Re: Pregnancy Discrimination In The Workplace Target Of New EEOC Crackdown
I've thought long and hard about this; pregnancy is a type of disability. When I was pregnant recently, I missed tons of work due to illness and doctor's appointments. I'm sure it was a burden to my coworkers and employer. And when I was there, I wasn't half the employee I was before I got pregnant. Although it was a healthy pregnancy, I was vomiting constantly; I had to be admitted to the hospital at one point for IV fluids for dehydration, and eventually put on Zofran, which is the anti-nausea drug that chemo patients take. By my third trimester, I didn't even feel like moving unless I absolutely had to. I worked until four days before I gave birth.
Then I took a five week maternity leave (unpaid), and my employer was required to hold my spot for me, which could not have been easy.
Since my littlest one's birth, he's had numerous doctor's appointments- well checks every few months, plus appointments every time he's ill... and babies get ill a lot. He's also had two hospitalizations which each caused me to miss a week of work- one for the RSV respiratory virus at four months, and one for a gastrointestinal virus at eight months. Then there are days my sitter is ill or has other things going on, and can't watch him, and I'm forced to call in to work because I don't have care for him.
I get the feeling my employer doesn't like me anymore; she nitpicks me in a way she never did before I got pregnant. I don't blame her- I'm not the employee I was. Legally, she can't fire me for getting pregnant or having a new baby, despite the fact that I'm not the asset to the company I once was. There is a new priority in my life, which takes precedence to work every time.
My husband has missed a lot of work due to my pregnancy and the new baby as well, but not to the extent I have, and of course when he is there at least he's healthy and able to work to full capacity, which cannot be said of me during my pregnancy, or even now: at ten months postpartum, I still haven't recovered my previous energy entirely.
Should employers be able to "discriminate" against pregnant women?
I don't know the answer.
Should women have a choice of whether or not to become or remain pregnant?
I do know the answer to that: they must.
Pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood compromise one's life in innumerable and permanent ways.
To many women- 86% of American women, to be exact, as that's how many have children- it is a worthwhile sacrifice.
However, those who do not consider the sacrifice worthwhile should not be forced to make it.
Last edited by 1069; 10-20-2012 at 06:18 PM..
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