A history of Pregnancy and the Workplace

Abstract

In 1970, US air force captain Susan R. Struck, while on active duty in Vietnam, discovered that she was pregnant. At the time, air force regulations required that officers who became pregnant resign or be discharged from the military. Seven and a half months into her pregnancy, Struck could no longer conceal her condition and subsequently the Board of Officers recommended she separate from the military with a dishonorable discharge. Believing she was being forced to choose between her child and her career, Struck contacted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an ACLU attorney, assumed her case. Ginsberg and Struck claimed, among other arguments, that the military policy was a form of gender discrimination because male soldiers who were fathers or who had impregnated women were not discharged from military service. In her confirmation hearings to be named a Supreme Court justice, Ginsberg remembered that Struck was granted limited options in terms of enjoying both a family and career: She was offered a choice. She was told she could have an abortion at the base hospital—and let us remember that in the early 70’s, before Roe v. Wade, abortion was available on service bases in this country to members of the service or, more often, dependents of members of the service. Capt. Susan Struck said: “I do not want an abortion; I want to bear this child. It’s part of my religious faith that I do so. However, I will use only my accumulated leave time for the childbirth, I will surrender the child for adoption at birth, and I want to remain in the Air Force. That is my career.”1