Investigating Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace: A Report

This report investigates pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, focusing on the legal framework and the experiences of pregnant working women. The report includes interview questions designed to explore awareness of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and perceptions of workplace treatment. Background research covers the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, its implications, and statistics on women's employment and inactivity due to family commitments. The methodology involves background research and an interview with a pregnant employee at a UK bank. A timetable outlines the steps taken, including data collection, the interview, and report submission. The report aims to shed light on the prevalence and impact of pregnancy discrimination, providing insights into employee awareness and organizational approaches to pregnancy in the workplace.

Student number:
Tutor name:
Title of report: DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PREGNANCY IN THE WORKPLACE
A. List of interview questions: Write 8 – 12 questions here
1. For how long have you been working in this organization?
2. Where have you worked before joining this organization?
3. What was it working like in the previous organization?
4. Why did you leave the previous organization?
5. How is the working environment in the current organization in which you are working
currently?
6. What month of pregnancy you are in at present?
7. Have you ever faced harassment or discrimination during your pregnancy at the
workplace?
8. Are you aware of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act?
9. Do you think the government is doing enough to stop workplace discrimination
against women during pregnancy and other related medical condition?
10. What are your views regarding discrimination against working women at their
workplaces during conditions like pregnancy or child birth and other related medical
conditions?
B. Background: -
1. “Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace involves treating a female applicant or
employee unfavourably because of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical
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condition. Under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, employers may not discriminate
against employees (taking adverse actions such as termination or demotion) on the
basis of their pregnancy or gender. This applies to employers with 15 or more
employees, including state and local governments, employment agencies, labour
organizations and the federal government”.
Harvard reference:
Employment.findlaw.com (2018). Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace - FindLaw.
[online] Findlaw. Available at:
http://employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/pregnancy-discrimination-in-the-
workplace.html [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].
2. “There has been an alarming increase in the number of pregnant women and new
mothers who are being made redundant. It appears that some employers are using the
recession as an excuse to break the law on discrimination. With the economic
downturn has come a rise in the number of calls to our organisations from women
facing maternity or pregnancy discrimination. We have examples of pregnant women
being singled out for redundancy and of women returning from maternity leave to
find their jobs have gone”.
Harvard reference:
Maternityaction.org.uk (2018). [online] Maternityaction.org.uk. Available at:
https://www.maternityaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/allianceagainstpregnancydis
crimination.pdf [Accessed 14 Mar. 2018].
3. “According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission women aged 25-34 are
much more likely to be inactive due to looking after the family or home (70 per cent
of women gave this reason compared to 10 per cent of men in the same age group).
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Northern Ireland statistics reveal that, overall, some 36 per cent of working age
inactive women were unavailable for work due to family/home commitments.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given these kinds of statistics, women in GB with children
under the age of 16 are over four times as likely as men with children up to the age
of 16 to be inactive (26 per cent compared with 6 per cent). The figures for men and
women without children under the age of 16 show no significant difference in the
rate of inactivity”.
Harvard reference:
Sargeant, M., 2014. Literature survey on pregnancy and maternity discrimination for the
Northern Ireland Equality Commission.
C. Aims: put your notes in here – What you want to find out.
My primary objective in conducting this research is to find out whether women are
aware of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. In doing so, I plan to interview young working
women who are pregnant but still looking to continue working. In addition, I want to find out
the approach of the concerned organizations towards pregnant employees.
D. Method – write your notes here – how you did the research and who you
interviewed
As a first step, I did some background research on pregnancy during work and
discrimination against women during pregnancy at workplace. Then, I visited a renowned
bank in the UK to interview a young working woman. I was fortunate to have got the
appointment for interviewing the employee. She was aged 27 and had been 6 months
pregnant.
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E. Timetable: complete this table with the steps you will take for completing
component 2. Add more rows to the table if you need to.
Step Date completed by
Read feedback from component 1 14March 2018
Collect data on discrimination against
women during pregnancy at workplace
15 March 2018
Interview a young working women
who is pregnant
20 March 2018
Analyze interview responses 21 March 2018
Submit the final report to turnitin 23 March 2018
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