Common Restrictions on Pregnant Women

[MineralMan]

As recently as the 1960s, getting pregnant was not an asset in terms of employment. For example:

One of the teachers in my middle school got pregnant. She was married. She had to leave her job, because it was thought that a pregnant teacher would be a distraction for the students. That was an excuse. The reality was that we students were not supposed to think about such things.

Later, one of the girls in my class got pregnant and married the father of her child. She was not allowed to finish her education, because seeing a pregnant classmate might "give us ideas." Even after the child was born, she was not allowed back in school. Female high school students could not be married. If you got pregnant or married, well, that was the end of your education.

No such rules applied to male students. Why? Because they couldn't get pregnant and be a visible example of reproduction, I guess.

That seems ridiculous now, doesn't it? Well, it was a common rule then, just over 50 years ago. It could become the rule again soon.

Be aware! VOTE to protect rights!

[Novara]

1. PASS THE ERA

Such discrimination will be illegal.

Don't think they won't go there.

[mcar]

2. It's been passed

Years ago, Congress set an arbitrary deadline for its ratification by the states. That deadline passed long ago. Still, activitists kept working and got it ratified by enough states.

Republicans in Congress will not budge on that stupid deadline. I do not know where it is in terms of movement by the Democrats.

[mcar]

3. I went to a Catholic high school in the late 70s

one of our classmates got pregnant in our senior year and married the father of her child. Administration announced she would not be allowed to walk with the rest of the graduates. Their reasoning: "because she was married."

The year before, a male senior had married his pregnant girlfriend, who went to another school. He was allowed to walk at graduation.

The student government officers, of whom I was one, staged a protest. Most of the seniors joined us. Administration relented and allowed her to walk at graduation.

It's not only ridiculous; it's completely arbitrary. We cannot let these things happen again. We won't go back.

[niyad]

4. Fairly recently, there was some woman-hating piece of scum who insisted

that all women of child-bearing years be considered "pre-pregnant", and therefor unfit for many jobs.

[MineralMan]

6. Not surprising. They want women in the kitchen and the nursery.

[Raven]

5. MM, what you describe is exactly what happened in my school in

the early 60's. My French teacher, who was married, became pregnant and had to leave and a classmate got pregnant and couldn't graduate. The only difference was that we didn't protest because I guess we didn't know any better.

[MineralMan]

7. Yup. I remember all of that really clearly.

I knew it was wrong, but was not in a position to object. One time, though, I did object.

My French teacher was accused of being a Communist by a disgruntled neighbor. He was in real danger of being fired by the school board. For the very first time in my young life, I addressed the school board during a hearing on the matter. I was pretty eloquent in my defense of the man. He was an excellent teacher and I never heard him say even a single thing that any political focus.

I was a straight A student who ended up as valedictorian of my class. I prepared what I was going to say very carefully. In the end the man was not fired. I hope my comments helped toward that result.

[Raven]

8. The Vietnam War woke me up. It was around 1966 that I realized

that I had a voice. It was warp speed after that.

[MineralMan]

11. Yes. There was a big awakening in the 60s.

That thing with the teacher taught me that I could speak up and speak out. I never forgot that lesson, and have done similar things many times over the years.

[Freddie]

9. My mom was forced to resign her teaching job due to pregnancy

Actually, I wouldn’t say “forced”, she just did, never even questioned it. That’s how it was.
Pennsylvania, which can be a progressive state at times, settled a lawsuit on this issue in the 80s. Any woman who was forced to resign due to pregnancy up through 1978 (!) got extra $ in their retirement if they returned to teaching. Mom was one of the beneficiaries.

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. My sister had to conceal her pregnancy as a teacher in the Chicago public schools.

This was 1970 - 1971. She was expected to resign the minute the pregnancy was obvious. Because we're a tall family, she was able to get away with it for quite some time.

[Arkansas Granny]

12. I went to high school in the early 60's and girls who got pregnant had to quit school.

There were no programs available at that time for them to continue their education.

Several of my classmates got married while in high school. They were 16 or 17 years old. None of them got pregnant while still in school, which may have something to do with the fact that they had access to birth control pills. Those pills were denied to unmarried women/girls.

[MineralMan]

13. My time in high school was before the pill became available.

The only sure way was not to do what causes pregnancy, so that's what I did. It was complicated.

[dsc]

14. My dad's second wife had, had that happen to her in 1970

she later got that year added back in to her retirement calculations but she had to take off that year for having become pregnant.

[MineralMan]

15. I never understood that. How could seeing a pregnant woman

interfere with education in a school. I mean, there are pregnant women everywhere.

It just never made any sense to me at all.

[dsc]

16. I don't know what the reasoning given was

but pregnancy discrimination wasn't outlawed until the late 1970's.

[MineralMan]

17. Change comes slowly when it's for the better.

It can happen very quickly, though, when it comes to worse outcomes. We are living in dangerous times in that regard, I think.

We need to act fast and definitively in the 2022 election and in 2024. Our rights are in peril.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. I was fired from my data entry job because I was pregnant in 1969. It was

legal.

[Wicked Blue]

19. I remember

and I remember taking up a collection so one of my college classmates could fly to Haiti for an abortion. She must have been terrified.

[LeftInTX]

20. A girl in my high school got pregnant (well lots of girls did)

She left school, got married and did the home instruction thing

She walked across the stage at graduation, huge and pregnant. She got a roaring applause.

This was 1973. She was a popular cheerleader. She was a homecoming queen.

If she hadn't been all those things, she would not have received that applause or be permitted to walk across that stage.

Most of the girls who got pregnant were not cheerleaders.

However, the applause made way to eventual more acceptance of pregnancy in schools and the fact that this also happened to "nice girls". Times were changing.