Carey Mulligan speaks up for childcare on set

Lack of childcare on film and television sets limits women’s careers, Carey Mulligan, star of Suffragette, said on Tuesday, with many actors feeling they have to conceal their pregnancies.

The British mother of two praised action to combat sexual harassment in entertainment in the wake of the #MeToo scandal but said she had “never” been on a set with childcare facilities, which was “limiting” for parents.

“I don’t think being a working mother in our industry has been made that much easier,” she said in an interview with the Radio Times magazine on Tuesday. “It’s incredibly difficult.”

Sex discrimination was outlawed by Britain in the 1970s, and the law prohibits employers rejecting a candidate because they are pregnant or may have a child in future. But many employers hold views from “the dark ages” on pregnancy, seeing new mothers as less ambitious and believing it acceptable to ask job-seeking women if they have young children, Britain’s equality watchdog found this year. — Reuters