Ohio Discriminates Against Pregnant Mothers: Where are the Mama Grizzlies Now?

I agree that it makes sense for businesses to treat their employees well including having paid leaves for a variety of reasons. What I've been shocked at are how many businesses don't understand this-many have very short-term thinking and go seemingly week by week, month by month.

Examples for me have been the small law firms I have worked at. (I'm an attorney.) They have all been absolutely dreadful places to work at-I was underpaid (an attorney who made 35k last year working 70 hours a week) and forced to work under degrading conditions. The unofficial policies of these firms have been to get rid of staff frequently to avoid paying benefits, vacation, etc. Needless to say, this creates tension and unhappiness in the workers. If they had paid me about 10 to 15 k more a year, I would have been happier and would have stayed. Instead they choose to constantly train and re-hire new employees. Why? In their view, its cheaper.

Vote with your money-choose those businesses that treat their employees well. I would never use some of these law firms or recommend them and have done so with other businesses as well.

I really don't see the connection between this case and the pro-life comment other than to once again belittle the views of those who are pro-life. What makes you think this company or the people who run it are pro-life? Was her employer Catholic Charities, in which case I could see the hypocrisy?

The ruling seems to say that if she had met the minimum length requirement for her company then she would have been allowed to have maternity leave not that females are never allowed or never should have maternity leave.

As a business person I understand this. They merely mandate that employers treat pregnant employees the same as non-pregnant employees who are similarly situated with respect to their ability to work.

Now one solution is to mandate that employers have to offer time off for reasons like childbirth after a certain amount of time. A year is a long time-the law should be changed to offer benefits and leave after 90 days or so.

Sincerely, Jenna.

The times I have to find myself really counting to ten to think about how best to address these inequities is when the folks I'm conversing with simply can't see their way to the reality that good workplace policies for ALL the kinds of workers we have (and I do mean all, I'm a big ADA person) IS in fact good business - because any workers we exclude from good workplace policies can absolutely end up being a drain on our systems elsewhere - and not through any fault of their own - right now is a perfect example: how many people are unemployed because there are no jobs because business screwed up (with or without the help of consumers and the government)?

There are just so many permutations.

Again, I look at that Working Mothers' list. There ARE good places to work that also function well.

The other thing I'll say is that a lot of people have debated me on this particularly in regard to small businesses. And yet several small businesses I know THRIVE on using women, especially women who are mothers.

So I know this is simply a matter of mind over matter and commitment to certain visions of how our lives should be - work and otherwise.

And yes - Amie did a fantastic job. :)

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

Amie's point is amazing. Mind-blowing kind of amazing. As someone who was judged for getting pregnant, heralded for "choosing" life, unable to keep a job once I was put on level 3 bedrest because I didn't have the tenure yet and ultimately judged for choosing adoption based on the financial place I found myself in (and other reasons but largely financial), I totally agree with what she is saying. 100%.

Jenna Hatfield (@FireMom ( http://twitter.com/FireMom )), from Stop, Drop and Blog ( http://stopdropandblog.com ) and The Chronicles of Munchkin Land ( http://thechroniclesofmunchkinland.com ), is a freelance writer and newspaper photographer.

If you read the link to the information from and about Working Mothers' list of the best employers, you'll see that there's a plethora of policies that can be instituted that benefit wide swaths of employees on behalf of family and care-giving needs in all employees' real lives.

It's my opinion that that is the goal of identifying court decisions and laws such as those in this post and crafting workplace policies that respect the work-life balance for all employees. The fact that pregnant women and therefore working women may be even more harshly penalized by policies that do not embrace their needs is not a fact that has to exist. We can change it if we want.

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

I am confused about something Kellie Copeland said -

"We should be having policies in place that allow people to have children and not lose their jobs because they choose to have a child."

I'm under the impression that it's really not because they chose to have a child. It's because they asked for a leave of absence when they were not yet tenured enough to qualify for one. Wouldn't it be the same story if the person who did not meet the minimum-length-of-service requirement needed time off for a reason OTHER than pregnancy?

If that's true, then the only thing to do to make it so people would not lose their jobs due to the need for medical leave... is to just abolish minimum-length-of-service requirements for medical leave. But that's not very fair to the employers, is it?

Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this - I want to understand how this is a problem specific to maternity leave and does not apply equally to other types of leave.

Erin

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Not sure Constitution allows it - depends on ICC interpretation and particular business. Also, would you say the same about family law and criminal law and other areas legislated by states?

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

And when that's the result (lovely ideal, lousy in action), Plan B (or C or D or all of the above) must be deployed. :)

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

The assumption that its necessary to elect women to represent women's interests is contrary to the establishment of a representative democracy. Legislators have to selected on the basis of their ability to impartially represent the total electorate.

Disparities in state laws point to the need for clarifying federal law to eliminate differences. Having 50 different standards doesn't make sense.

I do not know WHERE you find the time to read, comment and write on so many topics and so varied. Hope you're doing well. :)

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

Thanks for the comment - I think it really highlights why groups like Momsrising.org are so critical to advocating for workplace policies that benefit women, children, parents and families - kind of a big part of life in addition to work for many (though of course not all) of us.

Speaking of which, I do think it's important to take into consideration how providing policies that support working parents affect non-parents. Their concerns absolutely should NOT be ignored - but how do we balance?

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

There's a concern by voters like myself about whether the hold your nose philosophy regarding getting more women in political office will actually benefit women. This is why we must find out the policy priorities of all candidates, but especially the women who are being touted as helping break the logjam on the number of women in the US Congress and as governors who may actually not prioritize policies that benefit women or that are needed to support working women.

Jill Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com )

In The Arena: Jill Miller Zimon, Pepper Pike City Council Member ( http://jillmillerzimon.blogspot.com )

I agree that Amie makes an excellent point. Thank you for the news, Jill.

Nordette Adams ( http://www.bookotopia.com ) is a BlogHer CE ( http://www.blogher.com/haystackprofile/viewprofile... ) & you can find her other stuff through Her 411 ( http://her411.com ).

Most employers no longer offer a separate pregnancy/maternity leave because of FML, which covers time off of work for pregancy & after the child is born.

My employer chose to interpret it in such a way my maternity leave was not covered because I adopted, hence I didn't have a "medical condition i.e. pregnancy". My argument that after childbirth, women no longer had a medical condition (pregnancy) fell on deaf ears.

FML has a tenure requirement (hours worked) to qualify. It also offers more time off of work than traditional maternity leave, up to 90 days, if you don't abuse it during the pregnancy.

Elizabeth

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My Life, such as it is.... ( http://texasebeth.blogspot.com )

I wish we lived in a country where employee rights to take leave for pregnancy and other medical conditions was protected at any time, but that is not the case. For this reason, it was the correct decision. It is not the role of the judicial branch to make law. The legislatures need to put these protections in place and are the correct target for our demands. Of course, it doesn't hurt to share our thoughts with people running for executive branches, either!

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