Small Firms shouldn’t be forced to employ woman of childbearing age

…. at least that is what an article in my week-end paper said. Are you appalled by this headline, good so you should be! The Times Online has this article which highlights some idiotic policies we have in the UK and the effect on women and small business alike.

Sylvia Tidy-Harris, 46, is the founder of speaking agency Womenspeakers.co.uk, based in Leicestershire, UK. She argues that it is not fair on small business to have to employ woman of childbearing age:

“Small businesses should be exempt from employing women of childbearing age because the cost of dealing with maternity leave could cripple them. If one of the six staff in my public-speaking agency found she was pregnant and needed to have a year off, I would have to keep her job open – and to cover the job while she was on maternity leave, it would be very hard to find somebody else as committed, as that person would know that at the end of the maternity-leave period they were going to be booted out. It would be incredibly debilitating for my business – and any small enterprise hoping to grow. …..”

There is more to be read in the article and examples are given, when woman exploited the situation and caused big damage to small business. But is this the rule, I believe not.

If a small business was to be exempt from employing woman of childbearing age - and I do not agree that they should be exempt - then what about big business? Now I’m not usually taking sides for big business, but that would be unfair. Not even to speak of all the woman who return to work and do need the work.

If you want a baby you need to make room for the newborn in your life, and our society needs to acknowledge the need for new born babies. Here the state should provide a reasonable solution for the mother to be, it is unreasonable for any business - small or big - to be penalized for employing woman of childbearing age and it is unreasonable to turn on woman for wanting to plan a family.

Reading these articles just reminds me always how stupid and wrong some of our policies are, and that our political correctness often achieves the opposite of what it aims to protect, our humanity.

We should not seek to create new victims (woman), just to get away from being a victim ourself (small business) - we should seek to change the system to protect our human needs.

Like it or not, running a small business means to be socially and politically aware. ST.

5 Responses to “Small Firms shouldn’t be forced to employ woman of childbearing age”

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   Said on November 5th, 2007 at 7:35 pm

   […] Small Firms shouldnt be forced to employ woman of childbearing age […]

2. Rebecca
   http://www.gowholesale.com
   
   Said on November 6th, 2007 at 4:05 pm

   Hahahahahahaha! I seriously laughed out loud when I read that headline. You hit the nail on the head here. It is ridiculous and impractical on many levels to suggest not hiring women of \”child bearing age\”–does this lady realize that \”child bearing age\” constitues most of a woman\’s life?! That\’s just silly. While I can certainly see her point in an abstract, black and white sense, the real world cannot (and will not) afford such a ludicrous policy (and I hope I am understanding correctly, that this is NOT currently the policy in the U.K.). What a nice little Tuesday morning laugh!

3. Stefan Töpfer
   http://www.winweb.com
   
   Said on November 7th, 2007 at 5:47 pm

   Rebecca, you would not believe the stuff that goes down here in the UK and in the EU. We are so “politically correct” you can no longer talk of your husband or your wife, you have to talk about your partner, in order not to discriminate against same sex couples.

   That we are always discriminating against the majority of people is something nobody seems to consider.

   I have the same reaction when I go to Australia and I tell people all about these issues, they look at me as I have lost my mind.

   Stefan

4. Rebecca
   http://www.gowholesale.com
   
   Said on November 7th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

   Aren’t things hard enough? And then we have to go and complicate them….it’s a mad, mad, mad world. Just have to keep our heads up and keep “fighting the good fight!”

5. Stefan Töpfer
   http://www.winweb.com
   
   Said on November 7th, 2007 at 7:37 pm

   Like G.K Chesterton, a British novelist once said:

   “It isen’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.”

   Certainly true in this “politically correct” mad world.

   Stefan

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