Gender discrimination is a form of sex discrimination, and occurs when an employer makes unfair employment decisions based on whether the employee is male or female identifying. Gender discrimination can also include sexual harassment, gender identity discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination.
Often times gender discrimination victims feel humiliated after the fact, but they may not mention the event to HR or their boss because they may fear retaliation from their bosses. Somebody who is being harassed and discriminated against because of their gender in any way may fear that they will get fired if they bring it up to the workplace authorities.
Everyone has the right to a job free from gender discrimination, everyone has the right to feel validated as an employee regardless of your gender or identity. Furthermore you have the right to be heard despite your gender identity, and when your employer chooses to ignore this right then you have the right to compensation.
A good sex discrimination lawyer is going to advocate for your rights in the workplace against gender discrimination and other types of discrimination that may occur. A good sex discrimination lawyer should be somebody that you can trust, such as the lawyers at the law offices of Barry P Goldberg.
However you might have some questions about what gender and sex discrimination is and how to recognize it. This type of discrimination occurs when employers make employment decisions based on whether this person is a man or a woman, and anyone in the workplace can participate in gender discrimination against applicants or employees. Gender discrimination can come from men or women any can take place between people of the same sex or different sexes, and there are generally four basic forms of gender discrimination in the workplace.
Those four basic forms of gender discrimination in the workplace are:
- Disparate treatment, otherwise known as when an employee is treated differently because of their gender. This could be favoritism or this could be something as simple as the female employee in the workplace does not lift heavy items even if it’s in her job description.
- Disparate impact, when a company has a policy that excludes or otherwise adversely affects employees on the basis of their gender even when unintentional.
- Sexual harassment or hostile work environments occur when misconduct interferes with the individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment to work in.
- Sexual harassment/quid pro quo, this is a specific type of misconduct linked to a grant or denial of an economic benefit such as a promotion or a bonus.
Gender discrimination is an extremely complex area of the law and worker should always consult with the sex or gender discrimination lawyers if they feel like they are being sexually harassed or treated unequally because of their gender or their identity.
Some examples of gender discrimination in the workplace are:
- Sexist comments in the workplace
- Existing men are only allowed to work as bartenders and busboys and likewise women are only allowed to work as waitresses and hostesses
- Refusing to hire a man because your company is women-owned
- Using family obligations as a will reason to avoid hiring a woman