Donny Walford, Founder of Behind Closed Door and a Career Money Life certified supplier raises some important questions about women, work and pregnancy.
In Australia, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) National Review of Supporting Working Parents, nearly 49% of mothers expressed they had been discriminated in the workplace either during pregnancy or after they have returned to work. That’s one out of every two mothers. Of these, 84% also reported that their career had suffered and they had to deal with mental and physical stress as a result of the discrimination.
Such discrimination against women is not unique to Australia and is in fact affecting the lives of women all over the world. In England,
- Around 54,000 new mothers are being forced out of their jobs each year;
- 10% are discouraged by their employer from attending antenatal appointments;
- 9% said that they were treated worse by their employer on their return to work than they were before pregnancy;
- More than one in 20 (7%) said they were put under pressure to hand in their notice;
- When mothers were allowed to work flexibly, around half reported negative consequences such as receiving fewer opportunities at work or feeling that their opinion was less valued; and
- The impact on younger mothers – those under 25 years old – is greater in many areas, with around 6% experiencing dismissal compared with 1% across all age groups.
So what’s being done about it?
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 in the US, the Equality Act 2010 in the UK, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 in Australia and many other Acts around the world, have protective laws in place to prevent unfair treatment of women based on pregnancy. Yet, pregnancy discrimination in the workplace still exists or worse, victims are not speaking up about it.
In a video addressing the findings of the AHRC Report, Melanie Schlieger, the manager of Victoria Legal Aid’s equality law program, says: “Ninety-one per cent of women make no formal complaint of any kind. The AHRC report found 110,000 women experience discrimination each year and just one in 10 seek advice.”
So what is it that’s preventing women from speaking up about pregnancy discrimination? The three possible reasons are:
- They aren’t aware of the laws on pregnancy discrimination.
- They feel filing a suit on their employer is tantamount to career suicide.
- They feel they don’t have the evidence to back the case.
Career Money Life now offers Return to Work programs for employees coming back from Paternity Leave.
Contact us to find out how you can support your talent return to work successfully and stay. www.careermoneylife.com
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