How Does Pregnancy Discrimination Affect Women Without Children? By Dan Atkerson on April 25, 2016

The fight against the gender pay gap continues, but while women advocate for equal pay, there is another enduring issue that is often overlooked. Pregnancy discrimination affects all women, not just those who are actually pregnant. It appears that even the possibility that a woman could become pregnant is holding them back.

Perhaps because it is less quantifiable, the struggles women without children face due to pregnancy discrimination get far less attention than it deserves. Women, whether they are pregnant, plan to have children later, or have no intention of ever being pregnant, are often judged by their employers based solely on the possibility.

How Does Pregnancy Discrimination Affect Women Without Children?

Pregnancy discrimination can affect women who don’t have children, or even plan to have children, in a number of ways, including:

Employers may be less inclined to hire women they believe may become pregnant, because they are unwilling to provide the time off work after the baby is born.
Women who announce their intentions to one day have children may be singled out, passed over for promotion, demoted, or even fired.
Women who employers believe may become pregnant are often paid $.71 on the dollar compared to men. That’s even less than women who aren’t believed to become pregnant in the future. They sit at $.79 on the dollar compared to men.
Women may be offered less desirable positions or jobs with less responsibility if management believes they may have plans to have children.

Many employers believe the false assumption that women are only concerned with raising a child, and that their work suffers. Unfortunately, pregnancy discrimination appears to be preemptive in many cases, making life harder for any woman who has the plans, or even just the physical possibility, of becoming pregnant.

If you are a victim of workplace discrimination, call or fill out an online form today for a free consultation, and find out how Dallas employment attorney Dan A. Atkerson can help you.