Total Articles: 17
Why do we hate us? Women prefer working for men, study says
I shouldn't touch this poll with a 10-foot pole, but I just can't help myself.
Limited Seating: Mixed Results on Efforts to Include More Women at the Corporate Board Table
Fortune Magazine's annual Most Powerful Women list arrived on newsstands last week. With it comes inevitable chatter from the business press about who is in and who is out, who moved up a few notches and who has been knocked down a few pegs. And yet, perhaps what is most striking about the list is not the jockeying among the boldface names. Rather, it is the fact that even amid a lingering financial crisis that has highlighted poor governance and the scarcity of senior women at big corporations, the total number of women CEOs in the Fortune 500 is only 15, up from just two when the list debuted in 1998.
'Masculine Norms': Why Working Women Find It Hard to Reach the Top
Women have been in the workforce for decades, but many will acknowledge that it is still a man's world. According to the most recent data from Catalyst Research, women now make up nearly half (46.7%) of America's workforce and hold 51.5% of management, professional and related occupations. Yet only 7.6% of the Fortune 500 top earners are women, and women make up only 2.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs. Many women say the corner office remains off-limits because the unwritten rules of the workplace continue to favor men.
GENDER STEREOTYPING AND ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS
Can en employer legally fire an employee for not being “pretty enough?” Consider the following scenario: A supervisor first approves a female employee’s transfer to a receptionist position. Later, the supervisor questions the transfer after meeting the employee and determining she is not a “good fit,” because she lacks the “Midwestern girl” look the supervisor wanted. The employee wears her hair short, foregoes makeup, and frequently dressing in men’s clothes. In the past, the supervisor has refused to hire female applicants she has deemed “not pretty enough” for the job. Ultimately, the employee in question is fired after questioning the job-related relevance of her appearance.
You've Come a Long Way, Baby...or Maybe Not: Why Women are Losing Ground on Wall Street
The recession has not been kind to women on Wall Street. Consider these recent reports in the financial press: Even though women hold a minority of financial sector jobs, five times as many women as men were laid off after the start of the recession, according to Bloomberg News. Meanwhile, the pay gap between men and women in the industry, Bloomberg adds, actually widened between 2000 and 2007. The result is that while women in the broader work force have made significant progress toward pay and opportunity parity, they have actually lost ground on Wall Street.According to The Wall Street Journal, 9.6% more men are working in finance now than 10 years ago, but 2.6% fewer women. Among young workers, the numbers are even starker: 16.5% fewer women aged 20 to 35 and 21.8% fewer women aged 20 to 24.
Talk About Ego: Former Banker Says She Was Fired for Being Too Sexy.
Debrahlee Lorenzana has sued Citigroup, her former employer, alleging that she was unlawfully terminated because she was "too sexy for her job," to borrow a line from song by Right Said Fred. According to the New York Daily News, Lorenzana claims that she was subject to "improper comments" and reprimanded for dressing in a way that was "too distracting" to her male coworkers. She denies that she ever dressed inappropriately and complains that she's always been burdened with good looks--she draws attention from the opposite gender even when she's at the grocery store in sweatpants.
Leading Occupations of Women.
The Department of Labor's Women's Bureau released its list of the 20 Leading Occupations of Employed Women.
Court Revives Hotel Worker's Gender Stereotyping Claim.
A federal appellate court recently reinstated a gender stereotyping case brought by a hotel front desk employee who claimed she was fired for not having the "Midwestern girl look." According to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, "[c]ompanies may not base employment decisions for jobs . . . on sex stereotypes."
Discrimination Law Update: Hotel Chain Guilty of Sex Discrimination For Firing Homely Clerk.
Are ugly people protected by law? They might be, if an employment decision is made based on sex stereotypes. While reasonable grooming and dress standards may be appropriate, standards that are dependent on stereotypical views of sexual attraction, or unduly burden one gender more than the other, may violate state and federal anti-discrimination laws. In an Eighth Circuit federal case titled Lewis v. Heartland Inns of America, the court examined this issue.
Adverse Employment Action Based on Gender-Related Non-Conforming Behavior and Appearance is Impermissible.
Under Title VII, an unlawful employment practice is established when an employee demonstrates that gender is a motivating factor for an adverse employment action. Under that analysis, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Title VII claims of a female hotel desk clerk who was fired after a company decision-maker complained that the employee lacked the pretty and Midwestern girl look desirable in a front desk employee.
Adverse employment action based on gender-related non-conforming behavior and appearance is impermissible.
Under Title VII, an unlawful employment practice is established when an employee demonstrates that gender is a motivating factor for an adverse employment action. Under that analysis, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Title VII claims of a female hotel desk clerk who was fired after a company decision-maker complained that the employee lacked the pretty and Midwestern girl look desirable in a front desk employee.
Marital Status Discrimination: First Comes Love . . . Then Comes Marriage . . . Then Comes Preferential Treatment at Work?
Delaware has long since included marital status in its list of categories (along with race, sex, gender, religion, and sex) protected by the states anti-discrimination statute. But what is marital status discrimination? Does it really occur, and has an employee ever filed a claim based on alleged marital status discrimination? A new Policy Briefing from the Sloan Work and Family Research Network (pdf) gives some insight into this area of discrimination rarely discussed.
EEOC Settles Beef With Restaurant.
On November 2, 2009, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it settled a class action lawsuit against Lawry's Restaurants Inc. The EEOC reported that the west coast steakhouse chain agreed to settle the lawsuit, alleging gender discrimination, for more than one million dollars.
The Shriver Report: A Womans Nation Changes Everything.
Maria Shriver is doing more than violating her states ban on cell phone use while driving this days. Perhaps her ambitious project is in part what compels her need to multi-task in the car (but please invest in a hands-free device, Maria, so the press can focus on your other admirable pursuits!).
Fourth Circuit Recognizes Different Decision Maker in Title VII Sex Discrimination Case (pdf).
A plaintiff must ordinarily demonstrate replacement by someone outside his or her protected class to establish a prima facie case of employment discrimination. In Lettieri v. Equant, Inc., 478 F.3d 640 (4th Cir. 2007), however, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently recognized an exception to this requirement when the termination and replacement decisions were made by different people.
Court Permits Rejected Male to Proceed with Sex Discrimination Claim (pdf).
A federal court in Indiana has held that a male
applicant who was rejected for a protection
officer/paramedic job can proceed with his
sex discrimination lawsuit against his employer, even
though the male applicant was ranked lower than
the female applicant who received the promotion.
See White v. Alcoa (March 27, 2006). In White,
four candidates, one woman and three men, applied
for the job of protection officer/paramedic. After
a manager and his team leaders interviewed the
candidates (all of whom met the basic qualifications
for the job), they ranked the candidates in order of
preference. The interviewers top choice was a male
applicant, followed by the female, then White and
another male.
Employer's Makeup Requirement is Not Sex Discrimination (pdf).
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of an employees lawsuit in which she claimed that her employers requirement that she wear makeup at work violated Title VII.
