Pregnancy
Bias
by
Ellen S. Wilkowe, Daily Record, February 28, 2005
The collective consciousness of the workplace needs a wake-up call when it comes to dealing with pregnant employees.
Such is the philosophy of Laurie Pettine, president of the Morris County chapter of the National Organization for Women.
"Even in the smallest company, the work week is getting longer and spills over into our nonworking life," Pettine wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Record.
"It is the rare company that realizes that you can get amazing results by implementing humane work-life policies and polices that benefit all employees, regardless of gender."
Lorra Brown, who received a master's degree in corporate and organizational communication studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Florham Park, dedicated her thesis to the topic.
She questions the following: Is there a perceived relationship between motherhood and professional advancement?
Citing many previous studies, her thesis examines possible discrimination or bias following childbirth rather than pregnancy.
Brown, who lives in Wanaque, was lucky enough to avoid that.
"Based on my own personal experience being pregnant and working, my employer was actually very supportive and has even allowed me to work a flexible schedule now that my daughter is here," she said.
A former manager at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in New York City, Brown decided she wanted to spend more time with her daughter, Claudia, after her birth in August 2004.
"Our New York office head, Kym White, offered me to stay on in any capacity that I was comfortable with," Brown said.
"Kym helped me to create a much more flexible arrangement that allows me to continue to contribute, but without leaving my daughter too often or working 14-hour days."
Brown now manages clients out of her home office, occasionally popping into the New York office to meet them.
"It's worked out very well,"she wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Record.
"Both Ogilvy and my clients have been very supportive and pleased with the arrangement."
However, many women aren't so lucky, as she found out through her thesis.
Novartis Corp., with offices in East Hanover, faces a federal class action suit filed recently by female employees who charge maternal bias as part of a $100-million gender-discrimination lawsuit.
David W. Sanford, attorney for the plaintiffs, did not return a call seeking comment.
The number of women claiming they've been discriminated against on the job because they're pregnant is soaring, even as the birth rate declines.
Pregnancy discrimination complaints filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jumped 39 percent from fiscal year 1992 to 2003, according to a recent analysis of government data by the Washington-based National Partnership for Women & Families. During that same time, the nation's birthrate dropped by 9 percent.
The surge in pregnancy complaints makes it one of the fastest-growing types of employment discrimination charges filed with the EEOC -- outpacing the rise in sexual harassment and sex discrimination claims.
The charges are coming from a range of women, from those in entry-level jobs as well as those in executive suites.
Well-known employers that have faced pregnancy-discrimination lawsuits include Wal-Mart, Hooters, and Cincinnati Bell.
Employment lawyers say that, in many cases, employers are simply making honest mistakes as they try to understand a variety of federal and state laws governing issues such as pregnancy discrimination and family leave.
And they say it's easy to overlook the very real costs of pregnancy to small employers, who may see productivity suffer significantly when women take time off after having a baby.
But pregnant women claim they've been unfairly fired, denied promotions and in some cases urged to terminate pregnancies in order to keep their jobs.
Mailyn Pickler, 23, of Mesa, Ariz., was working for auto dealership Berge Ford when she told a manager about her pregnancy.
About a week later, supervisors told her she was being fired, she said.
They told her they were concerned that it would not be safe for her to drive, which was part of her job, while she was pregnant, according to the lawsuit.
Berge Ford did not return calls seeking comment.
"I burst into tears," Pickler said. "They thought I was not going to be able to do my job.
They thought I would throw up or have a cramp. But pregnant women work every day.
It just wasn't fair."
The EEOC filed a lawsuit on Pickler's behalf, and the case was settled out of court for $70,000.
Her son, Jesse, is 3, and Pickler, who is now a stay-at-home mom, is pregnant again.
The rise in pregnancy discrimination cases is important now because more women of child-bearing age are in the labor force:
Women make up about 47 percent of the total labor force, and they're projected to account for more than half of the increase in total labor force growth from 2002 until 2012, according to the Department of Labor.
And more working women are having children at a later age, when careers are better established and more is financially at stake.
In 2000, the average American woman having her first child was almost 25 years old.
In 1970, the average age was 21.4 years for a first birth, according to a 2002 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pregnancy discrimination cases also are costing companies more money.
In fiscal year 2003, the EEOC and state and local agencies collected $12.4 million from charges of pregnancy discrimination (that amount excludes any awards obtained through lawsuits), vs. $3.7 million collected in 1992.
Money may also come from other sources, such as conciliation agreements with employers and benefits obtained through mediation.
The length of time it takes a case to come to trial or settle can vary.
Some cases are resolved within a year; some may drag on in the courts for a number of years.
"We've seen an explosion, a huge increase in cases," says Mary Jo O'Neill, a regional lawyer with the EEOC.
"The kind of cases we're seeing are very blatant, cases where managers say, "We don't want pregnant women working here.'"
Several factors may be behind the trend:
More pregnant women are staying in the workplace rather than going on early leave.
More women are working while pregnant, and they're working further into their pregnancies.
In the decade before the 1978 passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, more than half of employed women quit their jobs when they became pregnant, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families analysis of government data.
The nonprofit education and advocacy group also found that, by the early 1990s, that number dropped to 27 percent of pregnant women.
"The discrimination is more prevalent because there are so many more women who are working pregnant," says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
"People think pregnancy discrimination is a thing of the past, that it doesn't happen anymore. But it does."
Productivity pressures and the economy. The sluggish economy in recent years has pushed employers to lay off workers and stress productivity, leaving fewer employees doing more work.
Employers may see pregnant workers -- with pending maternity leave and their possible need for more flexible work arrangements in the future -- as a liability.
"Pregnancy is expensive for employers," says Veronica Duffy, an employment lawyer in Rapid City, S.D., who has represented pregnant women filing discrimination claims.
"And as health-insurance costs rise, costs become more of an issue.
Employers are driven to discriminate."
Stereotypes about pregnant women persist. Mounting research shows that women who become pregnant are viewed as less competent in the workplace -- a view that is held by both male and female co-workers.
In one study published in 1993 in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, pregnant and nonpregnant women performed tasks that were rated by college students drafted for the research.
While both subjects performed the same, those who were pregnant consistently received lower performance ratings.
They were viewed as overly emotional, often irrational, physically limited and less than committed to their jobs, according to the report.
In another study, pregnant women were interviewed about their own experiences on the job.
About half said their supervisors' reactions to their pregnancies were negative, according to the report.
They also reported intrusive comments from co-workers, including such comments as, "Why are you eating so
much?" and "Do you have stretch marks yet?" About half of pregnant women managers said subordinates became upset or hostile.
"When women become pregnant, they're seen as putting personal life ahead of work,"says Jane Halpert, an associate professor of industrial and organizational psychology at DePaul University who worked on the studies.
"There's a whole set of separate attitudes that show up at work when you get pregnant."
Roberta Carlton says she's seen it firsthand. When she was working as a manager at a software company, she says she wanted to hire a woman who had just had a baby.
She says her boss said the job applicant was a new parent and wouldn't be able to put in the hours.
What the boss didn't know was that Carlton was three months pregnant at the time.
"You wonder how many women deal with this," says Carlton, 39, who went on maternity leave and was later laid off.
She now is a vice president at a public relations firm in Lexington, Mass.
"I thought pregnancy was something people were educated about. I hadn't realized anything that blatant happened anymore."
But employment lawyers also point out that there are some valid concerns for companies.
Small employers can be especially hard hit if they have a large number of women who go out on maternity leave:
Productivity can suffer, and there can be extra work for co-workers who are forced to pick up the slack.
Employers can also wind up in a bind if they hire a woman who goes on maternity leave during a critical time, such as a tax-preparation firm that loses a woman to leave during April, when demand is at its peak.
"It can create an enormous challenge for a small organization," says Michael Lotito, a San Francisco-based employment lawyer.
He says employers can also feel unable to take disciplinary action against a pregnant employee who isn't performing because they fear it will be seen as discriminatory.
And Lotito says part of the increase in discrimination claims could be coming simply because employers are making honest mistakes or are confused by conflicting laws.
Many states have protections for pregnant women that go beyond the federal law.
For example, they may mandate that pregnant women be allowed to get some paid time off through employee payroll taxes.
Federal law allows for 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
Generally, under current federal law, an employer shouldn't ask job applicants if they are pregnant; a job seeker also is not required to inform an employer of her pregnancy, legal experts say.
An employer also can't force a pregnant woman to take time off during her pregnancy or force her to quit because of fears the work may be hazardous to her or her fetus.
Employees who go on maternity leave must generally get the same treatment as other employees with disabilities or time off.
Daily Record staff writer Ellen S. Wilkowe and USA Today contributed to this story.
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