Gender Discrimination

Gender discrimination can occur at any time in the employment relationship, whether from the initial hiring through the last date of employment. It is frequently accompanied in the workplace by sexual harassment. Both are violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as state and city laws.

Gender discrimination in the workplace is generally recognized as taking four basic forms:

1) disparate treatment, where an employee is treated differently because of gender;

2) disparate impact, where an employer’s policies – even unintentionally – exclude or otherwise adversely affect employees on the basis of gender;

3) sexual harassment/hostile work environment, where the misconduct "has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.” and

4) sexual harassment/Quid Pro Quo, where the misconduct is linked to a grant or denial of an economic benefit.

It is not necessary for discrimination to have an overtly sexual component to qualify as gender discrimination. Prohibited conduct includes any conduct that would not have occurred unless the employee was of a particular gender. This can include comments about the suitability of workers of a particular gender for a particular job or a pattern of excluding qualified individuals from jobs on the basis of gender.