Pregnant Women Are Still Getting Fired In The U.S.

Woman are still getting fired for being pregnant, 40 years after the U.S. Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The U.S. is the only advanced country that doesn’t have a nation paid leave policy. Less than 15% of U.S. women get paid maternity leave. The ACLU says pregnant women are often fired before they can even request maternity leave — and an attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Projects says pregnancy discrimination is the top complaint they receive.

The pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed in 1978 after women sued general electric for denying temporary disability benefits to pregnant women. The Supreme Court actually denied GE was discriminating but congress stepped in and amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sex discrimination based on pregnancy. 40 years later, women say things aren’t much better, Woman are still fired, demoted or left out after disclosing their pregnancy.

Officials say they might have better luck keeping quiet for longer. “A lot of people think that they’re doing a good deed by telling the employer the minute they find out and you’re not required to do that…What I would suggest is when the is coming to be where the worker comes armed with a plan for how to make things work with she is out and then plan for reintegrating upon her return.” Gillian Thomas of the ACLU’s Women Right’s Project stated. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Introduced in 2017 requires reasonable accommodations for pregnant women but it hasn’t made any movement in the Senate of House and similar bills have been inactive in Congress for years.

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