Pregnant scientist uninvited from conference. Twitter goes mad

Dr. Samantha Decombel is a scientist and a businesswoman who was invited to address a scientific conference in Brussels. However, when event organisers found out the founder of FitnessGenes was 35 weeks pregnant, they uninvited her. Decombel took to her Instagram account to tell her followers just how annoyed and shocked she was when she got the email. She wrote: “I hadn't expected to make a formal announcement of this on social media, but given the events of the last few weeks it feels like the right thing to do. I am pregnant. I am over the moon that myself and my partner will soon be welcoming our little girl into the world. I am also still the Chief Science Officer of@fitnessgenes and love my job. When I was invited to give a talk in #Brusselsthis week on #science and#entrepreneurship, I happily accepted, as it is a cause close to my heart.”

Thanks so much to @itvthismorning for giving me the opportunity to highlight why #pregnancy #discrimination is not ok! Enjoyed meeting @ruthlangsford and @rylanclark! #thismorning #businesswomen #equality #feminism #entrepreneurship #femaleentrepreneur #EuropeanCommission

A photo posted by Dr. Samantha Decombel (@samdecombel) on Dec 4, 2015 at 3:12am PST

She continued: “So you can imagine my shock when my invite was withdrawn by@europeancommission officials due to my being 7 months on 'health reasons'. As an advocate for our company I am in excellent health. Regardless, it should be my choice, as it should be any woman's choice, as to whether to participate in events at this later stage of pregnancy. I invited them to reconsider, with a heartfelt and considered response. I didn't even get a reply. “I emailed again, making them aware of how disappointed I was in this lack of response to such an important issue as pregnancy discrimination. They then tried to insist the withdrawal was due to other reasons, despite the strong evidence to the contrary…This type of discrimination is not only illegal, it discourages women from pursuing careers in science or business as they believe they have to make a choice between this and family. This should absolutely not be the case, and is too important to let go unchallenged.”

  Extract of my response to this email from representatives of the @europeancommission withdrawing my invite to speak at a conference on the basis of being 7 months pregnant: "I was invited to speak at this years conference in Brussels as a young female scientist and entrepreneur, who has set up two companies and raised over £1M in funding and grants to support the research around our ideas. As this is an area I am passionate about I agreed to speak and offer my experiences and views. As I am sure you are aware, one of the key hurdles facing many women in science and entrepreneurship is the desire to start a family, and how this will fit in with their career plans. As @sherylsandberg, COO of Facebook, has said in the past, so many women 'leave before they leave' in anticipation of starting a family due to the guilt of juggling these two apparently contradictory options, taking on less responsibility within their role, taking a back seat in key decision-making and effectively putting the brakes on their career prospects before they actually need to, ensuring that on their return to work they are already at a disadvantage. I do not intend to put the brakes on my ambitions until I need to, and would encourage others to consider why we lay this guilt on female researchers that wish to have both a career and a family. Turning away a pregnant speaker, who is in excellent health and has voluntarily agreed to travel to voice her opinions at this event seems to me to be the perfect demonstration of why this is still such an issue for many, and the absolute opposite of what I would hope the European Commission would want to convey. I cannot see what risk my presence at this event would represent for the EC, and hope you will reconsider your decision to withdraw my voice on account of what should be considered a perfectly natural occurance that likely around half of your audience will experience at some stage in their lives. I would hope that they would not be encouraged to 'leave before they leave' on account of having made the choice to start their own family". Disappointingly, I did not receive a reply to this email. #feminism #pregnancyproblems #womeninbusiness   A photo posted by Dr. Samantha Decombel (@samdecombel) on Nov 29, 2015 at 7:47am PST

She also shared an image of the email she received from the organisers which read: “I get back to you because after a reflexion our colleagues from the European Commission are not very enthusiastic to take a risk for your health making you travel to Brussels at the late stage of your pregnancy [sic].” Since speaking out about her story, the hashtag ‘#7monthsawesome’ has been doing the rounds on Twitter. Here are some of the best messages of support…

I operated until the day my water broke! i was bummed because i had two great cases scheduled that day! #7monthsawesome #ILookLikeASurgeon

— Colleen Gaughan (@philadoc) December 7, 2015

I worked 4 days a week, managed 2 additional projects as a freelancer, moved & renovated my house up until my due date #7monthsawesome — PregnantThenScrewed (@PregnantScrewed) December 3, 2015

Thanks to all the awesome mums who have helped #7monthsawesome take off. I hope @EU_Commission will see error & re-invite @samdecombel.

— Karen James (@kejames) December 2, 2015

I worked out 5 days a week, taught at Harvard, worked on manuscripts, gave invited talk while #7monthsawesome — Kate Clancy (@KateClancy) December 2, 2015