City will soon fine unmarried, pregnant women

June 20, 2013 //
0

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57587292/china-city-plans-to-fine-unmarried-women-for-having-babies/

This post goes well with yesterday’s blog about workplace discrimination that pregnant women face.

Highlights

  • The Chinese city of Wuhan will soon fine unmarried, pregnant women (but not the fathers)
  • City officials believe it will help curtail the city’s birth rate
  • The woman could be fined up to $17, 000
  • The child will also be denied health and educational benefits

This story brings up issues of single women who want to have a child, but are not married.  Or nontraditional families.  There is no word as to what will happen in these situations, but clearly there is an obvious problem with this situation.

Another important issue is the one sided aspect of the issue–it only singles out the woman, with no consequences to the man.  It is said that it wants to prevent premarital sex and adulterous behavior, but it takes two to tango.

Applicable stories:

Tags , , , , , , , ,
Categories Uncategorized

New study illustrates routine discrimination of pregnant women

June 20, 2013 //
0

Highlights

  • Study released June 18 from the National Women’s Law Center and A Better Balance
  • Pregnant women in physically demanding or hazardous jobs are more likely to require accommodation (such as retail and labor), especially because prolonged standing, long work hours, irregular work schedules, heavy lifting, and high physical activity can lead to an increased risk of preterm birth and low birth weight
  • The Family and Medical Leave Act guarantees women 12 weeks, unpaid, job secured leave; however, many jobs force women to use this leave while they are still pregnant and could still work.  If a woman is unable to work after the 12 weeks, many jobs will often fire her
  • The United States is the only first world country without mandatory paid maternity leave
  • Only eight states offer job protection beyond what the federal government provides (Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Texas)
  • The report is pushing for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which was introduced in Congress in 2012 and reintroduced this year; it would provide clear and unambiguous rules that would require employees to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees; it also would make it illegal for employees to deny employment to pregnant job applicants and force a pregnant employee to take leave
  • Low-wage jobs offer little flexibility for pregnant women while women in jobs traditionally dominated by men typically face discrimination, harassment and gender stereotypes.
  • Women are working later into their pregnancies, with 82% working into the last month
  • 41% of women are the primary breadwinner and and 23% are co-breadwinners

This type of discrimination will clearly prevent women from moving up the career ladder, and with so many of them being either breadwinners or co-breadwinners, this affects not only their career, but the income that they can provide for their family.  Obviously moving up the ladder equals a bigger paycheck to help pay for that new baby.  The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act looks like a great bill that would help end the practice of discrimination.  The only thing I wish it included is paid maternity leave, but I suppose this is a good start.  Although changing the mindset of discrimination is much more difficult, it is a beginning step.  We will have to wait and see what happens with it, but in the meantime it would be necessary to contact your senators and try to get this bill pushed through.

As always, go ahead and leave your comments.  And take a look at the Better Balance study; it has some really fascinating stories about first hand discrimination.

Applicable Articles:

Applicable Websites:

Tags , , ,
Categories Uncategorized

New study shows more than one third of women suffer from sexual and physical violence

June 20, 2013 //
0

Highlights:

  • New study released June 18 from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, South African Medical Research Council, World Health Organization
  • 35% of women around the world are victims of physical/sexual violence
  • 30% of women worldwide experienced intimate partner violence (the most common)
  • In most of the places in the study, only 20 to 30% of the women reported the abuse
  • Women who were separated, divorced, or living with a male partner without being married reported a higher lifetime prevalence of physical or sexual violence
  • Higher educated women experienced lower lifetime prevalence of partner violence
  • 38% of all women murder victims were murdered by intimate partners
  • The study recommends the following courses of action: strengthening national commitment and action, promoting primary prevention, involving the education sector, strengthening the health sector response, supporting women living with violence, sensitizing criminal justice systems, supporting research and collaboration

Seeing actual numbers helps put a reality to the issue, but it does not come as shocking, which is a serious problem.  Besides the abuse itself, the most serous problem is the lack of reporting by the women.  There cannot be help until women start reporting the abuse.  And these men and women will not stop abusing until they face serious consequences.

I also agree with the study in that there needs to be better education when it comes to domestic violence.  This is also true in the case of rape.  No means no and abuse is abuse.  These are such simple concepts; however, the abuse and rape continues to happen because people do not, or are not willing to, understand these concepts.  Until people start talking about rape and abuse as not the woman’s fault, but as a serious problem with the abuser and the rapist, attitudes will not change.  And until there is reporting and a change of dialogue by these issues, things will not change.

One recommendation that I have is a rather simple one, but it can help change your own mindset, and hopefully those that you speak to.  When talking about abuse and rape, do not speak about the woman’s actions.  Do not talk about what she was wearing.  Do not say “she was raped,” but “he raped her.”  Make sure you say as much as possible to put the emphasis on the actor and not the victim.  Although this is a rather minute action, it is a small step which will hopefully make a difference.

Please feel free to comment on the story and provide your own suggestions with this issue.  I hope that you like this format, of providing highlights first, with links to different news stories and studies in a rather concise format.  I want to make all of the information that I provide easy to read, especially if you do not have time to read the whole blog post.

Applicable news stories:

Applicable websites:

 

Tags , , , ,
Categories Uncategorized