Red States

Natasha Jackson was four months pregnant when she told her supervisor she was expecting. It was 2008, and Jackson was an account executive at a rental furniture store in Charleston, South Carolina — the only female employee there. “I actually hid my pregnancy as long as I could because I was scared about what could happen,” she said. When her doctor recommended that she not lift more than 25 pounds, her employer wouldn’t let her move temporarily to a role where she didn’t need to lift furniture, even though those roles were available, she said. She was forced to go…