Gender Discrimination in the Workplace

Gender Discrimination and Workplaces

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 seeks to protect American employees from prejudice arising from race, nationality, sex, color, and religion. In particular, the Act applies to employment agencies, state and local governments, apprenticeship programs, and any companies or labor unions with more than 14 employees. For example, it is illegal to base an employment decision on gender stereotypes and treat employees differently due to their relationship with anyone with these protected characteristics (Lytle, 2014). Also, denying women leadership roles based on gender discrimination is also illegal. Even more, workplace policies can get termed as discriminatory according to Title VII if they promote unequal treatment of employees based on protected characteristics. However, some seemingly discriminatory policies may be allowed if the unequal treatment comes as a bona fide occupational qualification in the employment process.

A federal case between Norther Arizona Orthopedics (NAO) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) highlighted some existing Human Resource (HR) gender discrimination practices. In the lawsuit, NAO engaged in illegal practices by hiring women over more qualified males and retaliation against individuals complaining about unequal treatment of sexes. In this case, the EEOC Phoenix District Office Regional Attorney Mary Jo O’Neill confirmed that NAO’s HR policies went against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (EEOC, 2019). Furthermore, the regional attorney reminded HR offices of the importance of making hiring decisions using employment qualifications and not assumptions based on gender or other unfounded demographic characteristics (EEOC, 2019). Even more, the lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for the qualified male employees and the individual who spoke up against the discrimination and faced retaliation. Thus, the case highlights the negative repercussions of discriminatory HR policies and the need for gender parity in hiring processes.

In light of the danger of workplace gender discrimination and other characteristics protected in Title VII, it becomes important for organizations to develop policies that uphold nondiscrimination values and guide the organization’s decisions. Such guidelines would apply to their hiring, workplace, and promotion practices to ensure the business environment protects different individuals equally despite their different individual traits. The NAO lawsuit highlights the issues that arise from gender discrimination during hiring. Still, gender issues stretch to wider areas in the workplace which can be addressed using the following four items in a nondiscrimination policy:

• Harassment issues- Workplace harassment can refer to several matters. From simple verbal harassment in the form of jokes and racial slurs to more complex cases of offensive conduct and sexual harassment, an organization’s policy must clearly outline the accepted behavior between employees with clear anti-harassment policies.
• Human resource hiring and promotion issues- Workplaces must provide equal opportunities to all possible employees and the hired worker during recruitment processes. Therefore, workers must get offered similar chances for promotion in an organization based on merits and performance, protected by policies. Such partisan policies will protect a business from lawsuits due to promotion practices based on, for example, gender discrimination.
• Employee leave issues- it’s important to consider employee-specific leave issues based on their religion or medical issues, which come protected by Title VII and the Americans with disabilities act (Hopkins et al., 2019). Thus, it is prudent to form clear policies for requesting, granting, and denying leaves to guide the organization’s actions.
• Reporting discrimination and responding to alleged cases- Some discrimination cases might take complex forms that come with serious legal repercussions for the accused and the company in case of inaction. As such, it’s important to set clear guidelines for employees reporting discrimination cases and required responses from managers and supervising staff.

References

EEOC sued Northern Arizona orthopedics for gender discrimination and retaliation. (2019).  Retrieved from https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-5-19a.cfm.

Hopkins, A., Kooken, W., & Winger, E. (2019). Inclusive clinical practice and policy for Muslim nursing students. Journal Of Transcultural Nursing, 31(1), 100-106. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659619832079

Lytle, T. (2014). Title VII changed the face of the American workplace. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/title-vii-changed-the-face-of-the-american-workplace.aspx.