Some time ago, the word "hidden pregnancy", which usually does not appear very often, appeared on the hot search. The plot of "hidden pregnancy" in the hit drama "Lady's Character" has aroused heated discussions.
Bai Hui, the assistant of the "Roll King" who works seriously and self-motivated in the play, conceals her pregnancy and joins, vomiting during work hours, and containing tonic in a thermos cup, but claims to her colleagues that she is just gastroenteritis. She thought about turning positive in advance every day, and then immediately took a vacation to protect the baby, but after turning positive, she still didn't confess because of the boss's favor.
When the boss Yao Wei learned that she was hiding the fact that she was pregnant, she said:
This is a helpless but unusually true heartfelt statement, if everyone is like this "hidden pregnancy entry" and immediately after turning regular, then the workplace will inevitably be more vigilant against women, and the employment environment for women will be worse. But should Bai Hui in the play be killed by a stick and condemned to the end?
Most people on the Internet stood in two teams, while agreeing with Bai Hui's boss's words, the more such people, the worse, and even accused this behavior from the perspective of labor laws and regulations as allegedly violating the law; On the other hand, there is understanding, thinking that making such a choice is that society has not done enough, and women are really helpless.
Which side will you be on? What are the reasons for women to make the choice of "hidden pregnancy"?
01
In fact, this is not the first time that the matter of hidden pregnancy has been mentioned. There was a similar plot in the TV series "I Really Love You".
In the play, Chen Jiaorui is a strong contender for the company's executives, but during the critical period of the company's development, she found out that she was pregnant. She was very anxious, afraid that after years of hard work, this pregnancy would become a wedding dress for others. Gossip spread in the company's pantry, "The company is strictly guarded against married and unpregnant women, who wants to hold the team back?" "There was a female colleague before, hidden pregnancy?" It's so immoral. These exacerbated her anxiety, and she had to choose to become pregnant temporarily in the face of the risk of being replaced at any time.
In reality, there was a news in 2017 that after a woman became pregnant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, she did not share the good news with her colleagues in the company at the first time, but chose to hide it. She said, "Before some colleagues were pregnant and their performance was all deducted, so they could hide it as much as possible and wait until the performance was evaluated at the end of the year." In this way, it was not until 22 weeks pregnant, "I couldn't hide it," that she told the company that she was pregnant.
There is no shortage of news like this. Reality is more brutal than in the TV series.
According to the "2022 China Women's Workplace Status Survey Report", 61.2% of women were asked about marriage and childbirth in their job search, up from 55.8% in the previous year; 38.3% of women said that marriage and childbirth affect career prospects; 11.9% of women had a salary increase due to gender promotions.
Fertility has always been a cloud hanging over the heads of women in the workplace, and unfortunately it seems to be more and more like a dark cloud.
02
Some women can't resist the pressure of the company and the fierce workplace, and they choose to temporarily leave work and return home to have children. But when they want to return to the workplace, it is difficult. How many mothers who return to work can overcome the difficulties?
Last year's "Our Marriage" starring Bai Baihe focused on this issue. Even if the heroine was very good before becoming a mother: the finance department of a prestigious university, the leader of the debate team, and also served as the lead singer of the band, got an offer from a top company, and a popular figure in the entire school, but when she returned to the workplace, she quickly recognized the harsh reality, even if she was willing to start as an intern, but still no company was willing to accept an older woman with no work experience, not to mention that she also needed to deal with various emergencies of her children at any time.
According to survey data, even if they return to the workplace, 6.39% of women have experienced "transfer or salary reduction during marriage and childbearing".
And what do those women who have survived the pressure of the company and successfully conceived and had children have to face? Breastfeeding and postpartum recovery for a year or more began.
Ordinary women who insist on breastfeeding while working form a special group - breastfeeding mothers. They carry backpacks with ice packs to and from work every day, and no matter how long the journey or how crowded the carriages, they carefully protect the backpacks in their hands, because they have worked so hard to save for their children's rations. Every 3 hours the breasts will be swollen, whenever the feeling of swelling hits, stop the work at hand as soon as possible, find an unoccupied corner to start the 10-15 minute breast milk pumping process, hide in the bathroom, conference room, small warehouse, tool room, even under the table...
From the beginning when the company learned that female employees were pregnant like a big enemy, to the gradual marginalization of the work team during pregnancy, to the various inconveniences faced by motherhood after returning to the workplace, the entire workplace environment is absolutely unfriendly to women who "become mothers", and even individual companies are extremely harsh and obviously discriminatory.
Why "hidden pregnancy", perhaps to buy some time to breathe and prepare, is a distrust of insecurity in the workplace, because such a workplace environment really makes women untrustworthy.
But I have to admit that hidden pregnancy does bring some problems, triggering a vicious circle of maternity discrimination against women in the workplace.
Childbirth has never been a woman's business alone, we hope that relatives, workplace, and social welfare will extend a strong hand, so that every woman can be a mother with peace of mind and share the joy of pregnancy with colleagues happily and calmly. More breastfeeding spaces and more flexible childcare leave to guarantee women's right to work.
Written by: Yoshiki
Image source: Weibo, Douban, video screenshots