Women and the Workplace: Pregnancy Discrimination in the United States

America being one the most industrialized nations it is shocking to most to discover that it does not provide a more beneficial maternity leave when compared to its European counterparts. Not only is Europe leading the way for a lengthier leave of absence for new mothers, they also provide financial benefits to those families with newborns, to American society this is not considered a cultural norm, in fact it is even bizarre to some that having a child while in the work force would even be beneficial. Consequently, the difficulty in accessing a reasonable maternity leave in America creates long term effects on a child’s development.

In some ethical and legal respects a pregnant woman and her fetus can be considered separate. Both the woman and the fetus are ordinarily affected by the well-being of one another for as long as each of them live. The ethical and legal issues are challenged deeply in cases where the well-being of the fetus and the mother appear to be in conflict. Our society struggles with identifying cases where the pregnant woman’s interests and/or behaviors might put her fetus at risk. Criminal and/or civil commitments should be used to bar pregnant women from exposing their fetuses to risk.

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.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act does not require preferential treatment for pregnant employees. Rather, it mandates that employers treat pregnant employees the same as non-pregnant employees who are similarly situated with respect to their ability to work. The PDA expands the definition of "sex" in Title VII as follows:

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.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) is an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This act was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 31, 1978. It establish law toward pregnant females and related medical conditions. There are several areas that should be addressed, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Pregnancy and Maternity leave, health insurance and fringe benefits, family and medical leave act, EEOC enforcement guidance, and Pregnancy Discrimination Act statistics.

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

There are several perspectives from which you can observe and approach this argument. The difference between protecting workers and discriminating against them falls into a gray area that is subject to interpretation. The two regulations that I will reference in this paper are the Pregnancy Disability Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008. I will also argue in favor of using the Family

Do women belong in the workplace? Should employers treat them differently because of their responsibilities in the home? The article “Female Company President: ‘I’m Sorry to all the Mothers I Worked With’” by Kathrine Zaleski, president and co-founder of PowerToFly, argues that women can be both successful mothers and employees if employers take the initiative to accommodate them. She believes that women have the ability and skills to become both valuable employees and involved mothers, but employers need to make adjustments in several common work practices in order to build women up to their full potential.

Pregnancy discrimination according to U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is “discrimination involves treating a woman unfavorably because she is pregnant,child birth, or medical condition related to pregnancy or child birth”. In 2009 there

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.

Knowledge of this law in the early years of a small business may not be a business owner’s top priority. Nevertheless, almost every business that has a handful or more employees will encounter a time when they have a pregnant employee. A good business practice would be to at least learn the law as soon as a female employee is hired. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act protects against discrimination, being fired, having adverse action, and being forced to take leave because of pregnancy (Managing pregnant employees: Know the law, 2014). Employer need to simply be professional and make the necessary accommodations needed for the pregnant worker. That means you allow them to work for as long as the stages of pregnancy allow and provide lighter duties if available. The employer crosses the line when he or she takes some type of adverse action against the employee because of the pregnancy. A good employer should not have a problem working with a pregnant employee. Having knowledge of the law beforehand will allow them to create a good plan of action to pick up the potential slack in that

All around the world people are being discriminated; some are discriminated because of their race, while others are because of their gender, such as women. In today world, it is no different than it was 10,000 years ago. Women are still sold into prostitution, forced to marry someone they don’t love, have no right for abortion or birth control, have little or no access to education, and have to fully rely on men. This is not fair at all, women should have right’s, they didn’t before here in the United States, but now they do (even though it still exists here). If women can have right’s here in the United States they should be able to else ware. In all discrimination against women is unfair, and unjust, because here in the U.S it is

Whenever we hear a story on the news of a woman or her family struggling because they’re being refused maternity leave it breaks our hearts. These women, expecting mothers, have to carry or have carried a child for roughly 9 months. Most if not all have done so by being on their feet all day and have only had the required minimum for breaks. Is it then wrong to ask for maternity leave? Should pregnant women not be allowed some work accommodations? Well, contrary to popular belief, maternity leave is more than just a time for a woman’s gestation period or relaxation. In a country with a population of more than 308 million women I think maternity should be a right. So, then who is to blame for the lack of maternity leave? The answer: male bosses. It’s thanks to these bosses that once women are mothers, they have to go back to work as soon as possible. All these new mothers are told by their male bosses that they are expected back as soon as they can. These men allow little to no maternity leave for women in the work force. And I think we can all agree that this is a serious issue for our nation. There must be a solution to this detrimental illness afflicting our country. Which is why I have proposed a solution that will benefit not only women but our whole nation. If male bosses are forced to wear maternity belts they will feel sympathetic to the struggles of pregnant women. They in turn will be motivated to give paid maternity

With an increasing number of women entering the workforce, pregnancy discrimination has become a pervasive problem. This paper, which focuses on the United States (US), thus considers the underlying reasons and impacts of this biasness from the perspectives of both employee and employer. It then follows with a study on the legal protections in place to prevent such behaviour. And lastly, it will analyse various ethical issues involved in this unequal treatment of pregnant employees in the workplace using ethical frameworks such as Utilitarianism theory, Kantian Ethics and John Rawls’ Justice as Fairness. These ethical frameworks will help highlight