Why Women Need More Time to Report Pregnancy Discrimination
On June 27, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act goes into effect. This new legislation will require private and public sector employers with at least 15 employees to reasonably accommodate pregnant women. This means that unless employers can prove that accommodating a pregnant woman will cause “undue hardship” to their business, employers cannot retaliate against women for being pregnant, giving birth, or handling medical conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth.
This sounds like an excellent development for workers and women, and it is. But at the same time, it would be naive to say that legislation will unequivocally stop employers from acting in a way that harms or discriminates against pregnant workers. Regardless of the law, there is always the possibility that biased, fallible human beings operating in hyper-capitalist settings can misbehave or mistreat pregnant workers–and use the vast corporate resources at their disposal to cover it up.
I speak from firsthand experience. For several years I was a user experience researcher at Google who consistently received high performance reviews. When I became pregnant in 2018, I experienced an abrupt change in tone from my management chain. In one instance, I was denied management responsibilities for fear that my impending maternity leave would “stress the team” and…
