Pregnancy Discrimination: Fighting for Your Rights in the Workplace

Women have become a huge part of the workforce in the United States. According to surveys, there are more than 68 million working women in the United States today and 73% of these women have children under the age of 18 years. Although the laws of the country recognize the childbearing nature of women, there are still many cases where women are being discriminated in the workplace because of their reproductive functions.

Today, one of the leading issues that women have to contend with in the workplace is pregnancy discrimination. In many cases, the employer would prefer a male job applicant over a female job applicant simply because hiring a male employee would mean that the employer will not need to provide for maternity benefits. Many employers all over the country would not want to be bothered by female employees asking for leave of absence in the office to have their babies.

When it comes to promotion, a lot of women are denied promotions because their employers fear that they will become pregnant and will need to leave their jobs to have their babies. According to studies, the apprehensions that female employees would become ineffective as executives because they will now need to divide their time between rearing their children and working in the office would often lead the employers to discriminate against women. Even if a woman employee is more competent than her male counterpart, she is often bypassed when it comes to promotion because the employers would think that she would eventually become less effective at her work when she becomes pregnant.

Although the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 has established the rights of women in the workplace, it cannot be denied that cases of pregnancy discrimination are still prevalent in the workplace. In fact, there are certain types of jobs that would not really welcome it if a woman would get pregnant. Industries that would require women to be always on the go and travel a lot would not take it kindly if a woman gets pregnant. What is really worst is that there is some employee's health insurance that would refuse to cover for pregnancy related conditions.

To protect yourself against pregnancy discrimination, you should know your rights. Get in touch with organizations that are working on promoting the rights of women in the workplace. If you believe that you have been a victim of pregnancy discrimination, seek help from groups and organizations that are promoting women's rights in the workplace.