Would you give up your seat?

Priority Seating MRT Singapore

Yes it as persons with disabilities. Does that include pregnant women?

Priority Seating in UK

Priority Seating on the Subways in NYC (US)

Priority Seating in Japan

From the UK to Singapore to Japan, everybody clearly understands who the priority seating applies to, but in the U.S. being pregnant comes under the “people with disabilities” term.

What is that about? Is pregnancy considered a disability here? I guess that’s why when you go on maternity leave, it’s not maternity leave at all – it’s disability leave. At least that is what they call it where I work. Categorize it as you will, but either way a pregnant woman deserves to get a seat on the subway? Is she “disabled enough” to be offered a seat?

I have seen many people being courteous enough and give up their seats to pregnant women many times. I have done it myself. But at the same time you see a lot of people who don’t. Are they ignorant? Are they just plain rude? Or do they just not care? Or does giving up one’s seat not apply to pregnant women as they are not disabled? As per subwaymom, pregnancy doesn’t imply disability.

If it’s not the law, it should be the law. Give an expecting mother a seat. No man in this word could go through what this woman goes through. It’s a miracle and some women go through hell to have a baby – sickness, bed rest, being hospitalized. So please be polite and offer her a seat and provide her a comfortable journey.

As a developed country, the U.S. has 0 weeks of maternity leave. What is that about? I doubt they will make it a law to give up your seat to a pregnant woman when they don’t really give them time off to have a baby and recover before they get back to work. Unfair? Hell yeah! But if you want to live the American dream and have a vagina, well, then you just got to pop out the baby and get back to work. That’s the way things are in the “Greatest Nation in the World”. Perhaps I sound bitter, it’s probably because I am.

My bitterness about the maternity benefits stateside aside, would you give up your seat to a pregnant woman on the subway?

Image sources:
http://blog.girishm.in/2009/07/priority-seating.html
http://subwaymom.blogspot.com/2010/06/is-that-legal.html
http://transitculture.blogspot.com/2010/05/week-2-riding-train.html