Fall pregnant, give birth, take maternity leave, return to work. Simple, right? Hmm, on paper, yes. However, blatant discrimination is still a thing. Even in 2023. Somehow, with motherhood comes the supposition that work will take a back seat; a conjecture that public policy has trouble dissipating. What can be done to change that? Maybe the answer lies in feminist anthropology and philosophy.
A masterstroke in counter publicity. This February, navigator and Vendée Globe record-holder Clarisse Crémer announced that her sponsor, Banque Populaire, had decided not to back her for the 2024 race. The news caused a stir. Why were they dropping her? Because she had given birth in November 2022 and had not had time to cover the required distance to qualify. The bank’s image was so damaged by the ensuing storm that followed Crémer’s announcement that they pulled out of the race sponsorship altogether a fortnight later. What you might call a lose, lose situation.
Women of all stripes – salaried or freelance – voiced their support and shared their own accounts of similar discrimination. Despite French law stating that someone on maternity leave should be awarded “the average value of individual pay increases attributed to workers of the same category”, whatever their working environment, women encounter issues when they have children. Pay rises or bonuses disappear, jobs change or disappear too, career progress is hampered. Not to mention the snide remarks: “Just so you know, children can raise themselves.” Or: “Pregnant again?!” According to a 2022 survey, 11% of companies did not comply with the law.
‘The cause of workplace discrimination is the idea that women have this maternal ‘instinct’ that drives them to put their motherhood before the company’s interests’
—Françoise Héritier, anthropologist
Stubborn suppositions
Why do these prejudices persist? Because, as political and economic observer Hélène Périvier pointed out in an interview in March 2020, “even if they remain as committed as befor…
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