50 years...

....after the report on the Status of Women, we are still penalized for the biological function of bearing children.  It's appalling!

This was the headline today.

Despite being against the law and the labour code to fire a woman while she is pregnant or on maternity leave, it's still happening!  It happened to me 50 years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child.  I was up for a job at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and came first in the competition.  But when they discovered I was pregnant, what did they do?  They cancelled the competition.  Cancelled it!

Cutely, while I was on maternity leave -- called unemployment leave back then -- they reinstated the competition and hired the guy who had placed second.

I kid you not!

I complained to the department of labour (how ironic) which sent a knuckle-wrapping letter to the president.  He did nothing.  Nothing changed.

Pregnant with my second, I was in another job and permitted six months' unemployment leave -- not maternity leave -- with a substantially reduced salary.  When I returned, I discovered someone else sitting in my office doing my job.  I was given another and that was that. Again, nothing done.

Because I'm me, I clawed my way back up the ladder and ended up doing very well.  But my male colleagues had passed me by and were earning considerably more.  I don't think I ever caught up.

I remember being offered a job in the Privy Council, but had to turn it down because with young children, I knew I could not put in the 12-hour days required.  Even if you weren't doing much, you still had to be there from seven to seven.  And even though I had a live-in nanny, I had to be home by six so she could sign off.  Yep, another opportunity missed.

To the generations of women who came after me and for whom conditions are much improved, I say you can thank my cohort for paving the way, for going to the barricades so you could enjoy slightly better outcomes.  Sadly, according to the stats, it appears they are still falling far short.

A survey from 'Moms at Work', a community and advocacy organization for working mothers, found 15 percent of Canadian women who take maternity leave are dismissed, laid off, or have contracts not renewed during pregnancy, leave, or upon return to work.  

That adds up to 25,000 women losing their jobs every year, three times the layoff rate of the general population!!!!  25,000!!!!

Yes, women are still heavily penalized for having children -- both while pregnant and after.

To "You've come a long way, baby", I say, pshaw!