Do you feel like you’ve been discriminated against by your workplace during your pregnancy?
Many women feel alone when this happens to them, yet surprisingly tens of thousands of women are discriminated against, by their employers, for either being pregnant or being a new mother.
In Britain every year, a survey found that, as many as 54,000 women are losing their jobs, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
This survey also found that 11% of women had been dismissed, made compulsorily redundant whilst others in their workplace were not, or they had been treated so poorly they felt as though they had no choice but to leave their jobs.
This shows that if you feel as though you have been discriminated against in your workplace, you are not alone. Research carried out by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, showed that one in five new mothers had experience harassment or negative comments made about them from either colleagues, employers or managers when pregnant or returning from maternity leave.
If you want to read over 400 stories of victims of pregnancy and maternity discrimination, published on Pregnant Then Screwed online project, you can find their stories here. The founder, Joeli Brearley, stated: “Having been a victim of pregnancy discrimination myself, my heart goes out to every one of the 54,000 women a year that suffer this injustice.
“When I was sacked for being pregnant, I thought I was the only woman in the world this had happened to. I felt alone, vulnerable and unable to find the help I so desperately needed.
“The problem is that women can’t talk publicly about what happened to them. Many sign confidentiality agreements, some still work for the same company and other feel they would be branded a troublemaker, thereby restricting their chance of finding new employment.” From The Independent.
The research carried out by Equality and Human Rights Commission has caused more women to feel like they can speak out. Head of Equality Steve Williams has put out a statement in response to this research on pregnancy and maternity discrimination today stating:
“We have published a new guide today on Pregnancy and maternity discrimination. From next month we are also launching a series of equality guides to help employers and managers identify, tackle and prevent discrimination in the workplace.
“Acas fully supports the Commission’s #worksforme awareness initiative to help employers manage pregnancy and maternity.”
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