In these times redundancy is bad for anyone, but potentially a married woman will at least have their spouse's income whereas a single person could face losing their home etc as they may only get jobseekers allowance.
Arguably a 25 year old pregnant woman has better long term employment prospects if made redundant that a 55 year old man who may never get another job.
The first statement regarding a spouses income is based on a presumption. It would also be a presumption to say: A 55 year old man will potentially have paid off (or nearly paid off) their mortgage. They will likely be entitled to a decent redundancy payment and if they have children they will likely been old enough to support themselves. And they will be entitled to Jobeseekers benefit. Their general expenses will potentially be much lower than a 25 year old or a 35 years old unless they are ill (if they are ill they will become entitled to illness benefit and a medical card).
A 25 year old man or woman is unlikely to have paid off their mortgage. And, statistically speaking most married 35 year old men or women will have a huge mortgage and young children to support.
But these circumstances are not always true for any of the above people.
There is a big difference between and 25 year old pregnant woman and a 25 year old man/woman who is not pregnant. They are carrying a very fragile human life within their womb.
Any law that has been put in place to protect pregnant employees is there to protect the life/health and safety of the unborn child (and their health and safety after the birth). Ireland is one of the safest countries to have a baby. But, if these laws do not remain in place to protect the health and safety of a pregnant woman and their foetus’s, then the mortality rate for both will rise. Even in this modern age a woman can die in childbirth and a foetus can miscarry or be stillborn.
I believe this is why a pregnant woman is protected while they are on maternity leave. Maternity benefit is paid by the state and most employers do not top-up maternity benefit so this law involves very little extra pain for the employer.
At present, many married women are the sole earners of their family. So their spouses can't support them if they loose their job while pregnant.
A single person with no children has no-one to support. They will qualify for full Jobseekers Allowance after their Jobseekers benefit runs out.
A married person will not qualify for anything when their Jobseekers benefit runs if their spouse earns more than 400 euro per week and will only qualify for a partial benefit if their spouse is already unemployed.
Regarding the long term employment prospects of any of the groups mentioned above. There aren't many job out there at present and the few that exist have potentially thousands of people applying for them.
Most people who loose their job at present are likely to face long term unemployment regardless of their demographic.
For most their only option will be go abroad but:
It is logistically much harder for a married couple with children (or a single woman with children) to move to another country for employment than it is for a single person with no-one to support regardless of anyone’s age demographic.
