Understanding the Psychology of Pregnancy Discrimination as a Challenging Woman’s Mental Health Workplace Dynamic

There remains a gap in the literature regarding labor and workplace dynamics for women regarding pregnancy discrimination. Women navigate environments that are tethered to gendered norms of productivity, work performance, and leadership. This article extrapolates the social as well as psychological systemology by which motherhood remains a liability to an organization’s bottom line leading to bias, exclusion, and differential treatment that, necessarily, has negative implications on both mental health and career longevity for women. We draw upon interdisciplinary literature from organizational psychology, feminist theory, and occupational health, to unpack the ways in which stereotypes, circumjacent to competence, commitment, and physical ability, inform decision-making, by leadership, as well as interactions with colleagues during pregnancy. This article explores how future-oriented bias, heightened surveillance, and unorthodox disciplinary methods—such as stalled promotions, role reallocation, social marginalization, and disproportionate consequences—lead to psychological stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, stereotype threat, and diminished psychological safety for women. Particular scrutiny is lent to the role of organizational culture in codifying these practices which orientate pregnancy as an individual inconvenience rather than a structural condition and a human right that requires supportive systems. This paper further examines how women engage in identity management planning, self-censorship, as well as hyperperformance, to mitigate imagined risk, at the expense of one’s mental health. This paper argues that pregnancy bias and discrimination are not merely legal or policy nonfeasance, but a form of psychosocial workplace oppression entrenched within the ranks of power further emboldened by cultural demands, and the lack of social status of women. The article concludes by outlining best practices for organizational leadership, mental health policy, and workplace design, underscoring the need for preemptive cultural interventions and accountability measures that prioritize mental health and assert that pregnancy, professional competence, and leadership can coexist.