調查：生育成女性求職禁忌話題

What would you ask potential employers about in a job interview? Your salary, holiday allowance, pension plan or healthcare benefits, perhaps. But would you ask about the company's maternity package?

For almost four out of five women the answer to that questions is 'no'. The overwhelming majority of women feel that any reference to harbouring a working uterus could jeopardise their chances of landing the role.

The survey carried out by Glassdoor, an online jobs and careers community, polled 1,000 working women in the UK - 500 of whom have already taken maternity leave and 500 whom plan to do so in the future.

Why do women keep schtum on the topic of maternity benefits? Half said they would be scared potential employers would assume they are already pregnant.

Perhaps more worrying though, one in five women feared they would not be taken seriously by employers if they mentioned the 'm' word, almost a third (31 per cent) felt it would hinder their career progression even if they did land the role and 15 per cent felt it would stop them getting a fair salary.

Speaking to MailOnline about the study, employment relations minister Jo Swinson said: 'Pregnancy discrimination is unacceptable and illegal. Women deserve the right to pursue their goals and not feel they have to choose between having a successful career or having a baby.'

The survey also highlighted that women's reticence to make reference to maternity benefits doesn't end when they're in a job.

Twenty two per cent would wait until they had passed their probation period to ask their line manager about their maternity rights.

Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) would avoid discussing it with their boss altogether and opt to discuss it with a trusted colleague instead.

Why the need for detective work? The poll found that information about maternity leave is not easy to come by for female employees.

Nearly two in five (39 per cent) of those polled felt the information was difficult to find with 13 per cent saying it was downright impossible, claiming details of maternity benefits were not made available to employees at all, unless specifically requested.

Only 32 per cent of female employees were given information about maternity benefits when they started their current job.

The survey also found that 42 percent of female employees would only ask their employer about maternity benefits if they were announcing a pregnancy.

The reasons ranged from being worried employers would think they were already pregnant (43 percent), worrying it would be perceived that they were trying to get pregnant (37 percent) and feeling it was 'not professional' (30 per cent).

Most alarmingly though, more than one in five (22 per cent) feared they would be putting themselves at risk of redundancy by asking questions on the taboo topic.

So what do women feel can be done? Half said it should be compulsory for all organisations to have a transparent benefits package from the start of the recruitment process.

Women also felt that businesses with a competitive package should actively use it as a marketing tool to attract top female talent.

A spokesperson for Glassdoor, who recently added an anonymous benefits review service to their site, making it easier to compare packages and perks of potential employers, said: 'There are more than 13 million women in the workplace and amongst these more than 5 million are working mums.

'These women are an important part of UK businesses so it seems pretty short sighted to keep maternity benefit details under lock and key.

'A more honest and open attitude towards maternity benefits could improve the quality of candidates.

'It may not be an intentional decision for employers to keep this information from female employees, however forcing them to ask for it is clearly causing a great deal of distress for many women in the workplace. Transparency around benefits can actually build greater trust.'在面試中你會問潛在僱主什麼問題呢？或許是你的薪水、假日津貼、養老金計劃、醫療保險，但你會問及公司的產假方案嗎？

幾乎80%的女性都會回答“不會”。絕大多數女性認爲任何涉及懷孕的事都可能降低他們應聘成功的可能性。

網上求職擇業社區Glassdoor對在英國工作的1000名女性進行了調查。其中，500名女性已經休過產假，另外500名計劃今後休產假。

爲什麼女性會對孕期福利話題避而不談呢？一半的人說她們害怕潛在僱主會猜測她們已經懷孕。

五分之一的女性害怕提及“懷孕”類字眼，僱主會不那麼認真考慮僱傭她們。儘管這樣，或許還有令她們更擔心的事。三分之一（31%）女性認爲即使她們得到工作機會，這也會阻礙她們事業發展；15%的人認爲這會使她們不能得到優厚的薪水。

僱傭關係部長喬·斯文森（Jo Swinson）告訴每日郵報（MailOnline），“對懷孕進行歧視的做法難以令人接受，這也是不合法的。女性有權追求她們的目標，有權不在成功的事業和生孩子二者上做抉擇。”

調查同時強調，即使工作了，女性仍然會對提及孕期福利有所顧慮。

22%的人會等到度過試用期後再詢問部門經理她們所享有的孕期權利。

近四分之一（23%）的人會迴避與老闆在一起時談及此話題，她們更願意選擇一位值得信任的同事進行討論。

爲什麼需要事先打探一下呢？調查發現，對女性僱員來說女性產假信息獲取不易。

近五分之二（39%）的被調查者感到很難獲取信息；13%的人表示根本無法獲取，她們說除非特別要求，孕期福利的細節僱員根本不可能得知。

在她們開始目前的工作時，只有32%的女性僱員被告知孕期福利信息。

調查還顯示，42%的女性僱員說，只有在她們真正懷孕時，她們纔會詢問僱主孕期福利問題。

理由有多種：43%的人擔心僱主會認爲她們已經懷孕，37%的人擔心這會被理解爲她們試圖懷孕，30%的人覺得這會人感到她們“不專業”。

但最令人擔憂的是，超過五分之一（22%）的人擔心問及這個禁忌的話題，她們可能將自己置於被裁員的風險下。

那麼，女性認爲該採取什麼措施呢？一半的人建議，在招聘程序開始時，所有機構都應該提供一套透明的福利措施。這應該成爲一種義務。

女性也認爲那些有這套具有競爭力的措施的企業應該將它作爲一種市場工具，積極利用，以吸引頂級的女性人才。

最近，Glassdoor在其網頁上添加了一項匿名的福利評估服務，以便更方便地比較潛在顧主的各種措施與額外津貼。該網站一位發言人說，“超過1300萬的女性投身工作市場，而她們中超過500萬的人是職業媽媽。”

“這些女性是英國企業中的一個重要部分，因此將孕期福利細節藏着掖着的做法似乎相當的鼠目寸光。”

“採取更加誠實公開的態度對待孕期福利問題能夠提升求職者的質量。”

“或許僱主們不是刻意向女性僱員保留這些信息，但是迫使她們自己去諮詢確實會給許多職業女性造成很到壓力。福利措施的透明能切實增加更多的信任。”