Dwyer Gunn explores the challenges facing pregnant, working-class women:
[W]hile the [Americans with Disabilities Act] provides protections for pregnant women suffering from more severe pregnancy-related “disabilities” like preeclampsia, it doesn’t require employers to provide pregnant women with the kind of small modifications they may need to stay on the job, because pregnancy itself isn’t considered a disability. Technically, women like Yvette and B are supposed to be protected by either the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) or the sex and disability protections of the New York Human Rights law. In practice, it doesn’t work out like that for most low-income women. “There’s a gap in protection under the law,” explained Katharine Bodde, Policy Counsel at the NYCLU. “Courts have not interpreted the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act to require employers to provide reasonable accommodations.”
E.J. Graff believes this gap could be closed with “a little bit of bipartisan cooperation” by passing the Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act, which would extend disability protection to pregnant women:
The PWFA doesn’t have any active opposition—not in the Chamber of Commerce or among Republicans; its opponent is inertia and lack of knowledge. [Emily] Martin believes that the PWFA could be like the Americans with Disabilities Act, the beneficiary of a great deal of bipartisan support—if enough people come to understand that this is a problem—today, now—for thousands of women.
A few months, here and there. A stool, a water bottle, a bathroom break, a little help lifting now and then. What’s so hard about that? It’s stunning that we need a law to enforce what is simply considerate: letting people take care of themselves when they don’t feel well. You shouldn’t lose your job for having a family: How simple a rule is that?
The Dish 