Reproductive justice fights to give women the right to decide if they want to have a child or not and the right to parent as they wish. It is important to allow women to choice whether or not they want to have children. It's equally imperative to treat women who decide to have children with respect, I recently read an article which discussed a problem with pregnant women losing their jobs. They couldn't lift heavy objects or needed to take more frequent breaks for the sake of their health, some employers found this unacceptable and fired them. This article from CNN went into detail with first hand examples of pregnant women who had to chose between the health of themselves and their unborn child, or their job.
As I read the article I was surprised at how some work places don't work to accommodate pregnant women in the very least. They were directly violating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which states that "employers must treat pregnant women the same way they treat other employees with similar limitations." It seems like a simple enough concept to follow, but many companies often find arbitrary reasons to fire pregnant workers, or they don't give the necessary accommodations forcing them to quit. One example given in this article was a postal worker who required an assignment that didn't include heavy lifting, this request was denied. It was stated that "UPS had a policy of accommodating employees who were involved in a car accident or lost their driver's license due to drunk driving but fired Young after she requested a lighter assignment". It seems pretty backwards to me that UPS would be okay with making someone with a DUIs life easier allowing them to keep their job but a pregnancy is a reason to be fired.
This article made me realize how important it is to continue the fight for reproductive justice, especially for pregnant women in the workforce. We already know that on average women make considerably less then men in almost every job, by not allowing them to work while pregnant we are further setting women back in the workforce. For the women that are the 'breadwinners' of their family getting fired because of a pregnancy can bring them to poverty and make it so their children are at a disadvantage. I believe that we should embrace pregnancy in our country and not make women who decide to have children suffer.
CNN ARTICLE:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/25/opinion/sethi-pregnant-workers/index.html
I couldn't agree more! Not that pregnant women should be placed under the same restrains as someone with say a disability, but they should be well cared for. It truly upsets me to hear of such well-renowned companies (like UPS) firing women just because they are pregnant. You would think that in order for a company to truly thrive they would make their workplace accommodation friendly... In addition, don't you suppose that when firing an employee, it would take up more time and effort in trying to restore that position than if they were to make accommodations?
ReplyDeleteIt is so funny that you are talking about this because I was just thinking about it the other day. There are these women who are not only being shunned because of sexism, but also because of ableism. Pregnancy is an awesome thing for some, but you are also temporarily disabled at a certain point in your pregnancy. There should be no discrimination because this is a natural cycle and should be treated as such. If they cannot lift what they are supposed to at work, then they should have leave to be at home with pay. Someone needs to put some laws in place to protect pregnant women in the workplace. This is discrimination and it needs to be worked against. Awful stuff laying off women because they are pregnant.
ReplyDelete-Rachael Belcher
Wow, this blog has been really enlightening! And shocking! I'm really surprised a company like UPS could do that and get away with it!
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of pregnant women in the work place and the pay gap, I'd like to share a conversation I overheard last week on campus:
A graduate student was saying that the pay gap makes sense, things like childcare, maturity leave, and the like make it so that women cost more to the company, so they should be payed less.
This conversation really disturbed me, on so many levels! First, SEXIST! and GENDERED! I mean, a man and a women should both be responsible for the childcare, and I don't know of many business that offer child care at no cost to their employees, while I'm sure they do exist, they are the exception, not the rule.
By holding to this mindset, the person was undervaluing women, taking responsibility away from the father, and making the assumption that ALL WOMEN MUST HAVE CHILDREN.