Companies

${ company.text }

Be the first to rate this company   Not rated   ${ company.score } stars     ${ company.industry}     ${ company.headquarters}

Articles

${ getArticleTitle(article) }

Topics

${ tag.display_name }

Community

${ getCommunityPostText(community_post) }

Contributors

${ contributor.full_name }

${ contributor.short_bio }

Jobs For Employers

Join InHerSight's growing community of professional women and get matched to great jobs and more!

Sign up now

Already have an account? Log in ›

  1. Blog
  2. Research

30% of Women Say Job or Responsibilities Have Changed While on Maternity Leave

An illegal practice that affects more than one in four working mothers

30% of Women Say Job or Responsibilities Have Changed While on Maternity Leave

By Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza

We asked 600 working mothers who have taken maternity leave whether their job or job responsibilities changed while on parental leave.

More than one in four women say that while they were on maternity or adoptive leave, their jobs or responsibilities changed.

Some women return from maternity leave to find their jobs have changed beyond recognition: they have been demoted (formally or informally), their desks have been moved, major clients or accounts permanently given to another employee, they are passed over for earned promotions or raises, or are even laid off or fired.

Practices like these are considered pregnancy discrimination or parental discrimination and are illegal. Unfortunately, it still happens.

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protects a worker’s job for 12 weeks while on parental leave. The act does not provide pay and does not apply to all workers in the United States and does not protect a worker’s job beyond the 12 weeks, if the mother or child has continuing health concerns, for example.

Discrimination on the basis of parental status is a violation of Executive Order 13152, signed in May of 2000, and  pregnancy discrimination violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Methodology

Survey of 663 mothers in April 2019.

About our expert${ getPlural(experts) }

About our author${ getPlural(authors) }

Share this article

Don't Miss Out

Create a free account to get unlimited access to our articles and to join millions of women growing with the InHerSight community

Looks like you already have an account!
Click here to login ›

Invalid email. Please try again!

Sign up with a social account or...

If you already have an account, click here to log in. By signing up, you agree to InHerSight's Terms and Privacy Policy

Success!

You now have access to all of our awesome content

Looking for a New Job?

InHerSight matches job seekers and companies based on millions of workplace ratings from women. Find a job at a place that supports the kinds of things you're looking for.