn children to work with them is, in a sense, just one more change in our country norms and values. At one point leaving your child with a baby sitter or at a daycare center all day was considered being a bad parent, meaning it was the norm to stay home and take care of your child yourself. Then, as divorce rates went up and more women were forced to raise their children on their own, that changed and it became the norm for women to go back to work after a set time for maternity leave. This also made sending you child to a daycare center or leaving them with a babysitter the norm since you couldn’t be there to take care of your child. With women being allowed to bring their babies into work with them, that is again changing the norms of society, specifically those having to do with the care of children. Women used to be given a hard time when they brought their children into work with them, even if it was only for a matter of minutes. Now many of them are allowed to bring their children in for a whole day, every day. This is enabling women to care for their own children and raise them in their own way with their own values, instead of entrusting those important responsibilities to someone else. Mothers are also forming a closer bond with their children in an important time in a child’s development. This will lead to a stronger bond later

The laws seem to be effective, thousands of women a year who are pregnant or new mothers file complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The Federal agency that deals with job discrimination.

Per mom, when Santi eats he hold the spoon in an adaptive fashion. He still alternates between his two hands while eating and while scribbling on a piece of paper. When he scribbles he holds the marker in between his thumb and two forefingers with both hands. Per mom, when he eats he hold the spoon in an adaptive fashion.