“I went back to graduate school and took a couple of courses in education and said, ‘I don’t think this is going to work out for me,’” Ms. Warren said in the interview.
Addressing the differences in her accounts, Ms. Warren said in a statement to CBS News, “After becoming a public figure I opened up more about different pieces in my life and this was one of them.”
On Monday, a conservative website, The Washington Free Beacon, published minutes from meetings of the Riverdale Board of Education that referred to her employment status.
Minutes of a meeting on April 21, 1971, show that the board approved the issuance of a “2nd Year” contract to Ms. Warren. “Mrs. Elizabeth Warren — 2 days per week, Speech,” the minutes say.
Ms. Warren told CBS News that she had been hiding her pregnancy from the school.
“I was pregnant, but nobody knew it,” she said. “And then a couple of months later when I was six months pregnant and it was pretty obvious, the principal called me in, wished me luck, and said he was going to hire someone else for the job.”
Minutes of another school board meeting on June 16, 1971, say that Ms. Warren’s resignation, effective June 30, “was accepted with regret.”
Ms. Warren’s first child, Amelia, was born on Sept. 2, 1971.
Pregnancy discrimination can begin as soon as women reveal they are pregnant, or are visibly showing, and can continue to affect them for years. In physically demanding jobs, pregnant women risk being fired if they ask to take rest breaks, and in the corporate world, women and mothers may be steered away from prestigious assignments or excluded from client meetings if a boss perceives them to be less committed to their work than other employees.