Upinder Sawhney 1

Sex Discrimination At Workplace

Upinder Sawhney

April 27th, 2011

University Of Akron
Upinder Sawhney 2

Sex or gender discrimination is treating individuals differently in their employment

specifically because an individual is a woman or a man. In everyday language as well as in the law,

the terms “gender” and “sex” are used inter-changeably, but the two terms have different meanings.

Discrimination is generally illegal if your sex affects the “terms or conditions of employment”. This

would include position, pay, and title, being hired or fired from a job, and advancement and training

opportunities. Some of discriminations that women have to deal with are Hiring/Firing/Promotions,

Pay, Job Classifications, and Benefits. Sex or gender discrimination may be accompanied by other

forms of illegal discrimination as well, such as age, race, or disability discrimination. Pregnancy

discrimination and sexual harassment are also considered forms of sex discrimination under the

law.

The employer can’t pay you less because you’re a woman. The Equal Pay Act (EPA)

forbids this kind of action from being taken by the employer. It is illegal to discriminate on the

basis of sex in the payment of wages or benefits. It covers salary, overtime pay, all forms of

compensation, bonuses, profit sharing, stock options, and bonus plans, life insurance, vacation

and holiday pay. The EPA says that women and men must be given equal pay for equal type of

work in the same position. The jobs do not have to identical but they could be equal in some

manners. The content of the job identifies if the job is equal, not the title. The Civil Right Act of

1964 does not require the job of the person claiming discrimination be equal to the one that is

being paid higher. It also doesn’t require the person to work in the same area as the other person.

Unlike EPA, Title VII does require proof of discriminatory intent.

The differences between the sexes may result in different benefit costs to an employer,
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but it is against the law for an employer to discriminate between women and men when it

comes to benefits. An employer cannot offer benefits to wives and families of male employees,

when the same benefits are not offered to the husband and families of female employees. It is

also against the law for an employer to have a pension or retirement plan which establishes

different optional or compulsory retirement ages based on sex, or which differentiates in benefits

on the basis of sex.

Discrimination is also illegal in hiring process. The law restricts following discriminatory

practices:

1. Racial discrimination prohibitions: Employers must offer the same job requirements

for all applicants. The employer shouldn’t consider employees race in the application, but

it should be kept separate if the employer requires the information for other purposes. An

employer may not decline an applicant bases on their race.

2. Age discrimination prohibitions: The employers are not allowed to include age limits in

the advertisements or job posting, unless the job is only for certain age of groups. It is

not against the law for an employer to ask for date of birth or age, this is only done to

avoid discrimination.

3. Disability discrimination prohibitions. Employers are denied the privilege of asking

someone if they are disabled in anyways. Applicants might be required to verify they are

able to do the job or not. A job offer may change depending on the results of medical

examination, but that is only if the examination is required. The examination must be job

related and consistent with employer’s business needs.

The Act of 1978 in Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against

workers whore pregnant, childbirth or other related medical conditions. But it only affects

companies that employ 15 or more employees. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

enforces the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. According to EEOC, the act requires employer to

treat the women same way as they treat other employees or job applicants. Some of way how

pregnant women are protected are:

 The employer cannot deny an applicant because she is pregnant or has a pregnancy-

related condition.

 Employer cannot make her submit special procedures in order to know if she is able to

perform her job duties unless the employer wants all the employees to go through the same

procedure.

 The employer should treat a pregnant women who can’t perform her job due to medical

related condition same way as he treats all of his/her temporarily disabled employees.

 Employer cannot keep a pregnant woman from coming to work or not allowing her to

work after giving birth.

 The health insurance that’s provided by the employer should treat pregnancy same way

as other medical conditions are treated.

 Pregnant woman cannot pay more health insurance deductible than what other employees

pay.

Sexual harassment is another kind of sex discrimination. The legal definition of sexual

harassment is, “unwelcome verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is severe

or pervasive and affects working conditions or creates a hostile work environment” (equal
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rights). Sexual harassment is not limited to women; the complaint is also filed by male workers.

The law over sexual harassment remains confused as one may consider it sexual harassment and

the other may not. There is two type of Sexual Harassment:

Quid-pro-quo Harassment: In Latin it means “this for that”. This is when the employer ask for

a sexual activity from an employee in exchange for something at workplace. It could also

include the negative side which would be something like, sleep with me or I will fire you.

Hostile Environment Harassment: In this kind of harassment the employer makes the employee

feel uncomfortable by saying or doing something because of their sex. It doesn’t have to have a

demand for exchange for a benefit.

The law still doesn’t make a big difference as most males are above women in any

company. These kinds of issue in this economy are making it hard for women to achieve high

status professions. However over the years these laws have pretended discrimination at many

workplaces. It will still take more years to see noticeable improvements in women’s careers.
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References

Act:, t. P. (n.d.). Pregnancy Discrimination and Employment | Lawfirms.com. Find a Lawyer.

Learn the Law. Get Legal Advice.. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from

http://www.lawfirms.com/resources/employment/discrimination/pregnancy-

discrimination-and-employment.

ERA: Sexual Harassment at Work. (n.d.). ERA: Welcome. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from

http://www.equalrights.org/publications/kyr/shwork.asp

Protection Against Employment Discrimination. (n.d.). Attorneys Brayton Purcell | Novato (San

Francisco), California Attorney. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from

http://www.braytonlaw.com/practiceareas/harass.htm

Sex / Gender Discrimination - Workplace Fairness. (2008, December 19). Workers, Employee,

Employment and Job Rights - Workplace Fairness. Retrieved April 25, 2011, from

http://www.workplacefairness.org/sexual-gender-discrimination?agree=yes