In response to several court decisions of the 1970s, Congress enacted an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This amendment, Public Law 95-555 (entitled "Pregnancy Sex Discrimination, Prohibition"), states that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions constitutes…

Results of a survey of law schools concerning the availability of child care for faculty, the composition of the faculty, school policies for handling requests for leaves and reduced teaching loads, pregnancy-as-disability policies, and retention among faculty parents are discussed. (MSE)

Investigates perceptions of counselors-in-training (N=133) of Black, Hispanic, and White male and female adolescents facing a teen pregnancy. After viewing video vignettes, participants indicated that boys would be more encouraged to leave school and work than would girls. Girls were seen as having more control over pregnancy decisions compared to…

The results of a study on women physicians' timing of pregnancy are reported, with 70 percent of the respondents considered "after completion of residency" to be the best time to become pregnant. Only a third reported that their training or work sites had maternity leave policies. (Author/MLW)

In this article, the author talks about the need for sound policies to help faculty members balance family life with career issues. Many human-resource policies--for example, those governing conflicts of interest--can be developed almost independently of other policies and have a high degree of transferability from one campus to the next. A…

The status of state maternity/parental leave laws throughout the United States is depicted in eight figures and three tables. Information is reported by state for maternity/parental leave laws, months of available leave, maternity/family illness laws, days of leave for family illness, temporary disability insurance laws, temporary disability…

Analysis of 82 court cases involving pregnancy discrimination, 1972-91, shows that this litigation revealed the gender bias of equal employment opportunity law and capitalist economic relations, eroded assumptions about economic imperatives for not accommodating pregnant workers, and laid the groundwork for the Family and Medical Leave Act of…

This report presents testimony concerning the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1989. The bill establishes a basic, minimum labor standard, ensuring job protection to workers who need time off to care for themselves or their family members. The testimony covered the following topics: personal experiences of people whose employment was affected after…

Discusses recent court decisions dealing with school district maternity leave policy, emphasizing the Aiello case, where the Supreme Court upheld a state insurance program that excluded disabilities relating to normal pregnancies, and the LaFleur and Cohen cases, where the Supreme Court held that mandatory termination of pregnant teachers is…

The two papers in this report focus on some of the social, demographic, and economic consequences of the increasing entry of women into the workforce. Arthur Norton and Louisa Miller in "The Family Life Cycle: 1985" show trends in the frequency and timing of marriage, divorce, remarriage, and fertility across several generations of…

A survey of women physicians elicited 373 responses from women who had experienced pregnancy during residency. Respondents indicated that major sources of stress included frequency of call, fatigue, long hours, and too little time with partner. Women medical staff were perceived as supportive. Maternity leave of less than 6 weeks was felt to be…

This paper discusses five court cases decided in the seventies that explain the viewpoints held by the courts on pregnant school employees. According to the paper, the cases reveal the judicial background that prompted P.L. 95-555, passed by Congress in 1978 and identified as an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII. The cases, not…

A study was made to obtain a broad overview of the operation of maternity leave in Australia from the perspectives of employees and employers. The study included: (1) an employee survey exploring the use and non-use of maternity leave and identifying determinants of taking maternity leave and of retaining women in the labor force after childbirth;…

Among 324 employed women in Indiana, followed from pregnancy through 12 months postpartum, job attrition after childbirth was significantly decreased by employer policies, particularly length of maternity leave and ability to avoid mandatory overtime upon return, and was also decreased by supervisor and coworker social support, greater educational…

Welfare-to-work programs are bringing more adults back to school. These programs are aimed at those who are 16 years or older without a high school diploma or its equivalent. However, many adult students leave school for a variety of reasons, including pregnancy, lack of interest, and transportation problems. Lists benchmarks for good adult…