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more_legal_areas discriminationIn the United States, it is against the law to engage in gender discrimination in the workplace. Gender discrimination is defined as treating an employee or employees differently than other employees based on their gender (male or female — although the majority of gender discrimination cases in the U.S. have involved unfair treatment of female employees).
Federal and State Statutes
Federal and state laws have made gender discrimination by an employer illegal. Although over the past 30 years or so there has been significant progress in treating all people equally regardless of their gender, race, nationality, country of origin, and sexual orientation, many instances of gender discrimination continue to occur across the U.S. Old stereotypes, old habits, and old attitudes do not evolve as quickly as lawmakers and society at large might like or expect.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) receives more than 20,000 complaints of gender discrimination each year, and that number gives only the instances in which someone took the step of contacting the EEOC. Many more instances go unreported.
Terms or Conditions of Employment
When gender discrimination affects an employee's "terms or conditions of employment," it is against the law. The phrase "terms or conditions of employment" covers just about anything that is related to someone's employment, including:
Examples of Gender Discrimination
For example, many employers in the past paid female workers substantially less than their male workers were making in the same job. Some employers fired female employees as soon as the employees became pregnant, even though these employees could have continued to perform their job duties. Other employers have laid off or fired female employees before males based solely on their gender, and there have been many instances where female employees were passed over for promotion in favor of junior or less-qualified male employees. All of this conduct by employers is now illegal.
Two Categories of Gender Discrimination
There are two main categories of gender discrimination: disparate treatment and disparate impact. The first category, disparate treatment, is simply treating an employee differently (disparately) because of her or his gender. The examples given above are all instances of disparate treatment.
"Disparate impact" is a more complex concept. It regards company policies or practices that exclude persons of one gender from a job or from promotions although the policy or practice was not designed to do so. There is a disparate impact on one gender.
An example is the policy of many fire departments that had strength requirements for hiring firefighter that far exceeded the strength needed by an individual to work effectively as a firefighter. Such excessive strength requirements had a disparate impact on women, many of whom had enough strength to be a good firefighter, but not enough strength to meet the department's requirement. The fire department may not haven been intentionally trying to exclude female firefighters, but the disparate impact was illegal.
Gender Discrimination Must Be Shown
An employer is not acting illegally when it makes decisions and takes action regarding employees that are based on reasonable factors other than gender, such as merit, a seniority system, or a quantity system (e.g., where the employees who produce the highest quantity of a product get the highest pay). For example, firing a female employee because her work was of poor quality is not illegal. A person who suspects or alleges gender discrimination must prove that the employer's actions were based on gender discrimination and not on some other factor.
Talk to a Gender Discrimination Attorney in Your Area
If you feel that you have been the target of gender discrimination, whether by disparate treatment or disparate impact, it's best to discuss your circumstances and concerns with an experienced gender discrimination or employment discrimination attorney. Find a qualified lawyer in your area today.
A black woman who was fired from Union Pacific railroad after nearly eight years of employment has filed a lawsuit claiming the company discriminated against her...