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Hiring Pregnant Women

8:33 AM Friday April 25, 2008
by Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay

Tags:Hiring

Would you hire a pregnant woman?

If you're British and said yes, then you're decidedly in the minority among your peers. A recent survey by the UK-based Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS) found that only 5% of managers would offer a job to a pregnant candidate. Fifty-two percent said that when making a hire, they assessed the likelihood of a candidate's getting pregnant, taking into account her age and whether she had recently married.

On this side of the pond, last year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission saw a 14% increase in pregnancy-discrimination complaints and received 20,400 pregnancy-bias inquiries at its newly established call center.

I understand managers wanting to avoid the costs and inconveniences of hiring someone who in several months' time will be on leave, whether for 12 weeks and unpaid -- standard terms in almost all U.S. states for women who work for companies with more than 50 employees -- or for much longer and at partial pay (UK law allows women to take up to 52 weeks, with some pay). But at the same time I wonder how many managers consider that, in passing over pregnant candidates, they might be missing out on long-term value in the form of intense employee loyalty?

The manager who hired me did so when I was eight months' pregnant, and my company treated my leave the same as anyone else's (paying me a certain percentage of my salary for a certain number of weeks), although it wasn't bound by law to do so.

The effect on me as an employee? I was in l-o-v-e: with the job, with my boss, with the organization. I worked at work, and then I went home and worked some more, wherever I could wedge it in: in the evening between feedings, on weekends, and during holidays. I even pulled a few all-nighters for big projects, compensating for the caffeine intake by giving my infant a bottle instead of nursing him at his next feeding. And rarely, if ever, did this feel burdensome. I was just paying my boss and my company back.

My story has a happy ending. What about yours? Please share your stories, from both sides of the interview table:

  • Have you ever passed over a candidate who was pregnant? Do you have regrets or do you think you made the right choice?
  • Did you ever hire a pregnant candidate against the subtle or not-so-subtle advice of colleagues?
  • Were you passed over for a job or promotion because of pregnancy?
  • Were you hired when you were obviously pregnant? What effect, if any, did that have on your workplace performance?

  • And the big one: Do you believe that different countries' maternity-leave laws affect whether pregnant women get hired in the first place?


Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay is the editor of Harvard Management Update.

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Comments

I agree. when I went for my interview i was unaware of the fact that I'm pregnant. 20 days before my joining date I got to know.
However i did not share it with my employer till my joing day as i was afraid of loosing my job.

On the 1st day of joining I shared the infor with my immediate boss and it was not taken in positive light. Though i was able to perform most of my job well but my manager never treated me as a relaible person because of the 1st impression i created. Even after 2 years of working with that organization and manager it is somewhere in the thought process.My manger says that those 3 months were so important from work perspective in which you went for maternity. This statement confirm the fact that if she would have known from before hiring,she would have never hired me.
Hence Pregnancy though it is law of the nature however in terms of work is considered a non productive period. organization/managers would prefer someone to work for couple of years rather that supporitng in maternity and then gaining the loyalty of the person. This case is in reference to India work Culture.

- Posted by Nidhi 
May 1, 2008 1:08 AM

I have done a fair amount of hiring, and I would say that hiring the best person for the job is absolutely the most important thing. It can be painful for everyone when someone isn't able to perform adequately (or better yet, shine) at a job, so qualifications are miles more important to me than characteristics such as pregnancy or potential future pregnancy.

I've never hired anyone who was clearly pregnant during the hiring process or who turned out to be pregnant upon starting the job. I have hired an older person, and was surprised to hear some comments about whether that was wise. (It was.)

One thing that I would wonder about if hiring someone who would shortly be out on maternity leave is whether she would return to the job when the leave was over or opt to stay at home with the baby. I'd be really disappointed to have someone start, get trained, go on leave, and then resign--though that would certainly her right, and, hey, anyone can move on from a job anytime. So I'd still hire the best person but I would definitely have my fingers crossed through the leave!

- Posted by CMAC 
May 5, 2008 4:30 PM

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