Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace: A Legal Analysis

Question
Hi. This question is not directly related to abortion, but it does deal with the rights of pregnant women. I would like to get your opinion on a story that has been in the news recently. A pregnant woman is suing her boss because she claims that he reduced her hours and demoted her when he found out she was pregnant. She was working as a bartender at a strip club where she says she was making good money. Many people commented on this article, and a lot of people seemed to side with the bar owner! The reason? Mainly because they felt a bar was not an appropriate environment for a pregnant woman to work in because it could expose her "unborn baby" to certain risks. However, shouldn't what is best for the fetus be left up to the pregnant woman? And ultimately isn't it still HER body? This seems like a bit of a slippery slope to me. From what I understand it used to be common practice for women to be demoted or even fired from their jobs when they got pregnant, but this is considered discrimination now. I started thinking about it, and really just about ANY job could be potentially dangerous. Public school teacher, social worker, police officer, corrections officer etc etc So could certain activities like driving for instance! This is the danger in giving a fetus legal rights. Many women HAVE to continue working! What if she has children at home to support? What if she doesn't have a boyfriend/husband to help her out financially when the baby comes? Or what if she simply enjoys her job and wants to continue working? Does being pregnant suddenly mean you don't have the same rights as everyone else? That you are a second class citizen? Now on the flip side, I feel that a pregnant woman is responsible for caring for her fetus. SO, if for example a fight were to break out in the bar and she was injured, she shouldnt be allowed to turn around and sue the employer. To allow her to do so in my opinion (similarly to allowing an employer to demote or fire a pregnant employee) would be treating her like a child who is incapable of making her own decisions and living with the consequences of her decision. Unless of course, the employer was negligent in some way.

Many people were quick to judge this woman, saying she should get a "real job" which I felt was unfair. It IS a real job. Regardless of how one feels about strip clubs, what she is doing is legal. And she is doing what she has to do to support herself and her family. Just because she works in a strip club does NOT mean she is not entitled to equal rights and fair treatment. And why is it that we judge the women who work in strip clubs so harshy but not the men who patronize them? Let's face it. If these were not lucrative businesses they would not exist.

Thank you.

Gwen

Answer
Hi Gwen :)

Well I don't see what exactly she's exposing the fetus to, unless she's around smokers. Except even then, it has yet to be determined how much smoke is needed to negatively affect it in the first place. And even then SHE would deal with the consequences-not us, so I don't see why people need to be upset. You nailed everything perfectly, I don't have much more to add XD And I'm sure it'd be so easy to find a more "professional" job in this economy. Yeah right, we should be happy she HAS a job! And she has every right to keep it.

People buy into this "men are more VISUAL" crap. It's crap. It's ok for them to watch naked women, that's just a fact, right. But those women stripping are being 'unnatural' or being too sexual, which we all know they shouldn't be. Also, I find it ridiculous that when women are stripping for men, it's that: it's a turn on, etc. But when men strip for women, it's usually seen as a silly, fun thing. Because women couldn't possibly want to see men strip, to see the men's bodies and to be turned on.