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"  Photo: Getty Images It took more than 30 years, but the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) finally clarified its rules against pregnancy discrimination, stating that any discrimination based on past or future pregnancies is illegal, and that employers must make reasonable accommodations for pregnant women. Now, any harassment or discrimination against pregnant workers is an illegal form of sex discrimination. Under the new guidelines, lactation is also considered a medical condition. The clarification was necessary because employers routinely interpreted the anti-discrimination law narrowly, refusing to accommodate pregnancy the same way they would a physical disability. Pregnant workers who needed simple accommodations\u2014say, not doing heavy lifting or sitting during breaks instead of standing\u2014faced a series of bad options. &amp;quot;Too often, pregnant women whose doctors have advised them to stay off high ladders, or to avoid heavy lifting, or to drink water throughout the work day, have been pushed out onto unpaid leave or even fired when they ask their employers to accommodate these needs,&amp;quot; Emily Martin, vice president and general counsel at the National Women&amp;#039;s Law Center (NWLC), told Cosmopolitan.com. &amp;quot;Or in the face of an employer&amp;#039;s refusal to accommodate, they have been forced to ignore their doctor&amp;#039;s advice, risking their health and the health of their pregnancies, because their families can&amp;#039;t afford to lose their paycheck.&amp;quot; Now, that should change. Employers have greater clarity on their obligations, and workers have greater leverage in workplace accommodation requests and lawsuits if reasonable accommodations aren&amp;#039;t offered. &amp;quot;The EEOC has made clear that if a worker comes to an employer asking for some change in her job because of medical needs arising out of her pregnancy, the employer should treat it just like the employer would treat a worker asking for a change at work because of a non-pregnancy-related disability,&amp;quot; Martin said. This is a huge gain for all women in the workplace, but especially for low-wage workers who often face the least flexible workplaces and have the fewest options when it comes to balancing childbearing and childrearing with work. As more women enter the workforce and stay there longer, pregnancy discrimination claims have skyrocketed: In 10 years they increased 35 percent. And particularly post-recession, many female-dominated jobs are in low-wage industries. &amp;quot;Women in low-wage jobs and women who work in jobs traditionally held by men appear to be particularly at risk,&amp;quot; Martin said. &amp;quot;These jobs are often more physically demanding, which makes it more likely that a worker might need an accommodation at some point during her pregnancy. But in low-wage workplaces, often there is a culture of &amp;quot;no:&amp;quot; a knee-jerk reaction of refusing employees&amp;#039; requests for any flexibility in work rules. And in male-dominated jobs like truck driving or policing, often there is some hostility to women&amp;#039;s presence in the workplace at all, which can make denials or retaliation all the more likely if workers need some accommodation because of pregnancy.&amp;quot; Dads benefit from the new rules too: They say that &amp;quot;similarly situated&amp;quot; men and women must be treated the same when it comes to parental leave. That doesn&amp;#039;t mean men and women are given the same amount of parental leave, but that if there&amp;#039;s leave offered outside of physical necessity, it needs to be gender-neutral. So, for example, if an employer offers maternity leave beyond what it takes to recover from childbirth, male employees are entitled to the same. Or if an employer offers leave when a couple adopts a child, the leave policies must apply to both moms and dads. Of course, we still have a long way to go. The United States is one of the few countries in the world \u2014 and the only of our economic peers\u2014that does not have paid parental leave. Maybe in 30 more years, we&amp;#039;ll catch up to the rest of the planet. From the editors of  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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