부산대학교 도서관

BACKGROUND In the recent years, women have occupied a considerable number of paid positions in the labour market and continue to work even during periods of pregnancies but even though, [...]
BACKGROUND The twentieth century witnessed women expanding the range of possibilities for their gender; by participating as professionals in different fields and by actively dissolving the boundaries of the traditionally held gender roles and they continue to work even during the most crucial phase of their life, that is pregnancy. Discussing the factors related with women's career progress, the negative aspects were found to be domination of men in senior executive positions, discrimination against women, and gender stereotyping. The main objective of this study was to take point of view of employers regarding pregnancy at workplace, their concerns and challenges and how they place themselves in the whole scenario of changing environment for a worker. METHODS A qualitative study design was adopted by conducting semi-structured interviews for which a guideline was developed beforehand. In depth interviews were conducted with the employers at different levels in different organizations of Lahore. RESULTS Classical content analysis of interviews revealed that employers display unfavourable attitude towards the employment of childbearing age group women in the first place and pregnancy at workplace is not a welcoming event at all. All this negative attitude is due to the cost and HR issues raised by the absences and maternity leave of a pregnant worker. There is a great chaos regarding workload shared by the colleagues in pregnant women's absence. For maternity leave, cost of hiring a new person and training are the issues raised by the employers especially in small organizations. CONCLUSIONS There is a great need to give awareness to workers as well as management regarding laws and regulations about maternity at workplace. KEY WORDS Employer, Interviewee, Working Women, Pregnancy