Looking Down on Pregnant Women

By Heather Castro

 The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became a federal law to eliminate discrimination in the workforce based on “sex, race, color, national origin and religion”. However, part of this law only applies to those employers that have more than 15 employees. This leaves evident room for employers to operate in discriminatory manner if they have less than the number of employees required. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was an amendment to Title VII, which more specifically addressed dealing with pregnant women in the workplace. It was created to deter discrimination on the “basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions” which is considered a form of sex discrimination. As stated in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “women affected by pregnancy or related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees who are similar in their ability or inability to work” (EEOC, n.d.). Notice they use the word “affected” to refer to the condition of a woman being pregnant. This is already attaching a negative connotation to an expectant mother as if she were  “influenced in a harmful way; impaired; harmed, or attacked” as defined in the dictionary (Dictionary.com, n.d.). Pregnant women are a vulnerable group that is covertly discriminated against, and even an anti-discriminatory policy leaves room for employers to be discriminative. Many employers refuse to hire expectant women, as they also terminate employment, deny promotions, refuse train and offer other benefits to their pregnant employees (AAUW, n.d.).

Pregnant women at many workplaces do not receive accommodations during pregnancy, as the story of Heather Myers was told in the article Workers Face Routine Discrimination (Huff Post, 2013). The article also states there are plenty of stories of pregnant workers that have been “dismissed or forced to take unpaid leaved after requesting such accommodations as a stool to sit on during an eight-hour cashier shift, or a change in schedule.”Many women have taken their cases to the court, and have filed complaints with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission. Some of those cases were still pending a year later after the complaint was made. Due to the inconsistency of employers in accommodating pregnant women, there is a legislation being considered by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If the legislation is passed, the law would require employers to accommodate limitations that have been caused by pregnancy. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has also made several requests to have the law specify the rights of expectant women. 

Aside from having a policy that fails to protect pregnant women’s rights against discrimination,  several articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are also violated. After all, many governments ignore the implementation of the articles because it is a “declaration” which is not a “legally binding contract” (Ife, 2008).

It violates Article 1, where it states “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, pregnant women among women in general are not treated with the same dignity that men are. They continue to be  seen as less capable than men, and continue to be a minority group despite the efforts to promote gender equality across history.

Article 2, states “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”. Aside from leaving room to discriminate against pregnant women, the Title VII policy also allows employers opportunity to discriminate on the basis of any of the distinctions listed in article 2.

Article 23 specifically addressed employment, and it states that “everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable condition of work and protection against unemployment”. By having a policy that only protects employees if they work for a company that has more than 15 employees, pregnant women are not protected against unemployment. This would also affect their “free choice of employment” as it would limit their ability to select the jobs they would like to have, forcing them to settle for work where employers will hire them pregnant.

Article 25, states that “motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance”. I was not able to identify a “special” form of care or “assistance” for pregnant women entering or currently in the workforce offered under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. If anything, many employers fail to make accommodations to their pregnant employees, forcing them to take vacation days and sick days to compensate for their employer’s lack of flexibility (Huff Post, 2013).

As social workers our duty is to apply deductive and inductive approaches to the practice of human rights, to successfully identify policies that need improvement and generate policies where none exist (Ife, 2008). In this case it is clear that the law needs to be stricter to protect that rights of pregnant women to protect them from being discriminated against based on their sex. As social workers we can support expectant women by helping them engage in participatory democracy. The idea is to have all people in society have an influence in “shaping the discourse of human rights”. We ought to motivate and connect victims to action groups or other resources to have their voices be heard. The idea is to discourage people from being passive, and guide them to become more engaged in the process of their rights acknowledged and respected (Ife, 2008). 


References:
American Association of University Women (n.d.) Retrieved on June 6, 2014 from http://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/legal-resources/know-your-rights-at-work/pregnancy-discrimination-act/

Ife, J. (2008). Human Rights and Social Work: Towards Rights-Based Practice (rev. edition). Cambridge

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n.d.) Retrieved on June 6, 2014 from http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/fs-preg.cfm

Dictionary.com (n.d.) Retrieved on June 6, 2014 from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/affected

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (n.d.) Retrieved on June 6, 2014 from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Huff Post (2013) Retrieved on June 6, 2013 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/pregnant-worker discrimination_n_3466922.html?view=print&comm_ref=false