The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 was enacted in the United States as a law to ensure that employees are permitted to take unpaid medical leave under certain conditions (U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD), 2017). Furthermore, the act requires that employees be job-protected in circumstances where leave is granted. In the instance of Marina, her company violates the act based on previous situations where other employees were fired for identical reasons (Northouse, 2015).
Gender Stereotyping and Women in Leadership Positions
Gender stereotyping persists globally, preventing women from achieving top leadership positions in their workplaces. According to Northouse, (2015), it is noted that women are presently more educated compared to men. Therefore, they have to be treated fairly, a case that does not take place in such circumstances when a woman gets pregnant while employed. In fact, women in such positions as Marina are considered ineffective and will usually be perceived too "manly" in case they attempt to overturn the stereotypes (Northouse, 2015).
Pregnancy Bias and Infringement of Women's Rights
Employers at some instances consider the pregnancy as a limitation to the commitment of the women to their job. As a result, the employer will choose to employ men in such positions as top leadership where the supervision will be expected all the time (Schulpen, 2017). However, the commitment of the women to their job is not affected by the parent roles and therefore, the employers infringe through the biases.
Prejudiced Views of Pregnant Women in the Workplace
As observed in the case of Marina, Roy, her employer, does not want to talk to her about the pregnancy situation. In fact, he already has a prejudgment in which he informs her that he knew that would happen eventually (Schulpen, 2017). As such, it can be noted that the employers have a prejudiced view of pregnant women and will rarely understand the perspective that the women may have.
References
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Schulpen, T. W. (2017). The glass ceiling: A biological phenomenon. Medical Hypotheses, 106, 41-43.
U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division (WHD). The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. (2017). Dol.gov. Retrieved 29 September 2017, from https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/statutes/fmla.htm
