The timeline was in a congratulatory mood on Valentine's Day as actress and presenter Gabisile Tshabalala revealed that she was pregnant with her second child! However, the TMI host used to opportunity to cast the spotlight onto a massive issue in South Africa: pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
#SoWhatImPregnant
Gabi unveiled two things on Friday: her baby bump (gorgeous!) and the dawn of a new campaign which is aimed at addressing one of the least spoken about forms of employee discrimination. Pregnant women across the country (heck, across the world...) are regularly treated less favourably due to their pregnancy or intended pregnancy.
That campaign is extremely close to Gabi's heart. The SAFTA-nominee revealed to ZAlebs that she lost a top job after falling pregnant and to this day she still doesn't understand why.
Pregnant women are no different to any other employees and can perform their tasks just as adequately as anybody else. Instead, this bias against mothers-to-be appears to unfairly cost working women jobs that they certainly need, and even more certainly deserve.
Research has shown that although the law prohibits employers from discriminating against pregnant women, not only do the practices still take place on the sly, but women of colour tend to be affected the most.
In a bid to raise awareness and change the course of the conversation about pregnancy in the workplace, Gabisile sparked a new campaign titled #SoWhatImPregnant and has already spread it far and wide on social media.
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She had previously teased the campaign with a hilarious skit:
Twitter embed
Gabi said to ZAlebs this morning, "I'm tired of hearing statements like , 'I figured that with a new one on the way you wouldn't want to work overtime' or 'You'll fall in love with that baby and never come back to work.'. No! I am capable of having a family AND working as hard as anybody else in my industry. I'm just pregnant, I'm not incapable!"
The much-needed campaign is already drawing attention from the masses on social media.
