Thursday, May 07, 2009

Ethical pondering of the moment

I wonder how ethical/unethical it is to mention (when the opportunity presents itself naturally in conversation) that I'm childfree to increase my perceived employability?

It isn't so much an issue with my current employer and perhaps not in the profession as a whole (it would certainly be foolish to discriminate against maternity in a female-dominated profession that claims to desperately need an infusion of young professionals), but I've read several things lately where employers discriminate against maternity, and it occurred to me that my childfree status could be an asset. Up until now I'd been keeping it a bit quiet, because I always thought people perceived it as immaturity.

On one hand, I shouldn't be facilitating discrimination against maternity. On the other, it could be a tipping point in my favour.

1 comment:

laura k said...

I have said during interviews - but very casually - that because I have no children, working weekends is very agreeable to me. I'll say, my partner works weekends, too, so it fits really well with my lifestyle.

To me it seemed more "good job fit" than discrimination.