Pregnant Women In The Workforce: A Case Study

The Americans with Incapacities Act (ADA) got to be law in 1990. The ADA is a social equality law that forbids oppression people with handicaps in every aspect of open life, including employments, schools, transportation, and all open and private places that are interested in the overall population. The motivation behind the law is to ensure that individuals with handicaps have the same rights and open doors as other people. The ADA is separated into five titles (or segments) that identify with distinctive ranges of open life.(Eeoc.gov, 2015)

Well first off, doctors will prescribe medication to their patients for their own benefit. They know the dangers of taking any drug, while being pregnant can endanger the life of the baby. However, the mothers who are pregnant should know the effects a drug will have on their pregnancy. For example, when you buy a prescribed medication it states a fair warning on the back stating not to take any medication during your pregnancy, including the risk factors. Although, there are some medications, such as Metformin which are necessary for women who have a cholesterol problem. This bill will do wonders for the mothers who truly do everything in their power to make their pregnancy successful and their child born healthy.

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

American with Disability Act (ADA) gives civil rights protections to persons with disabilities in all facets of the American society, “every man, woman, and child with a disability can now pass through once-closed doors into a bright new era of equality, independence, and freedom”, with those words on July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ada.gov, 2009). The ADA law does not list specific disability conditions, rather, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under Title I of the Act, specifies conditions that are attributed to disability and undertakes the enforcement authority. Title1 deals with the

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.

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was enacted to offer relief and protection to those workers

The Americans with Disabilities Act, also known as Public Law 101-336, is a civil rights law. It makes it illegal to discriminate based on disability in several different areas of life. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in: employment, services rendered by state and local governments, places of public accommodation, transportation, telecommunications services. The ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations. The ADA’s nondiscrimination standards also apply to federal sector employees under section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, and its implementing rules. http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html

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.

In 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) came into law. This law protects people with disabilities by preventing discrimination in all aspects of public life. The Americans with disabilities Act allows people with disabilities to have the same opportunities and rights as everyone else. The ADA gives Americans with disabilities employment rights just as any other employee would. Discrimination regarding hiring, firing, pay, and other aspects of employment are prohibited. Harassment of disabled employees is also illegal. Employers must also provide accommodations to the employee. An accommodation would be a change in the work enviroment so that the disabled employee can perform his or her job duties properly. For example, an employer making his workplace wheelchair accessible for his employee in a wheelchair. However, employers do not have to provide accommodations to employees if it causes too much hardship upon the employer. This would occur if the accommodation is too expensive or difficult to get done. People fall under the category of disability by three main ways: If the person has a physical or mental condition that affects life activates, if the person the person has a history of a condition or a condition that is not transitory. The ADA also limits employer’s interviews when asking job applicants medical questions, taking medical exams, or indentifying a

On July 26th, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act were signed into law. The act intended to make American society more accessible to people with disabilities. This is one of the most comprehensive civil rights laws enacted in the United States and prohibits discrimination on the basis of physical or mental disability. By passing the ADA the government recognized the fact that a large number of Americans were still being excluded from many areas of life, including employment, access to public and governmental accommodations, transportation and telecommunications. The ADA provides a much-needed standard for the protection of civil rights of people with disabilities. The ADA is divided into to 5 parts called Titles. Title I covers employment,

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.

Recently women’s rights and women’s equality in the workplace has come back to the fore as a topic for discussion in government agencies and the United Nations. Whilst this is a very important topic, when it comes to time off from work when a new child is born, women in the US have some provision, whereas men have none.

With the rise of the modern age economic survival has become difficult for families based on a single income. This economic need along with modern attitudes toward gender equality has resulted in women being represented in the workforce in greater numbers. However, until the 1960’s women faced severe discrimination when trying to enter and maintain a position in the workforce. Often qualified women would be passed over for men with less experience and education. Employers were fearful that women were too emotional and were not equipped to handle the stress of the work environment. Also driving the decision to not hire or promote women was the concern over the additional health care expenses and leave time pregnant

Since the days of Roe v. Wade, women in the United States have made great gains in many ways in society. Two consecutive presidential administrations women have serviced as Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Condoles Rice. We are seeing rising female political stars of recent, two progressive female nominees of President Obama were recently ratified to the Supreme Court. Pepsi Cola, Hewlett Packard, Budweiser of Pepin Company has all had women Chief Executive Officers.

A second key issue is the hiring process. Many companies prefer to hire men over women for a positionregardless of their education or experience. Some reasons this may be is because most females have to balance work and family duties which may be a huge barrier in helping advancement in an organization, so an employer may prefer to hire a man who will not come with the baggage of children or the issue of balancing work and family duties. During an interview some women are not hired because they cannot be taken seriously because some may wear too much make-up or their pants suit or skirt may be too tight. Women that are pregnant are also sometimes not considered for a position because the manager may worry about the women wanting time off work on maternity leave. This may not be a direct financial concern about paying women while on maternity leave. It's more about the cost of replacing and training someone to cover their role while they are off.