Salaried And Self-Employed Workers Before Maternity Protection

The Subsistence of Sexist Stereotypes in The Law and in Jurisprudence

Abstract

Th is paper analyzes the gender stereotypes present in the regulations go- verning maternity protection in paid and autonomous work, as well as in the doctrine of the ECJ and the Spanish Constitutional Court. Th e sexist prejudices impregnated in the culture, in the laws and in the judicial resolutions continue to attribute to the working mother the role of priority carer, a role that is silenced and masked with the argument of the need to protect “the particular relationships” between the mother and the newborn baby. Th e unequal regulation of maternity and paternity leave indirectly discriminates against women because, by imposing on them the exercise of conciliation rights in the event of childbirth and turning the father into a mere collaborator, the labor cost of ha- ving off spring falls on the working women; cost that is especially high at self-employment, which discourages female self-employment