Happy (upcoming) Mother’s Day! My brother and his family get to celebrate Mother’s Day with his wife and teenaged kids, but my sister and I, with no kids of our own, tend to skip over this big day as our Mom died almost 20 years ago. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy seeing the fun people have in the various ways to celebrate their own Moms.
Lately I’ve been bombarded with issues related to motherhood and pregnancy. Just last week a woman emailed me asking for advice about trying to get a job with a company where the person in charge seemed overly concerned about her children and how that would affect her ability to travel for work. While employers are allowed to ask if travel will be an issue, they aren’t allowed to ask if you have children and if they’d interfere with your ability to travel. It might seem like a fine line, but it’s not children an employer should worry about, it’s your ability to travel (in this case the woman said she was able to travel as per the job’s requirements).
I’m up here in (very warm) Fort McMurray for work, and motherhood was on my mind. One of the clients I work with has moved – married, pregnant, and when I spoke to her, happy as a clam about it all. The woman taking over her responsibilities is just back from maternity leave. She was telling me of her troubles trying to get day care.
Just a few minutes ago, I finished research, looking at cases involving discrimination based on pregnancy (which in Canada means discrimination based on sex or gender). Only looking back two years, I saw many cases brought forward. Many were dismissed while others were upheld and the employer had to pay wages and damages for violating the rights of the mothers or mothers-to-be.
I understand that hiring a woman in child-bearing years can be a hassle. Does she want kids? Will she have kids? How much time will she want? I don’t even have to ask if it will be disruptive, because it will be. But from Canada's legislatures, parliamentarians and top court down, it’s clear that discrimination based on pregnancy is illegal and while many times it’s hard to prove, if caught, there is a price to pay and legal costs to incur. While there is some limited support from Employment Insurance, there’s no governmental support to help a workplace retrain someone to take over the job and there’s no support for the family if a business doesn’t have the money to top-up the pay.
Still I think the biggest obstacle women in child-bearing years face is the outdated idea of who’s going to take time off. For years now Canadian fathers are able to take time off for parental leave if the couple decides to split the time that way. Yet do potential fathers face the same prejudice that potential mothers face? And while women can only have children in certain years, men can father children till a ripe old age, right up till, well, till the day they die…perhaps that’s what killed them. Who knows? But while our legal reality has changed with the times, our stereotypes haven’t. Let me explain...sometimes a picture paints a thousand words.
Say a woman who looks like this turns up at your office wanting a job?
When you see her, our stereotypes might actually be seeing this.
Whereas, if an older man comes looking for a job, oh let’s say someone like billionaire Rupert Murdoch, who nine years ago, at the age of 72 fathered a child.
Would you actually be seeing someone who looks like this??
Guess not.
Let’s celebrate Mother’s Day in whatever fashion you want. But let’s really celebrate it by ensuring that if women and men in Canada decide they want kids, we won’t put barriers in their way…even if it is a bit of a hassle.
Stephen
Winner of last skill testing question: Sandy Goodwin of Darthmouth, Nova Scotia was the first person to give me the correct answer that Jean Chretien, Roy Romanow, & Roy McMurtry were part of the "kitchen cabinet" who met to hash out a deal that was acceptable to most premiers to create the Charter of Rights and Freedom and patriate our constitution. Sandy received a copy of my book, Managing Human Rights at Work. Congratluations Sandy.
Today's skill testing question: Our Mom, Gerrie Hammond was born on December 13, but no one will confess to knowing her real age as she never revealed it. The first person who can tell me what our Mom said/did about her age will win a copy of my book, Managing Human Rights at Work. Did she say/do:
- "You never ask a woman her age"
- Kept a piece of tape over her date of birth on her driver's license
- In response to a reporter saying hiding her age was silly, she said, "I think we're allowed one silling thing in our lives."
- All of the above
By the way, for those of you who made it down this far, and speaking of new moms, this is a picture of an 8 week old pup who comes from the same breeder as our dog Willis. The breeder let us know in case we want another and....oooh, we are so tempted. Just look at little William.
Related Resources:
This blog: http://www.humanrightseachday.com/
My website: http://www.stephenhammond.ca
My Podcast: Type in “HumanRightsaDay” to the iTunes store and listen to each day's event from my book, Steps in the Rights Direction, or just click here.
My Twitter: http://twitter.com/Rightstoday (each day has historical human rights info)
Stephen Hammond, B.A., LL.B., CSP, is a lawyer-turned professional speaker. He’s written two books, Managing Human Rights at Work: 101 practical tips to prevent human rights disasters and Steps in the Rights Direction: 365 human rights celebrations and tragedies that inspired Canada and the world. Both can be purchased on his website www.StephenHammond.ca
copyright - Stephen Hammond - Momma Mia! Mom Discrimination!

