Career vs. Child

"So, what are your childcare arrangements?" the only female in the panel during my first job interview had asked.

"My son is staying with my parents until I've adjusted to work," I answered. It was the truth.

"That's wonderful!" she chortled. She looked genuinely pleased. The two males in the panel nodded with approval. I was offered the job.

If my interviewer had asked that question in the United States, she could have been sued.

In "Litigating the Maternal Wall: US Lawsuits Charging Discrimination against Workers with Family Responsibilities" (http://www.uchastings.edu/site_files/WLL/FRDreport.pdf), Mary C. Still, a Faculty Fellow of the University of California Hastings College of the Law, analyzes the trend in lawsuits filed by workers who claim that they were discriminated against because of family care-giving responsibilities.

I learned that in the United States, workers have sued for not being promoted or for being fired after hearing employer's remarks like "a mother's place is in the home with her children," "please don't get pregnant until I retire," "working mothers are incompetent and lazy" and "it is not possible for you to be a good mother and have this job."

Ms. Still theorizes that these lawsuits are on the rise because of the following reasons: Increasing number of mothers in the workforce, increasing discrimination in the workplace, workers' increasing awareness and expectations about their legal rights, and increased availability of damages and jury trial because of a change in their law.

I am not aware of a Philippine case where a working mother sued her employer or a prospective employer because she was discriminated against by reason of her childcare responsibilities. If a woman were to file such a suit, she could cite Article 135 of the Philippine Labor Code. This provision states that it is unlawful for any employer to discriminate against any woman employee with respect to terms and conditions of employment solely on account of her sex. While there are a few Philippine cases on gender discrimination, these involved company policies requiring that women remain single to keep their jobs.

I have a few theories as to why no Filipino woman has ever sued on this cause of action. First, no employer in the Philippines has fired an employee because of her care-giving responsibilities (unlikely). Second, not a lot of women are aware of their rights under the Labor Code (and unfortunately, about their rights under other laws as well). Third, we're not a litigious society (except perhaps for Mike Arroyo who has a propensity for filing libel suits). Lastly, most women would not be offended by, and would probably agree with, statements such as "a mother's place is in the home with her children" and "it is not possible for you to be a good mother and have this job."

While I do not subscribe to the idea that "a mother's place is in the home with her children" (it should be anywhere she wants to be), I must admit that I resigned from my previous jobs partly because I concluded that it was not possible for me to be a good mother and still do well in those jobs. When my son was four, I got home at around five the afternoon from an out-of-town hearing. My son asked: "Why are you home? The sun is still out." It really bothered me that he associated me with darkness.

Obviously, there are no exact formulas as to how much time good mothers should spend with their children so they will grow up to be decent human beings. I am just grateful that it is possible for me to spend more time with my son now. Other women cannot make that choice even if it is what they would have wanted.

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