Did you know that at least three-quarters of women and expectant mothers go through discrimination at work? For a long the longest time, there have been talks about women getting heat at work for being pregnant.
A recent study has revealed that this is not a myth. In fact, it was recently discovered that one in nine women or new mothers lose their job. A government-commissioned research found evidence stating that pregnancy discrimination, which is illegal, has ballooned since 2005 with 45 percent of women complained they suffered from that.
According to the Guardian, the research said one in five mothers said they were harassed or have received negative comments in their workplace connected with pregnancy or the flexibility of work. And then they also found that one in ten women said they were discouraged from going to their antenatal appointment.
While there are a number of companies in America who have become more family-friendly in previous years, some employers still think that women who are pregnant don't work as hard, or don't work as well compared to before they were pregnant. This lead them to treat women who are expecting differently by not offering them promotions, handing out less desirable work assignments, and some even fail to include them in meetings and trainings, babycenter.com reported.
Maternity Action also discovered that there are 390,000 women who are experiencing discrimination across Great Britain. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR) which did the report together with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills encouraged the government to take action in order to solve the problem.
Caroline Waters, deputy chair of ECHR, said: "We simply cannot ignore the true scale of the hidden discrimination that working mothers face. This is unacceptable in modern Britain, and urgent action is needed to ensure women are able to challenge discrimination and unfairness. This is why we are calling on the government to look at the barriers working pregnant women and mothers face in accessing justice.
"We want to make workplaces fairer for everyone and get rid of outdated practices like asking women during job interviews whether they intend to have children. For businesses to thrive, they need to harness the talents, skills and experience of all employees," she continued.
