Reply to SAHM Reentering the Work Force

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I interviewed a lovely woman who explained a four year gap in her resume by saying that she took time off as the only child to care for her terminally ill mother. Had no problem hiring her (and she's doing great!). That's way different that a SAHP situation though.[/quote]

Why is it different for purposes of hiring and employment?[/quote]

Because the mother is dead. The kids that caused the mom to SAH are presumably still alive.[/quote]

If you are suggesting that you'd not hire a woman specifically because she still has kids at home ... you should be aware that you may be violating the law.  You can't discriminate based on your stereotypes about working mothers; that's gender discrimination.  In fact, your hypothetical example (that you'd hire a woman who took time off to care for her dying mother, but not a woman who took time off to care for kids still at home) would be very good evidence against you in court.

http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/caregiving.html[/quote]

You make a good point, but the fact is women cannot prove they are be discriminated against in this way.  It's almost impossible.  That's why it is best, when interviewing, not to give too much information.  This thread is about how to conduct yourself in an interview, not about hiring practices.  And if someone says they quit their job because they couldn't meet the demands of both parenthood and a career, not hiring them later has nothing to do with them being a parent and everything to with the fact that they might be lousy employees....since many people, apparently, can do just that.[/quote]

I agree that it's best not to even open up the issue in the interview (if possible) because hiring discrimination is usually hard to prove.  However, I used to be an employment lawyer, and I can tell you that it is actually not all that unusual for employers to say really dumb, openly discriminatory things.  Especially when it comes to pregnancy/parenting stereotypes -- I think these are so ingrained in the culture that people just don't realize it's not ok to discriminate on the basis of your beliefs that mommies don't work as hard as daddies.  You'd be surprised how easy it is to prove sometimes!  And of course, the "good" cases settle and you never hear about them in the press. [/quote]

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