Today in Australia on one of those current affairs shows they showed how pregnant women were discriminated against in the workforce, where one woman was dismissed after her employer found she was pregnant and the other was told, either keep the baby and lose your job or lose the baby and keep your job. Well I've had my fair share of discrimination whilst pregnant with my first child in the workforce.
But with my second pregnancy I was a full time virtual assistant. None of my clients even knew I was pregnant until I emailed them a month before I was due to go in for my c/section informing them that I will not be available for six days. My work never faltered, my quality of work never diminished. They were gobsmacked when I told them I was going into hospital. They didn't even get a chance to try to discriminate against me.
I also am not discriminated against for being the stereotypical blonde, who must be dumb of course, because I have long blonde hair, nope, several of my clients have no idea what I even look like.
Then I came out of hospital and went straight back to work, picking up one local client's work off my porch, the day I came home from hospital. No maternity leave for us VAs, but I seemlessly continued on with my work and no client has ever had cause to complain as I work around my children now.
Being a pregnant VA and having no discrimination targeted at me was a major benefit of being a virtual assistant that I really never thought of before until I saw that show today.