The most serious problem is old attitudes toward women's roles and all the baggage that comes along them. For example, many employers see a pregnant woman and, rather than seeing a competent professional, they see someone needing protection who is about to leave them hanging in nine months. The problem is that these attitudes are self-fulfilling prophecies: because a woman is pregnant, she doesn't get an important training opportunity and then, the employer decides that without the training she can't handle the most challenging problems, and then assigns her rote work. Very soon, since she doesn't have the training, she gets more and more rote work. As a result, the employer decides that all she's good for and that, after all, he was right because look at the rote work she's doing. It is a vicious cycle and the graveyard for the dreams of many working women who become pregnant.
What about job interviews when pregnant? What is legal and illegal for potential employers to ask?
Job interviews are always challenging. But interviewing while pregnant take the stress to a much higher level There are, however, some things that you can do to ease the stress and increase your chances of interview success. Keep these things in mind:
- It is illegal to ask about your pregnancy.
- It is illegal at the interview stage to ask about medical conditions that might reveal a disability.
Your task is always the same: convince the employer of your ability and suitability for the job. If you are asked about your pregnancy, treat the question as an illegal one and politely decline to answer (most career websites should have interviewing advice about how to deal with the "illegal question").
When interviewing can you be asked about plans for future pregnancies, even if you are not pregnant?
An employer may not ask you about future plans that you may have for pregnancy during an interview or after you are hired. This is an illegal question.
