Laws Promoting Gender Equality in the Workplace

Over the years, the federal government has made significant stride in promoting gender equality in the workplace through the enactment of vital laws addressing the issue of discrimination not only on the basis of gender or sex but also on race, religion, national origin, and disability.

These major federal discrimination laws are:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – the law which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
• Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA) – the law that protects men and women who perform substantially equal wok in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination.

On the state level, California has enacted similar laws that protect employees and workers from being discriminated based on sex or gender. California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) is the principal statute that protects employees and workers form workplace discrimination. Under this law, it is unlawful to discriminate an employee on the basis of his/her race, national origin, gender or sex, disability and age. This law covers employers, labor organizations, employment agencies, apprenticeship programs and any entity or person who “aids, abets, incites, compels, or coerces the doing of a discriminatory act”.

Gender Discrimination

Gender discrimination in the workplace occurs when an employee, whether male or female, is treated differently and unfairly which affects the employee’s terms or conditions of employment. By terms or conditions of employment, this refers to “position, pay, title, being hired or fired from a job, and advancement and training opportunities.

To be considered discriminatory, an act must not only be different but also unequal and unfair. For instance, it is considered sex discrimination to provide different working conditions, salaries, hiring, promotions or benefits criteria to men and women.

Gender discrimination may manifest in the following circumstances:

• Hiring – when the hiring process gives preference to one gender over the other, in complete disregard of one’s qualifications or experience
• Firing – when female employees, for instance, were laid off from work but men in the same job and with less seniority keep their jobs
• Promotion – when a male employee, for instance, gets promoted although you have better experience and skills than him, yet you were bypassed , not on the basis of your skills and experience but because you are female.
• Pay – when male workers are paid higher than female workers with the same job and qualifications
• Benefits – when a female employee is required to use her sick and vacation leave because the employer does not provide long-term disability leave for pregnancy and other medical conditions. But a male colleague who had a heart attack was able to use the long-term disability leave.
• Job classification
• Sexual harassment - This is considered a form of discrimination and therefore illegal. Gender equality in the workplace is protected by both federal and state law. Under Title VII, employers are prohibited from the following acts:
• To fail, refuse to hire, or discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his/her compensation, terms, or privileges of employment because of the individual’s sex
• To limit, segregate, or classify employees or applicants for employment in any way that would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise affect the person’s status as an employee because of the individual’s sex or gender.

This federal law also prohibits gender discrimination in on-the-job and apprentice programs, retaliation against an employee who opposes a discriminatory practice, and sexually-stereotyped advertisements for employment positions.