What has Europe done to protect the necessities of motherhood? Peter Thompson QC reports
In western democracies, motherhood is generally seen as a good thing, a praiseworthy status, something it would be dangerous to criticise or cast doubt on. In Europe, motherhood may not be bracketed with apple pie, as it is in the US, but there is at least wide recognition that the survival of the human race depends on it. Indeed cautious steps have been taken in the last 50 years to see that women are not disadvantaged in society and in the market place by the necessities of motherhood.
Sex Discrimination Act
The UK was an early leader. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA 1975) provided, obliquely, that discrimination on the ground of pregnancy could amount to sex discrimination. However, the framework of SDA 1975 seemed to require the courts to compare a pregnant woman with a man with an incapacitating illness and to find discrimination against the pregnant woman only if the sick man would have been treated
