This article is a no-brainer. I honestly haven't seen discrimination against childless (to them) women--it's more like discrimination across the board against single people and people without kids. I work in the public sector and it's supposed to be a bastion of merit protection and "fairness" and I can cite so many example where "employee benefits" = benefit to you if you've bred. If you have not, be prepared to jump through hoops and make some threats before you get your benefits.
Example:
1. FMLA - when I used it to take care of a parent, I had to fill out paperwork and go three levels above my boss to get it. My boss hassled the shit out of me, all to take LEAVE WITHOUT PAY. During that same time, a co-irker's wife lost a clump at around 6 weeks---she barely missed a period, and my co-worker was allowed to work from home for
two weeks with no accountability. I was not allowed to work from home and do a partial day while I took my parent to chemo, so I just told them to fuck themselves and took the whole day, leave without pay. My work sat there while I was gone of course, and later on they came around simply because I was the most dependable worker. What burned me the most about this particular assignment was that I was always dependable and I was a stellar performer. No matter, the Breeders will stick together and it usually gets themselves in trouble. I left this job, made a lateral move to get the Hell out and I was very glad.
2. vacation time and "coverage" I can understand using seniority to determine who gets vacation or first come first serve, or making people rotate. Whoever got Christmas off last year gets to work it now. What doesn't work is, he/she who has a family
automatically gets the time off, each and every time. When I was younger people tried to stick me with the, you get to work it every year because you are in your 20's and WHEN you are in your 30's and have kyds, you'll get time off then. Nope.
3. I worked at one job where you had to travel a lot. Sometimes you'd get to work in the morning and you had to leave by the end of the day. It was written IN THE UNION AGREEMENT that if someone had a "family" they received 24 hours notice prior to traveling. I made a stink and fought to change this. I argued if there was a requirement to give notice, it should equally be given to ALL employees. Either make everyone travel at the last minute, or give everyone notice. Just because I didn't have a "family," it didn't mean I didn't have to make arrangements while I was gone. If anything, it was harder for me because I lived alone--a person with a spouse was in a
better position than I was to travel at the last minute. I knew I was probably hurting my chances for advancement with respect to this issue. The policy was changed before I left. It was one of those deals that people thought I was nuts, but the irony was, there was an audit after I left and HQ HR got wind of it and told these people that I was in the right.
In some cases, you can make your flexibility work for you. If you stay late when everyone else is running home because OMG IT'S SNOWING and skool is getting out, you may be able to get some credit hours or build capital with the boss. But my advice is to not stay late and go to the extra mile unless you are being appreciated/compensated accordingly. Breeders who pull the child card every minute won't be sticking their necks out for anyone else, you can bet on that.
Oh and the 2nd piece of advice: If you must work for someone else, sock away as much money as you can. I put away 20% of my pre-tax income for years. (Which I could do because...you know why.)
Even better advice is to get a skill so you don't have to work for someone else, or so you can be the boss someday and reward people on the basis of merit, not whether their sex organs worked.
I'm pretty sick of the corporate/large company life and looking forward to getting the Hell out.