Another study by Shelley Correll, Stanford University's Clayman Institute for Gender Research director, found that employers consider mothers to be the least desirable hires.

While fathers are more viable earners, women's wages decrease four percent with each additional child, according to recent findings by University of Massachusetts Amherst sociology professor and wage gap specialist Michelle Budig. Those pursuing work in male-dominated industries often assume pregnancy will negatively impact their admission to boys' clubs.Īnd they're not wrong: Research shows that being a mom can undermine both a woman's earning power and her upward mobility. The reasons women give for concealing pregnancies are virtually always the same, whether they earn great sums at investment banks or take home hourly wages: Most fear premature disclosure will dash their chances at landing a coveted job, especially in a competitive market and turbulent economy. 'If she's too early to be showing, she's too early to be telling,' wrote New York University Stern Business School adjunct professor Julie Berkun Fajgenbaum in a compilation of opinions on the topic. Though the law maintains that pregnancy is private information that an interviewee is not required to disclose, it also does not prohibit employers from fishing for information. Regardless of career path, worrying about getting hired while expecting is a real fear for many women. It was 'Don't ask, don't tell.'' She got the job. 'I was afraid they wouldn't hire me knowing that I was going to be going out on maternity leave. 'I thought I wouldn't get it if I told them I was pregnant,' she says. When Duncan met with the hiring manager, she performed a makeup application and discussed her qualifications, but not her pregnancy. She decided to keep the bump under wraps. Even though the 31-year-old was in her second term, thanks to a tall and broad physique, she was not yet showing. The job entailed painting brides' faces, selling fragrances, and advising women on skincare. So could you please remember to say Ms.At five months pregnant, single mom Melinda Duncan applied to work at a makeup counter at a Macy's store in a Georgia mall. I'm doing this solo, so I'm definitely not a Mrs. I am a single lesbian who got pregnant by artificial insemination. One day I got so tired of it that I sat up in my chair, and from the back of the room I shouted, 'Nurse, I have told you a hundred times. Even in my obstetrician's office I have to constantly correct the nurses who insist on calling me, Mrs. Strangers assume me heterosexual and ask me about my husband, or 'the father.' They are quite confused when I say I used a donor, that this kid does not have a father. Touchy-feely, granola types touch my belly uninvited and offer to give me reiki to open some chakra or other.

Old women smile and ask how far along I am. And now that my belly is miles ahead of the rest of me everybody knows on sight about my condition, which means I have no control over people's reactions. I am on bed rest, and don't get out that often, so it's always a shock to me, to have folks respond so strongly to my pregnancy. In a pleasant sort of way, I thought myself done with coming out, especially inside my own communities. Friends in the building tell me of the gossip they've heard about the kooky Jamaican girl in the lime green cargo pants who only dates women. The new White residents, complete with alabaster skin, blond hair and designers dogs confess quietly in the foyer that they've read my book, or seen one of my shows. The plethora of younger, middle-class, Asian, queer identified hipster folks, who pay way too much for these under-serviced apartments wave and smile and tell me how pleased they are to be living in a building that already has an LGBT person. They tell me how much they like the view, but assure me they don't have sticky fingers. Their eyes may light up and ogle the gorgeous women who come in and out of the multicolored apartment on the 4th floor, but they are always careful of what they say out loud. The Black boys who grew up on the block are respectful.

Women who dunno they are pregnant