Gender discrimination can take many forms, from adverse job actions, including: demotion, termination, unequal pay, unequal working conditions, lewd images, “jokes,” sexual harassment, sexualized dress codes, and ranking employees based on their perceived sexual attractiveness. Tamara Holder is an experienced gender discrimination lawyer. She and her team recently settled a 54-person gender discrimination lawsuit.
An employer cannot treat you unfairly due to your gender (male, female, or TGQN), or subject you to sexual harassment or pregnancy discrimination. Gender discrimination takes many forms, from adverse job actions like demotions or terminations and unequal pay or working conditions to soul-searing taunts, lewd images, jokes, and physical assaults. The Supreme Court and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have established that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is sex discrimination. Here’s language straight from the EEOC about the extent of protection from sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964:
“Discrimination against an individual because of gender identity, including transgender status, or because of sexual orientation is discrimination because of sex in violation of Title VII.”
And yet gender discrimination lawyer Tamara Holder has found workplaces where employers ignore, tolerate, or fail to provide recourse or remedies for sex discrimination. Unequal treatment, harassment, taunts, threats, lewd images, assaults, name-calling, and “jokes” directed at individuals because of their sexual orientation or gender identity are still pervasive in many workplaces.
Female workers allege they have been forced to wear highly sexualized uniforms or have been “graded” based on their physical appearance. Gay, lesbian, transgender, queer, non-binary, and any other workers who are perceived to be different based on their sexuality or gender identity are supposed to be protected from exclusion from opportunity, unequal pay, demotion, unfair disciplinary proceedings, and termination because of who they are. Sexual discrimination lawyers know what it takes to prove sex discrimination and how to show that employers are breaking the law.
Some of the most flagrant examples of gender discrimination have the imposition of sexual quid pro quos (“sleep with me for a promotion, don’t and you’ll get demoted”), juvenile and demeaning invasions of privacy (like hidden cameras in restrooms), and failure to accommodate pregnant or nursing workers.
