Should Women tell potential employers If they plan to have a baby ??

I know Alan Sugar is a big advocate of this...I also know that for smaller companies time off and recompense is no laughing matter....

Also think that it's an invasion of privacy...That "accidents" can happen and no rightminded person Is going to throw away the chance of a good job by admitting it !!..

For sure it's a problem..

My initial response to this is that it's none of the employers business what his employees do outside of their working hours.   If a couple decide to start a family it's entirely up to them.  If that's an inconvenience and an expense to an employer then I'm sorry and all that, but as they say in the Russian Navy, Toughski Shi*tski.

Britain, it seems, is always playing catch-up when it comes to social advancement.   We have one of the worst records in Europe for encouraging women into work, for equality in the workplace, and for supporting working women with children.  

This link:

http://www.oecd.org/fr/els/famille/swedenssupportforparentswithchildreniscomprehensiveandeffectivebutexpensive.htm

gives an insight into the strategy of Sweden (I could post links about other countries, but they all say pretty much the same thing) and it is an issue we in Britain should also be addressing in a much more enlightened manner.  They are light years ahead of us in regard to childcare provision for working women, but they still recognise that more needs to be done.   The difference between them and us is that they have the desire to do something about it.

I wonder how Citizen Sugar would actually implement his suggestion.   Would women starting a job have a "no parenting" clause inserted into their employment contract..?   Or would a verbal agreement suffice...?  He should be wary either way.  Women have a habit of changing their minds.  I have experience of the Me'm Sahib, on a shopping trip,  changing her mind umpteen times about what dress to buy for an occasion and ending up either buying the one she first tried on several hours ago or not buying any of them at all, even though I told her that she looks lovely in all of them.  OK, so a dress for a night out is different to starting a family, but the point is the same.  Women can.... and frequently do.... change their minds.

Vive la difference...!!  

But seriously, what Lord Yourfired of Hackney proposes is completely impractical and unenforceable.  Would he sack a woman who got pregnant after she accepted a job on the basis that she  wouldn't..?   Hey.... I can just see the No-Win-No-Fee lawyers queuing up to take that one to court, licking their lips at the payday to come.  

It is an example of British backward thinking (if only women would stay at home and cook and clean all day.  They could be permanently pregnant then and everything would be fine)..... and I'm sure there will be plenty of cretins who would subscribe to his views.  

Is it a viable proposition..?   I don't think so.