taimatsu | Spitting with rage (Reply)

It is a long, long time since a news story has made me quite this FURIOUS. This Guardian piece by Kira Cochrane describes just how prevalent and blatant discrimination against pregnant women and mothers STILL is in this country despite it being ILLEGAL. I find it utterly horrifying and rage-inducing that employers are still so ready to make the lives of women difficult because they dare to have children and work at the same time, or even dare to be 'of child-bearing age' (as Cochrane says, that's very nearly ANY woman who is looking for a job. ANYONE, these days.) Men do not get asked if they plan to have children, when they got married, or anything of the sort. Their family lives are of the most minimal interest in a job interview. If a man announces he is becoming a father he is not an instant target for constructive dismissal, bullying, or a sacking. It is sexism pure and simple, because women happen to be saddled with the apparatus that carries children for nine months, whereas men's biological contribution is delivered inside a minute. Men can have a career and a family and no-one questions it, but when women want to do EXACTLY the same thing suddenly they're 'trying to have it all' and this is seen as greedy or irresponsible or over-the-top.

IT DRIVES ME CRAZY. And it makes me feel sick and scared that it is not at all unlikely that this very thing will happen to me inside the next ten years. That is all.