By Mindi D. Line¹

Pregnancy is a wonderful and miraculous experience, but the reaction of the world around us can be anything from encouraging and supportive to frustrating and even infuriating.  From unsolicited advice on when to travel and whether or not to breastfeed to whether and how much to work during and after pregnancy – pregnant women become a magnet for the opinions of everyone.  We have come a long way over the years when it comes to accepting women, and thereby mothers, in the workplace, but the battle is still in its early stages.  What complicates the issue even further is that no one knows the right answers and there’s no one answer for every family.  It is one of the most difficult situations many families face when incorporating baby into a life that involves two working parents.  After years of education, training and networking to move forward in a career – a woman is suddenly forced to choose whether to attempt to maintain and care for her career, whether to take time off from the professional world to care for a new baby or whether to try to combine the two worlds without feeling like a failure in each. 

Beyond the personal decisions that each woman and family face with a new baby, exterior forces make their presence and opinions known.  Employers, colleagues, family and friends all have opinions on what the “right” decision is and regardless of your ultimate choice – someone is always judging you.  You may choose to stay at home and in the minds of some thereby waste an education and the years of work spent to build a career and surrendering to the female/mother ideal and succumbing to the concept that a woman’s place is in the home.  Or perhaps you determine that you want to continue on with your professional track and find alternative methods to care for your child – whether it be daycare or family member, in which case you become a bad mother in the eyes of some.  Or perhaps you decide to attempt to make the best of both worlds, but end up being constantly behind and unfulfilled in all aspects of your life.  Or maybe you do find the perfect combination that suits your family’s needs and your professional needs, but most of us are not that lucky – at least not at first.

There are many problems with the way that our society treats pregnancy and parenthood, especially in the practice of law.  The main problem is that society is not set up to assist each individual and family in achieving this balance between a professional life and a happy family.  Rather, it is set up so that each time a family is started – that family is faced with unnerving choices. 

Gender discrimination, like other forms, has long been a part of our society.  In recent decades, discrimination against women has become a more prominent issue, but still a continuing problem.  When pregnancy is thrown into the mix, the problem becomes even bigger and has evolved into its own area of law – pregnancy discrimination.  Initially women are looked down upon simply for being a woman – whether it be fear of competition or just simple ignorance.  Often hiring women or giving women opportunities at work may be hindered by the existence of or possibility of a family because many people believe that a woman’s primary duty in life is to care for her family.  Now employers do not necessarily respect and identify with this concept in a way that would accommodate the needs of the woman as an employee (or partner as the case may be), but rather force women, and parents in general, to choose their career above their family in order to succeed.  Employees are expected to put in the extra face time and to work those longer hours to appear as the “ideal worker” – the person that is always willing to do what needs done immediately regardless of anything else.

Joan Williams examines the concept of the “ideal worker” in her book, Unbending Gender, along with many other concepts regarding the perception of a parent in the workplace.  She goes beyond the effects upon women and broadens the issue to look at work and family on a large scale by examining the roles of workers and parents rather than making it an issue involving only women.  She encourages the reader to consider everything and everyone in defining these roles and rules.  Williams advocates for a reconstruction of society wherein all these interests and needs are balanced between everyone, not just women.  Her ideas focus around the concept that everyone has a stake in future generations and everyone should work to make the system better rather than forcing everyone as individuals to take on the task of finding the perfect balance.

Unfortunately, our society has not yet adopted the ideals that Williams discusses or even attempted to look at the bigger picture.  So each woman and family is faced with the decision of how to balance work and family.  Some are lucky enough to have total control and able to financially postpone career ambitions to take on a new full-time job with no pay, but great benefits and become a stay-at-home mother.  Others are forced to find an alternative care resource than themselves for financial reasons.  Many, however, are stuck in the middle – trying to balance the needs and desires to foster a career they have worked hard towards building and enjoy with the new responsibilities and desires of being a parent.

This may be a very complicated issue for some or it may be a very simple one for others (with each answer being different), but regardless it is an issue that needs to be addressed by more than just women.  This is an issue that affects everyone, men, women, parents and non-parents alike because it affects the future of our society as a whole.  The children of today, as corny as it may sound, are the future of tomorrow and the examples we set and the priorities we maintain will be passed on to the next generation.  So it is important to examine the current situation and determine if this is the course that we want to pursue as a society – where these decisions are forced upon women who are often punished regardless or if there is some way to mold society to fit the needs of everyone.  This is an issue that should be addressed by everyone – especially in the legal profession.  The practice of law, by its nature, involves societal change and this profession is one of the most notorious for long hours and placing work above family.  As a profession we have to ask ourselves – is that the “ideal worker” concept that we want to portray?  As professionals that are an integral part of the law – do we not have a duty to examine this issue and find a solution rather than perpetuate the problem?  As time goes by, hopefully these questions will be answered in a positive manner that leads to a real solution.

¹ Mindi D. Line lives in Parkersburg, WV. She received her Bachelor’s Degree cum laude, in Economics and International Studies, and her Juris Doctor of Law from West Virginia University. She has passed the bar in both West Virginia and Ohio. After graduation, she spent two years clerking for a state circuit judge and then entered private practice for approximately one year focusing on employment litigation. She also teaches a course for paralegals at a local community college and is active in the community. She and her husband are currently expecting their first child in January of 2006. Line has decided to take time off from the practice of law in order to stay at home with their child, but continues to teach and work within the community. Line is a member of the West Virginia State Bar Young Lawyers Section Executive Committee and a member of the American Bar Association Young Lawyer’s Division Affiliate Assistance Team.