Fired for Being Pregnant? It Can Still Happen

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/opinion/letters/fired-pregnant.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

Re “Warren Details Account of Losing Teaching Job Because of a Pregnancy” (news article, Oct. 9):

The women nodding and wincing at Elizabeth Warren’s account of losing her teaching job because of pregnancy aren’t just those of us who remember when it was perfectly legal to say the children/passengers/customers/clients will be uncomfortable having to look at you in your “condition.”

Joining us are all the pregnant employees today who find out that their employers break the law with impunity, or that the law doesn’t cover them. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act applies only to businesses with 15 or more employees, and the Family and Medical Leave Act to those with at least 50.

And the problem isn’t just job loss. Half of female workers don’t get any pay while they are out having the baby. Not surprisingly, nearly one in four go back to work within two weeks.

As for paternity leave, most companies don’t offer it. Adoption leave is spotty. Barriers for same-sex couples include legal parental status if they are not married.

And did I mention that child care often costs more than college tuition?

Fortunately, women don’t just nod and wince. We organize and we vote.

Ellen BravoMilwaukeeThe writer is co-director of Family Values @ Work, a national network of state coalitions advocating policies like paid family and medical leave.

To the Editor:

I was an elementary-school teacher in Michigan in 1969 (two years before Elizabeth Warren’s experience) when I became pregnant with my second child, who was due July 1. I avoided discussing my pregnancy and did not reveal the due date, saying I would have to check with the doctor.

I knew that in those days I would be forced to leave my teaching position if I were visibly pregnant. I also sewed my own clothes in a larger than normal size to conceal my pregnancy.

It may be hard to imagine being threatened with loss of a teaching position because you “showed,” but that is how it was in 1969.

Carol McLay McNeilageLakewood Ranch, Fla.

To the Editor:

For my first teaching job for the 1970-71 school year, I was asked by a male administrator, “What form of birth control do you use?” Deeply embarrassed, but desperate to be hired, I answered, “Birth control pills.” I was given the job.

Natalie Krauss BivasPalo Alto, Calif.