Locking mothers out of the workplace

Striking a balance between work and motherhood is definitely a struggle for every woman who chooses to go down that road. Leaving your Baby under someone else’s care and going to work in an unsupportive environment has been disaster for most mothers.

Mothers in the struggle
Susan, 28, who works in a mid-sized IT company is one of the mothers struggling under this situation. The first day Susan returned to work, after the birth of her first child three months ago, she noticed boss’ attitude towards her had changed.

“I had performed my duties satisfactorily all through my pregnancy but when I returned to work, she gave me a verbal warning saying the company would not work around my personal needs. She also questioned my commitment and seemed to assume that I would be less committed to my job, now that I am a mother. However in trying to address this, I have found myself agreeing to work longer hours.” says Susan.

“It has not been easy coping with long hours of work I am always worried about my new born baby and sometimes I fail to sleep because I have to take care of the home. She adds.
Susan wishes to breastfeed her child until he turns two, she needs to breastfeed every two hours, but she does not have time and a secure place which forces her to breastfeed from her car parked right across town.

Susan says she aspires to succeed, in both her family and career, but owing to the stress that she is having at work, she says she wishes to take a break until her child is older.
“If my husband’s salary was enough for our upkeep, I would take a break from this draining job. However, i would do more at work and the experience would be bearable, if the working environment was supportive” she says.

Support system
Monica, 25, also returned to work barely four weeks after her son’s delivery because of an unpaid maternity leave.
“When I went on leave, I had to get a replacement, who we used to share my salary but because I needed the money, I opted to come back to work so soon despite the fact that I delivered through a Caesarian, section.” she says

Monica works as a waitress in a very busy internet café which makes her unable to take any breaks to breast feeding her baby.
“My work involves a lot of standing which is not favorable for someone who has just had a Caesarian section. But Whenever I tried to request for lighter duties or shifts as the cashier my work mates complained that it is favoritism, may be it is because they do not have young children of their own, ” she adds.
Monica was not able to afford a proper live-in house help for her thus opted to make day care arrangements for her one-month-old child at a local church.

“I was not resting or eating as a breast feeding mother should, and it was taking a toll on my body,” she says.
“ This made me to stop breast feeding much earlier than I had planned. It is not possible to get a day off on request, so I planned to have my mother take my daughter on her antenatal clinic visits. I feel guilty about it sometimes but I know this is how it is until she is older.”

Unemployable?
Young women of childbearing age today make a large part of the work force, and they are no longer interested in jobs where they are easily disposed off, such as customer care or secretarial duties. They are now entering the upper echelons of management.

Yahoo!’s CEO Marissa Mayer is one such example, having been hired when she was a few months pregnant, and going back to work two weeks after giving birth despite this fact, it is still an uphill struggle to convince many small-business owners who often cannot afford to have staff on extended leave, to let nursing mothers stay on.
“If I have a woman on maternity leave, she stays away for three months during which I pay her full salary, and I still have to find someone else to do her duties,” says Jackson, 33, who runs a graphic design business that staffs five.

“My company is not big enough to afford one extra salary and one ‘throw-away’ salary. I have to keep my costs down. I would rather not hire a woman who looks like she can get pregnant at any time. And if I do, and she gets pregnant, I think it is better that she leaves the job,” adds Jackson.

Jackson refuses to say he has ever fired a pregnant woman. “I prefer to avoid the situation than to find myself in a position where I have to re-think the hiring of a certain employee,” he says.
Though not many will admit it, there are employers who would rather not deal with the inconvenience of working with a woman new to motherhood.

This can be attributed to the common, misguided perception that motherhood impacts on a woman’s ability to do her job.

The ideal environment
While some companies may not be able to fund the provision of child care facilities or an extended paid maternity leave , an employee new to motherhood can still work closely with the employer to make her working conditions more mother-friendly.