University of Florida Levin College of Law UF Law Scholarship Repository UF Law Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 4-1986 Maternity Leave: Taking Sex Differences Into Account Nancy E. Dowd University of Florida Levin College of Law,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub Part of the Labor and Employment Law Commons Recommended Citation Nancy E. Dowd, Maternity Leave: Taking Sex Differences Into Account, 54 Fordham L. Rev. 699 (1986), available at http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub/433 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at UF Law Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in UF Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UF Law Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. MATERNITY LEAVE: TAKING SEX DIFFERENCES INTO ACCOUNT NANCYE. DOWD* INTRODUCTION TrofE reconciliation of employment responsibilities with the demands Xof childbirth and child-rearing remains a critical issue in the achieve- ment of true equal employment opportunity for women. One of the prin- cipal factors contributing to the difference in the employment status of men and women is the resistance of the workplace to accommodating childbirth and parental responsibilities. This resistance has a dispropor- tionate impact on women who by their sex bear the burden of pregnancy, and who by social custom bear the primary responsibility for child- rearing. Traditionally employers regarded pregnancy and childbirth as incom- patible with work and therefore as a justification for barring pregnant women from the workplace.' The assumption that once women became mothers they would stay at home to raise their children, rather than work, underlay the relegation of working women to the status of margi- nal or temporary employees.2 With the passage of Title VIII and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA),4 the primary focus of litigation has been to remove the barriers to equal employment opportunity created by these policies.