Business Law

Unit 7 Case Analysis: Gender Discrimination

Lashundra Jones

Kaplan University

LS311-03

Professor Thompson

February 19, 2011

Discrimination comes in many forms; there is race discrimination, color discrimination, religion discrimination and many other types of discrimination. One discrimination in particular is gender discrimination; which is discriminating amongst your employees or potential employees based on gender. It also consists of employers classifying jobs as jobs for a male and jobs for a female. In some cases employers have had separate list for male and female when it comes to seniority. This is prohibited under federal law and is a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VII (Jentz & Miller, 2008). Gender discrimination dates back to the early 1800’s when women could not even vote (BraytonLaw.com, 2011). For an extensive period of time one thought only women could be victims to gender discrimination but over time the definition has been expanded to include men (Law. J Rank, 2011).

There are some elements that take place within the work place that cannot be classified as discrimination. Some examples are a restaurant requiring all employees to be certain in order to serve liquor or a store that caters to women delicates and helping them find the right fit would not hire a man for this position. When employers do partake in discriminatory decision-making, they are offered the statutory defense of the bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). The BFOQ defense allows employers to intentionally discriminate based on gender by adopting an otherwise facially discriminatory employment practice if reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the business. So in order for an employer to use this as a defense they must ensure that they are able to prove that all or substantially all of the members of one gender cannot successfully perform the job duties...