Gender or Sex Discrimination

Gender or Sex Discrimination

Title VII and the FEHA prohibit sex discrimination in employment.

Terms or Conditions of Employment

Sex discrimination is treating an employee or employees differently because of their gender. Whenever this discrimination affects the "terms or conditions of employment", it is illegal.

"Terms or conditions of employment" means just about anything relating to someone's job: their position, pay, title, hours, vacations, most everything is a term or condition of employment. Whether or not a person is hired is also considered a term or condition of employment.

Disparate Treatment & Disparate Impact

There are two types of sex discrimination: "disparate treatment & ""disparate impact" .

Disparate Treatment

Disparate treatment is straightforward discrimination. Simply put, it is treating a person differently because of his or her sex.

Disparate Impact

Disparate Impact Discrimination is more complicated. "Disparate Impact" is where some type of company policy excluded a certain individuals from the job or from promotions. The policy wasn't designed to exclude them; that was just the unfortunate result.

One example arose often in fire departments. These agencies had various strength requirements for job applicants. Women were frequently unable to meet these requirements. In some instances, the requirements were absolutely necessary to ensure the firefighters were qualified. But in many instances, the requirements were simply too high; the were more than was necessary. Qualified women were therefore being excluded unnecessarily. This does not mean the fire departments were necessarily trying to exclude women. That was just the result of their policy; it had a disparate impact upon women. Because the policy wasn't sufficiently job-related (too much strength was required) there was discrimination.

Equal Pay Act

Under the Equal Pay Act, an amendment to the Fair Labor Standard’s Act, an employer may not discriminate in...