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Maternal Profiling
By Anita Sarah Jackson
Huffington Post
Wednesday 07 May 2008
Moms across the country face workplace
discrimination, but the media have been largely silent on the issue.
When ABC did their story on maternal profiling, I was really glad about it.
Not, of course, about maternal profiling, but the fact that a mainstream media
outlet was picking up on this issue. Many of us talk about suspected maternal
profiling (discrimination in the workplace due to parental status) with our
trusted friends and family, but outside a couple of New York Times articles
mentioning it (like this great one about a real mom in PA), there didn't seem
to be much light shed on this publicly.
So, it was refreshing to know that the facts and real people's stories got
airtime. Many of us have experienced discrimination in hiring because we're
mothers, or family caregivers, or just have some regular responsibilities that
mean we simply cannot be chained to our workplaces at any hour of the day or
night. And many of you shared your stories right here. But I don't often see
this covered in the media outside of a superficial, "mommy wars" kind
of way.
On the ABC website, they posted an accompanying story highlighting stories
of moms in Pennsylvania who had to face personal questions about their marital
and parental status. So many of the comments following the stories are from
moms who have been there. One pointed out that kids today are tomorrow's leaders,
and even people without kids are going to be relying on them for services in
the years to come. I really appreciated that- it took the cliche that "children
are our future" and made it concrete. Who will be our doctors, teachers,
laborers, office workers in five, ten, twenty years? Yep, the current crop of
13 year olds and younger are going to hit adulthood sooner than we think. The
time to parent them is NOW.
And let's be clear: no parent is asking for the moon here from their employers.
No one is expecting special treatment. Heck, almost every other country in the
world manages to provide family-friendly benefits like paid family leave, and
the world economy isn't on the brink of collapse (well, not due to that!). So
it's not impossible. We just need a shift in corporate culture and in the laws
of the land (that's all!). A shift that recognizes that society does not rest
solely on the fourth quarter earnings of a corporation. And let's recognize
that employees don't come from nowhere- we were all born to someone, raised
by someone. Maybe come home to someone who shares our life. Those someones are
our family.
Bottom line: We cannot expect society to keep rolling along as usual if we
don't acknowledge the reality of the time and effort of child-rearing. Raising
kids is work. It's labor that takes time like any other job - even if you have
a paid outside job, even if you have paid childcare. Whether you're working
and have kids in childcare or are a full-time parent, you know that the work
of parenting is as much labor as any job. And it's worth just as much, at least.
It's time our society came to grips with that fact. So the more mainstream media
tells it like it is, the better chances we have of developing a work culture
in this country compatible with - instead of working against - family life.
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Anita Sarah Jackson is a mother of an 18 month old and pregnant with
the family's second child. Anita earned her BA from UC Berkeley and JD from
American University's Washington College of Law, studying international human
rights. She is employed in two part-time jobs, one for MomsRising.org.
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