I was recently taking my friend Tracey and her Siamese cat to the vet, and as we drove down the boardwalk, she turned on the radio to listen to Women’s Hour. We couldn’t believe what we were hearing. The host was asking Yvette Cooper if she felt she could become the Labor Party labor leader thanks to her husband, Ed Balls. When did a woman’s husband begin to define her and her career prospects?
It seems that more and more women are choosing to have babies later in life for various reasons. I can tell you from my own experience that the financial burden that comes with having a baby is often cited as a major factor. Women are now much more focused on developing their own careers than having children, compared to, say, 15 or 20 years ago.
After being so alarmed by what I was hearing, I decided to ask my own group of friends to see if they had ever experienced maternity discrimination in the workplace. Most of them could recall a story about themselves or their friends who had been treated unfairly for being pregnant. It bothered me to hear all kinds of examples of sexism and discrimination. Many of them had to endure all kinds of negative comments upon returning to work and even claimed that the opportunities available to them in the workplace had also diminished upon their return.
Despite the strides we as women have made towards equality in the workplace, it appears that maternity discrimination is still alive and well in 2015. Young women are concerned about having a baby due to the fact that drinking maternity leave is frowned upon and frowned upon. it rarely allows women to simply pick up where they left off. The sad reality is that 54,000 women a year lose their jobs because of having a baby. It seems that I am not the only one and even Yvette Cooper has spoken the exact same thing.
It’s amazing that such attitudes towards women still exist in 2015. My husband and I have recently been talking about having a baby together. I really wanted to have one of my own before discovering the scope of attitudes faced by women today. It is hoped that now that the true extent of discrimination faced by pregnant women has been made public, more can be done to ensure that all women are treated fairly and equally, whether they are pregnant or not.