Pregnancy Discrimination: Pregnant Women Need More Protection in the Workplace
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PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION: PREGNANT WOMEN NEED MORE
PROTECTION IN THE WORKPLACE
BRIANNA L. EATON
In a time where women's rights andfeminism are a major focus, there is little
attention being drawn to the problem of pregnancy discrimination in the
workplace. Forty years have passed since the passage of the Pregnancy
Discrimination Act, yet pregnancy discrimination is still very much alive. The
Pregnancy Discrimination Act was passed in 1978, after a few noteworthy
Supreme Court cases demonstrated a desperate need for legislation that would
give pregnant women more protection in the workplace. Even after this legislation
passed, there has been a constant battle between women and their employers.
Many employers have changed for the better by giving their pregnant employees
more protection, but pregnancy discrimination still remains widespread in the
workforce. Some employers blatantly discriminate against their pregnant
employees. Some pregnant women are fired immediately after telling their
employers that they are pregnant. Other women face harsh working
environments, as their employers and fellow employees do not give pregnant
women the accommodations that they need. It is time that pregnant women and
working mothers feel wanted in the workforce by giving them the accommodations
that they deserve. This comment will discuss the history of pregnancy
discrimination in the workplace, the current state of the law, and solutions to help
rid pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the wake of the Me Too and the Times Up movements, women are
telling the world that enough is enough.I While these monumental movements
Copyright C 2019. All rights reserved by Brianna Eaton and the South Dakota Law Review.
t J.D., 2020, University of South Dakota School of Law; B.A. in Business Administration, 2017, Briar
Cliff University. I want to thank my family and friends for their endless support. I also want to thank the
editors of Volume 64 and my fellow staff writers for their help with this article.
1. David Brancaccio, 40 Years After the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Pregnant Employees Still
Face Workplace Discrimination, MARKETPLACE (Feb. 28, 2018),
https://www.marketplace.org/2018/02/28/business/where-are-we-40-years-after-pregnancy-
discrimination-act [hereinafter Brancaccio]. See generally ME Too., https://metoomvmt.org (last visited
April 16, 2019) (offering a comprehensive database consisting of organizations dedicated to providing
services and safe spaces for survivors of sexual violence ... healing stories, as well as articles and a
glossary of terms to help give voice to ... experiences as well as providing research studies on sexual
violence ... [and] violence statistics). See also TIME'S Up,
https://www.timesupnow.com/about times up (last visited Jan. 25, 2019) (providing information about
the Time's Up Movement). Time's Up is now a 501(c)(4) organization that works to create solutions to
increase women's safety, equity, and power at work. Specifically, Time's Up can be described as the
following:
TIME'S UP is an organization that insists on safe, fair and dignified work for women of
all kinds. We want women from the factory floor to the floor of the Stock Exchange, from](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/sdlr64&div=16&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Pregnancy Discrimination: Pregnant Women Need More Protection in the Workplace
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