Why asking women about their pregnancy plans in an interview is never, ever, okay.

Olivia Knight - 5 May 16

This month, a survey by the Equality and Human Rights Commission revealed that one in four employers think it’s reasonable to ask a woman about her pregnancy plans during a job interview. While three out of four women say they have experienced pregnancy and maternity discrimination at work.

Wow.

I first heard the news walking back from the school run, when a producer from LBC called to ask if I’d discuss the story with Nick Ferrari on his breakfast show.

I’m down on their guest list as an ‘Entrepreneur’ and ‘Business Owner’ so they wanted to get my thoughts. And I gave them. I think they’ve now got me down on their system as ‘Angry.’

The thing is, I’m an employer, yes, but I’m also a woman of childbearing age, who has two kids, has had to work whilst raising them and who believes the only interest a business should have in a woman’s pregnancy plans is how best to support her when she announces the fact.

My first interview:

I remember the interview for my first ‘proper’ job very clearly. It was 1999 and I had just turned twenty. I was wearing a camel coloured, a-line skirt from Oasis, a black polo-neck top, suede knee-high boots, and my new boss didn’t ask me if I was pregnant, or planning to have children.

If she had, I would have been shocked and horrified – both at being asked the question and at thought of having kids. If I’d been forced to answer honestly, I’d have said no. But that wouldn’t change the fact that five years later, while working for the company, I would discover I was pregnant.

I was 25 and my boyfriend was only 23 and we definitely weren’t planning to have a baby. But we had a roof over our heads, both had jobs and we loved each other. So we decided, if we were ever going to start a family, this was as good a time as any.

Telling the small company I worked for that I was pregnant was tough. At the time the business only had two employees so I was half the workforce. And I could appreciate my absence would be felt and that the cost of my maternity was not insignificant. But my bosses were incredibly supportive, pleased for me personally and determined to do the right thing.

After seven months maternity leave I went back to work three days a week, with my partner reducing his time to four days a week so he could help look after our baby too. The company I worked for was a brand consultancy called eatbigfish. We ran one-day workshops with clients, usually off-site events at hotels or conference centres. And because I was still breastfeeding when I came back to work, I vividly remember having to dash out of meetings at tea breaks to stand in a public toilet cubicle with my battery-powered breast pump, noisily trying to express my milk. Being a working mum wasn’t glamorous or easy. But the fact that my partner and I both worked for companies prepared to be flexible and supportive meant that it was possible for us both to work and raise our daughter together.

It was tough for my company at first – my absence, then adjusting my hours and coping with the rare yet unavoidable childcare complications. And of course I appreciated this, rewarding their investment in me by being a hardworking, loyal and committed member of the team. I went on to work there for 10 years, became an Associate Partner and only left when I went on to start my own business three years ago.

Becoming a Female Boss:

Four amazing people help me run my tech start-up, Patchwork, day to day and three of them are women between the ages of 24-40. I hired these women because they were the best candidates for the job. I based my decision on their skills and experience, their principles and personalities, their understanding and appreciation of my business and their determination and commitment to help us grow.

When I interviewed the three women (and one man) who now work with me, I asked about their career ambitions. I didn’t ask whether they were in a relationship, had children or whether they were able and/or interested in planning a family at any point.

As it turns out two of us at Patchwork are parents. My kids are at school now so most days I work in the studio from 9-3. But I still work from home quite a bit, as does Kim who has a two-year-old son, and Jay who has to look after his goats.

On being human:

My thoughts on women, wombs and the workplace are perhaps influenced by my personal experience as a woman employee and employer. But also by the fact that I’m a human being who knows a bit about our reproductive system and how the whole birth, life and death thing works at a basic social and economic level.

The thing is, women do not choose to become pregnant. People (men and women) choose to raise families. And most of us do, thank goodness, or our society would cease to function.

But this is a really important distinction.

Working women have to take ‘time off’ because of the biological fact they carry, deliver and (in most cases) feed their babies. But maternity is not a holiday. It’s crucial time that working women require to collectively raise the next generation – upon whom we all depend.

Given that women’s fertile years span more than half our working lives, surely those of us that run businesses should assume the chance of pregnancy during a woman’s career, rather than using the possibility as a criteria to filter out potential candidates during a job interview.

If the cost of hiring women of childbearing age is too great a risk for small British businesses then we do have a problem. But the solution is not an employer endorsed witch-hunt that forces women to confess their fertility. It’s better legislation and funding to make it easier and more affordable for small businesses to support working parents to raise their children.

Olivia Knight

Socialist, feminist, environmentalist trying to see if I can combine my isms with enterprise. Founder of group gift startup, Patchwork. Mum of two, London.

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