Pregnant working women suffer various forms of harassment: survey

Maternity harassment, or unfair treatment of working women who are pregnant or raising children, takes place regardless of offenders' gender or the size of companies they work for, a survey by a citizens group has shown.

Matahara Net, a group dealing with problems faced by working women over pregnancy and childrearing, released the survey results on March 30. The group conducted an online survey in January and received responses from 186 individuals who have experienced maternity harassment or "matahara," as the term is abbreviated in Japan.

According to the survey, 32 percent of respondents worked for companies with 10 to 100 employees, followed by 19 percent at firms with a workforce of 100 to 500, and 13 percent for companies with at least 1,000 employees -- an indication that maternity harassment exists irrespective of employer size. Some 19 percent of respondents worked for companies listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The survey results show that long working hours provide a hotbed for maternity harassment. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they often worked eight hours or more a day with overtime taken for granted, followed by those without overtime work at 33 percent and those who often worked late into the night at 6 percent.

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