Motherhood as a political issue

President-elect Obama will have not just a full plate, but a whole buffet of urgent items to address when he takes office. He will need to address the current economic crisis, the economic plan long-term, tax policy, Gitmo, energy policy, health care, education, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and a slew of other priorities.

One item I sincerely hope he makes time for is the issue of working women and the discrimination and challenges we face in the workplace and in society as a whole.

Moms Rising is an organization that works to promote policies that really make a difference for mothers. One of those policies is the issue of Realistic and Fair Wages. They report that the wage gap for working mothers is 27% of their pay. Non-working mothers receive 10% less pay than their male counterparts, and single mothers receive around 40% less. This absolutely has to change.

I am currently reading Not Guilty! The Good News for Working Mothers, by Betty Holcomb. This book is illustrating for me something that I have noticed in my own life: the workplace becomes a great deal more difficult and complicated once you have children.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I was interviewing for a new position at my company. I made the decision to not disclose my pregnancy. Indeed, I was not required to do so due to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. This decision, however, was a source of great anxiety for me. Would my new boss (yes, I did get the position) feel betrayed or tricked? How would taking a maternity leave so soon after starting a new position affect my performance review? How would taking a maternity leave affect my relationship with my new co-workers?

It turns out that I made the right decision at the time. When I did disclose my pregnancy to my new boss, she (yes, a woman) was visibly angry. Luckily for me, she left the company less than two weeks later to take a position at another company. I was also fortunate enough to have co-workers that, in the main, greatly supported me. While most of my co-workers with children had teen aged or older children, they remembered what it had been like for them when their children were young.

It turns out that I was pregnant with my second child when I interviewed for my current position at work. This time, I chose to tell my new boss (yes, I got the position) during the interview that I was pregnant. She expressed that she did not have any concerns about my pregnancy as long as I was committed to returning to work after maternity leave. Barring a lottery windfall, I fully intend to return to work, so this was not a problem for me. My current boss has been wonderfully supportive of me during my pregnancy, and now, my maternity leave.

While my two experiences with pregnancy at work were different, overall, they were very good. Many women face discrimination at the workplace due to pregnancy or motherhood. Unfortunately, this type of discrimination is often almost impossible to prove, and thus, most women just accept it and try their best to move on.

In Holcomb's book, she details the story of one workplace where, despite seemingly family and mother-friendly amenities like on-site childcare, women experienced a great deal of anxiety about announcing a pregnancy or asking for time off to care for a sick child. During a workshop on diversity, men in senior management were asked about their beliefs about why women weren't generally representing in senior management. Their responses ranged from "they are not willing to sacrifice family interests" to "they aren't tough enough." Then, women at the company were told about the men's comments, and allowed to respond. One woman was compelled to tell her story in response: she made the decision to not have a second child because she felt that management would decide that she was on the "Mommy Track" and not committed to her job. She felt she had to speak up - wasn't the decision to forgo having a second child enough "sacrifice?" She also spoke about how women in the office strategized with each other on how best to break the news of a pregnancy, and how women were afraid to place photos of their children on their desks, for fear of being seen as not committed to work. Why was it that men were not afraid to have children, but the women were? Why was it that men were not pegged as "not serious about work" when they had children, but women were?


Moms Rising has a term for this problem: Maternal Profiling. Maternal Profiling is "Employment discrimination against a woman who has, or will have, children."

I don't know of any magic bullets for this issue. However, there are a number of things that would help. One is ensuring that safe and affordable childcare is more abundant. Another is advocating for paid maternity AND paternity leaves for new parents. A third would be passage of the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which would remove the ridiculous restriction that a woman must file any suit claiming pay discrimination the basis of gender within 180 days of starting a job, as opposed to a reasonable amount of time after she learns that she is the victim of pay discrimination. A fourth would be increasing options (for all workers - NOT just women) for telecommuting, flex time, and other work-flexibility options. These are all issues which can be influenced by the presidential bully pulpit, and I hope President-elect Obama uses some of his political capital on these important issues.