aibu to wonder if interviews with the following questions in them can still exist in a universe where there are equal rights acts?

[lolaflores]

My friend had an interview today with a large (very large) company based in Ireland. In the course of the interview she was asked;
How many kids do you have
Are you married
How old are you
Can you manage the drive here (it is a semi rural setting)
Do you understand this is a full time job, not part time, like 9-5
Do you have child care arrangements
are you planning any more kids

seriously?
Suffice to say they did not offer her a second interview. I doubt she would have accepted it.
So when other threads give out about being a feminist and not and what have you, this makes we wonder if we have made any head way whatsoever. Or that certain improvements in some industries are taken a bit for granted and there are areas that are medieval in comparison.

A friend told me a few weeks ago that she was asked if she had any children or was planning them. She panicked and blurted out, "No, I hate children!"

pugglefan - was she going for childminders job :-) ?

A very big bank here in England asked me during an interview whether I have children and what am I going to do about childcare (no one ever asked my husband the same question despite the fact we share the same children)

Long term the best solution to these sorts of questions is for everyone, regardless of gender and regardless of whether they have children or not; to have access to the same flexible working. Until this happens there is a big disparity from what a business can expect from different employees.

The issue with this form of discrimination is that there is an economic benefit to it. Hiring a black person, white person, gay or straight has no effect on the operation of a business. Unpalatable as it is, there IS a business benefit to hiring the person less likely to go on maternity leave or have childcare issues day to day.

Fundamentally a parent of young children is more likely to take time off work than a person without children and a woman (rightly or wrongly) is more likely to take maternity/paternity/parental leave than a man. Until this changes there is always going to be discrimination in the workplace, the employers will just get better at hiding it.