How to land a job when you're pregnant

Looking for a job is never easy. Throw in a pregnancy while you're at it, and it becomes so much more complicated.

In most cases in the US, it's illegal to discriminate against women because of pregnancy, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission advises hiring managers against asking about pregnancy in a job interview because it could be regarded as evidence of intent to discriminate.

Sadly, these laws exist in part because, whether it's deliberate or not, people tend to discriminate against mothers (and expectant mothers).

"Motherhood triggers assumptions that women are less competent and less committed to their careers," reads a report from LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company. "As a result, they are held to higher standards and presented with fewer opportunities."

The report points to a study out of Cornell that found employers tended to discriminate against mothers in the hiring stage.

As part of the study, researchers sent employers fake, almost identical résumés with one major difference: some résumés indicated that the job applicant was part of a parent-teacher association.

While male job candidates whose résumés mentioned the parent-teacher association were called back more often than men whose résumés didn't, women who alluded to parenthood in the same way were half as likely to get called back than women who didn't.

The study participants also rated mothers as the least desirable job candidates and deemed them less competent and committed than women without children or men.

So what can you do to better your odds of getting the job when you're expecting?