ON MARCH 8, 2008 - International Women's Day - I woke up at 7am to cook rice and bak kut teh.

This, however, is not a sob column about wife abuse or slave labour. It was my son's second birthday and I wanted to make something nice out of pre-packed mixes (oxymoronic, I know) for our celebration-lunch guests.

Cooking, I must state for the record, is not my strong suit. Which is why I then sat down and read the newspaper Recruit section from cover to cover.

It's been exactly a year since I gave up full-time employment to be a Stay-At-Home Mum (SAHM). And the question of when I would return to the workforce has been raised from time to time - in my mind (usually after a shopping spree), by my supportive Sole Breadwinner husband, and well-meaning friends with tempting job offers.

The answer is as changeable as the weather. On days when the two-year-old is misbehaving, I measure out my exasperation in terms of earnings and exciting career opportunities foregone.

On days when the boy is as good as gold, I think you have to surgically amputate me from His Royal Cuteness.

When my ex-colleagues trot out job woes, I gloat about not having to put up with these aggravations. When I read about the rising cost of living, and the increasing human life span, my non-existent CPF contributions pop into my head and I panic.

But the road back to the labour force may be littered with pitfalls. A recent Guardian newspaper report highlighted the practice of 'maternal profiling'.

Just as law-enforcers may stereotype certain individuals as more likely to commit crimes because of their race or other factors (i.e. racial profiling), some companies may discriminate against women who have, or are considering having, children.

Such discriminatory employment practices are illegal in Britain. And in the US, a group called Moms Rising has been campaigning to ban them in some states. The New York Times named 'maternal profiling' as one of the political buzzwords of 2008.

And US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has pledged her interest in the cause last year.

Increasingly, in these countries, being a woman of child-bearing age is a potential turn-off to employers. The backlash against generous maternity benefits have led to some hirers binning resumes by newly married women in their 20s. Single mothers may find themselves being quizzed on their childcare arrangements before being turned away without any reason.

The report also cited a recent US study which showed that mothers are 79 per cent less likely to be hired by non-mothers of equal working experience.

Singaporean working mothers can take heart in the fact that the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) guidelines on non-discriminatory job advertisements discourages employers from stipulating age, race, language, gender, marital status and religion in job ads. But much of maternal profiling takes place under the table, making it often hard to prove, and still harder to redress.

The campaign against maternal profiling elsewhere has given a name to a previously-unspoken-of trend, and a focus for a rallying cry for feminist groups.

And it is something that the recently set-up Working Mothers Forum here could very well tackle, among its other concerns.

The issue also ties in with MOM's efforts to get more women to rejoin the workforce. Already, a work group led by labour MP Halimah Yacob and the National Trades Union Congress is set on helping 2,000 women enter the workforce this year.

The fight against maternal profiling still requires a good, hard, in-depth look, owing to the valid viewpoints of business-owners, workers and policy-makers, and the wider national economy at stake.

Legislation against the practice may exact unforeseen costs and be hard to enforce. But, left to their own devices, companies also need to realise that working mothers deserve a chance and that many are stellar and loyal.

All this has served as a wake-up call to fussy ol' me. What if, by the time I was ready to rejoin the workforce, the workforce was no longer ready and willing to receive me?

If that happens, I won't even be able to cut it selling bak kut teh for a living.