Your Success | Our Goal

Boston Pregnancy Discrimination Attorneys

Pregnancy discrimination in the employment context can manifest itself in many different ways. The following scenario represents an all-too-common fact pattern for the individuals whom we represent:

You have been a loyal employee. Over the past several years, you’ve impressed your superiors, who have rewarded your diligence and hard work with promotions, pay raises, and exceptional performance reviews. A more senior position has become available and, thanks to your impressive track record, you believe you’re the perfect candidate for the job.

To your complete surprise, you learn that a lesser qualified male colleague has been given the promotion. By all objective measures, he’s the second-best candidate. He has less seniority, less experience, and does not possess the advanced degrees that you juggled work and family obligations to achieve. You politely ask why you weren’t promoted and get the following infuriating response: “You just had a baby. We didn’t think the position was a good fit since it requires a great deal of travel. Don’t you want to spend more time with your newborn?” As everyone well knows, the person chosen for the job has three kids, yet the same assumption that he would be less apt to travel did not cross the company's mind.

Pregnancy discrimination is a form of gender discrimination. In Sivieri v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for instance, a Massachusetts Superior Court confronted the obvious:

"It would blink reality to deny that a considerable part of our society believes that mothers are principally responsible for the care of young children and are therefore less effective as employees."

The U.S. Supreme Court articulated the same belief in Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs, observing the “cycle of discrimination” that such a mentality perpetuates:

"Because employers continued to regard the family as the woman’s domain, they often denied men similar accommodations or discouraged them from taking leave. These mutually reinforcing stereotypes created a self-fulfilling cycle of discrimination that forced women to continue to assume the role of primary family caregiver, and fostered employers’ stereotypical views about women’s commitment to work and their value as employees."

The Center for WorkLife Law (WLL) refers to this particular type of gender discrimination as family rights discrimination and has published a helpful Fact Sheet on this topic. According to WLL’s research, family rights discrimination lawsuits have experienced a significant uptick over the past three decades and have yielded substantial verdicts, averaging slightly over $100,000 with a high of $25 million. These cases provide meaningful recourse to the countless female employees who suffer employment discrimination in trying to maintain their dual role as mothers and productive members of the workforce.

Please feel free to visit our blog to read about recent developments in pregnancy discrimination cases both in Massachusetts and across the country: Boston Employment Lawyer Blog – Pregnancy Discrimination Articles.

We welcome the opportunity to learn how we may be of assistance to you. To discuss your pregnancy discrimination concerns with an employment law attorney at Conforto Law Group, P.C., please call us at (617) 721-9139 or contact us online.