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Workplace law vis-à-vis the sexes has gone adrift in several ways; basic sex-discrimination law ought to be restored to further extend the principles of justice. The first is how current law institutionalizes the battle of the sexes, pitting women against men as two rival classes. The 1991 amendments to the Civil Rights Act allow judges to presume unlawful sex discrimination based on statistical evidence as to the relative proportion of men and women in a given enterprise. But this ignores the fact that men and women, on average, have different preferences when it comes to remunerative work.
At the same time, many pregnant women and mothers lack vital protections in the workplace that enable them to carry out their twin duties of paid employment and child rearing. Just as the law carves out special workplace protections for veterans, it should also concern itself with the treatment of working parents — who, like veterans, contribute to the common good in unique ways.
Ivana Greco is a Senior Fellow at Capita.
Erika Bachiochi is a professor of practice at the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University and the director of its Mercy Otis Warren Initiative for Women in Civil Life and Thought. She is also a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.