PALMERTON, Pa. — Kiki Peppard of Palmerton says enough is enough.
She is pushing for laws to better protect women, specifically mothers, when it comes to hiring.
Peppard said employers sometimes ask about whether women have families or plan to get pregnant in the future during job interviews.
It is something she believes should be illegal.
“Why are we doing this to women? We’re not doing this to men. So that’s one fact of it. The other fact of it is women work very hard for their skills, their education, their job experiences, the point is when they go for a job interview, they are asked questions of an employer, they are immediately dismissed as a job candidate.”
Peppard has pushed for human relations protections at the state level.
She has testified before the state labor and industry committee.
This is something she has been fighting for, for about 20 years.
Right now, there are bills in the statehouse and senate to ban questions about marital and family status during interviews.
“Why don’t we update a law from 1955? This is 2021; it’s time this legal form of discrimination stops. Why aren’t we supporting the mothers in Pennsylvania? I don’t get it."
Peppard said this idea that women, moms in particular, are a hiring risk and unreliable is ridiculous.
If anything, she said they can be real assets to all kinds of businesses.
She promises to keep fighting until women and mothers are protected.
“When I started, my daughter was in the 7th grade. And I swore to myself, this bill is going to get passed before she graduates high school. Now I have a granddaughter in the 7th grade, and I’m making a new vow; this law is gonna get passed well before she graduates. She should not have to go through this.”
This is the PA House bill, and this is the PA Senate bill.