THE Sex Discrimination Commissioner has described the results from a Human Rights Commission report as “shocking” and “depressing”. The report found half of all working mothers have been discriminated against in their jobs.
“From the factory floor to the most senior managers, no group is immune,” Elizabeth Broderick said.
The most comprehensive study of workplace discrimination towards pregnancy and parental leave ever carried out in Australia, the survey of 2000 women and 1000 men found that discrimination was “widespread and systemic.”
One in two women experienced discrimination at some point during pregnancy or return to work. But they are not the only ones affected, with one in four men experiencing discrimination relating to their family obligations also.
The issue pervades all sectors and levels of seniority, Commissioner Broderick told media at the release of the report.
“At the senior levels we often heard women being told, ‘Your choice: the job or the baby’ to the woman who is not allowed a toilet break. I mean she’s pregnant, for heaven’s sake. A lot of these views are coming from female managers. Women with children. I found that shocking.”
“One of the most depressing comments I heard was a woman who said, ‘I was told I was a bad mother and a bad employee’.
A Sydney woman with the alias Ruth was a general manager at a top 50 company and told the survey that a female manager said, “I needed to decide what I wanted – a family or a senior role in the company, you can’t have both, it’s a myth you can have both.”
The woman said her role was “dumbed down” to the point where she was asked to organise table placements at functions to be attended by her boss.
In other case studies, one woman was called “placenta brain” by her male colleagues and a man’s request for paternity leave was met with derision from his boss who said, “That’s for the mum”.
Commissioner Broderick said that she discovered regular unlawful behaviour, such as women being asked questions relating to their parental status at job interviews, but that employees do not know their rights.
“In regional centres I was more likely to hear from women who would see the job in the paper and one of the questions they’d be asked is if they are childbearing age,” she said.
The report seized upon the implications for economic productivity, pointing out that 22 per cent of women who had suffered discrimination opted out of the workplace entirely.
It made a suite of recommendations focusing on childcare, parental leave and the work environment.
“Three areas need to be strengthened for women’s workforce participation to increase and one is they have got to be able to work in non-discriminatory environments,” Ms Broderick said.
“They have to have access to a strong paid parental leave scheme and they need affordable, accessible childcare. They are all connected.”
