Women filing more pregnancy discrimination claims nationally

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A growing number of women are filing pregnancy discrimination claims with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), according to a Marketwatch report by Kristen Grencher published on Wednesday, October 24th. Pregnancy discrimination claims have jumped 45 percent since 1992, and the EEOC received 4,901 complaints last year, up from 4,287 filed in 2001.

Last month, the EEOC charged business information provider Bloomberg with engaging in a pattern of reducing the pay of female employees after they announced their pregnancies or when they returned from maternity leave. The lawsuit alleges some women were replaced by junior male counterparts, excluded from management meetings, and subjected to stereotypes about their ability to perform their jobs because of their family responsibilities.


The article details one such instance in which Allison Yrungaray of San Francisco, who had been at her public relations job for a year’s time, became pregnant with her first child in 2004. About six months into her pregnancy, her superior at the software firm pressured her to take a more senior position that had become available within the company. After considering it, Allison decided to decline because she felt the timing wasn’t right. According to her, the CEO informed her that if she couldn’t dedicate herself to her job, she would have to leave the company.

“I was surprised by that reaction,” said Yrungaray, who lived in Southern California at the time. “I thought he would say, ‘Ok, thanks. We’ll look for someone else.’ But it was ‘OK, if you don’t want that, then we don’t want you..

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