Diablo Cody just had her second child. She directed her first film Lamb of God while pregnant. She spoke with David Zax at Fast Company about the sexism in the media especially surrounding pregnant women.

I was about six months pregnant while we were shooting. Believe me, when I’m pregnant, I hear my fair share of Juno jokes. People were surprised that I was going to direct this movie while I was pregnant, and I guess I felt it was important to not delay production and to actually go do it, because I wanted to show people that pregnancy is not a disability, and a pregnant lady can be in a position of power and crazy shit won’t happen. And we made it.

There is some major league discrimination that freaks out Hollywood decision makers regarding hiring women with kids, women who are pregnant or women who could potentially become pregnant as directors. I’ve had directors tell me they have lied and not revealed they were pregnant to get a job. It’s just bullshit and is one place where the double standard between male and female roles in our culture is amplified.

Nobody would ever care if a male CEO was expecting a child — or frankly if a male director was expecting a child. I’ve worked with a lot of directors who had babies on the way or had them at home, and nobody ever said, “What are you doing here on set?”

Because I’m a powerful woman with a career, and my baby sleeps in bed with me every night, and I breastfeed, and I do all those wonderful motherly nurturing things — and I have a really badass high-profile job. You can do both things.

Let me say I disagree with the headline of the piece saying that pregnant women can have it all. This is not about having it all. This is about hiring competent people to do jobs and not discriminating. We need more women like Diablo Cody to speak out about this topic.

Lamb of God is currently in post-production. No date on its release.

Diablo Cody On Why Pregnant Women Can Have It All — And Direct (Fast Company)