So I’m skimming through an entertainment article in the Daily Mail (from across the pond) this morning when suddenly I come across a completely random rant against working mothers and maternity leave. Written by a woman. I just about choked on my coffee.

Check it out:

Excessive maternity leave hampers women in the workplace

Why has it taken so long for Labour’s equal rights laws to blow up in their face?

It is clear to anyone with three brain cells that excessive amounts of maternity leave and gigantic sex discrimination payouts – of the kind shepherded through by Sir Harriet Harman – have not strengthened the position of women in the workplace.

If anything, they have hampered the prospects of many, particularly in a credit-crunched marketplace.

If you are a young, ambitious woman of child-bearing years, any employer is going to think once, twice, three times about you, lady.

Particularly small businesses, who are hammered out of all existence by discriminatory legislation and given no help to thrive.

This government, desperate to appease working mothers at any cost, has alienated employers, not encouraged them.

It goes on and on, but what is clear is that that great citadel of gender gelding, the Government Equalities Office, is doing more harm than good.

The Government Equalities Office, by the way, is the UK government department that takes the lead on issues around equality and discrimination.

So you’re telling me that women who may take maternity leave and who file cases against sex discrimination are setting women back in the workplace? That women who challenge a work system that doesn’t let them to effectively take care of their families while holding a career OR encourage them to seek equal opportunities and compensation when they don’t get it are actually holding back the gender and destroying business? And there’s no mention at all of paternity leave or allowing men an equal chance to take care of their families? Are you joking??

It’s from the "Femail" section and was written by Jan Moir, and I had to search around to find out who she is. Easy to do, since right now she’s receiving vicious backlash over her comments in the same article about former Irish boyband member Stephen Gately, who died recently. She, uh, blamed his death on his being gay. Wow. The Wikipedia entry about her calls her a homophobe, and I agree, but I’m still pissed off about her throw-away comment railing against working mothers who need maternity leave.

I’m a young woman. I have a career. I could have a baby at ANY TIME. Does that mean employers should think twice about hiring me? Because of my uterus and my unborn future children? What about yours, Jan?

A few of the commenters on the article agree with me, and I hope you do as well — hop over there and let them know that passing comments like these are unacceptable, no matter who the author is.