How to Recognize Workplace Sexual Discrimination

In recent years, much attention has been given to avoiding sexual harassment in the workplace. While sexual harassment is a form of sexual discrimination, it's not the only one. Sexual discrimination isn't merely limited to unwelcome advances or crude jokes. In order to prevent sexual discrimination in the workplace, it's necessary to recognize what behaviors and actions qualify.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Expand your definition of sexual discrimination. While the phrase is often used interchangeably with "sexual harassment," sex discrimination in the workplace also refers to illegal or unethical practices based on gender or sexual orientation.
2. Pay attention to employers or employees who are telling off-color jokes or sending them by email. They may not recognize that this type of humor or innuendo can make others uncomfortable and, by law, can be considered as contributing to the creation of a hostile workplace environment.
3. Take note of the derogatory terms used to refer to women in the workplace. An employee who calls women "girls" or "babes" is engaging in a form of sexual harassment. Similarly, making demeaning comments about women, their "place" or their ability to perform tasks is discriminatory. Offensive comments or terms used in regard to sexual orientation are also forms of sexual discrimination.
4. Arm yourself with the knowledge that not being hired or promoted based on the refusal to perform sexual favors, either specified or implied, is a form of workplace sexual discrimination. Women are not the only victims of this practice. Men can also be discriminated against in this way.
5. Talk to human resources about benefits to make sure that spouses will be covered regardless of gender. Companies whose policies cover only female spouses and children are practicing sexual discrimination by their failure to recognize that women can be the heads of their households.
6. Investigate how your company reassigns jobs to employees who take advantage of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA allows both men and women to take up to six months of unpaid leave for qualifying life circumstances. Your company is required to have a job of equal status waiting for you when you return, so if your pay is cut or you are demoted when you come back, this is sex discrimination.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep up to date on local and state ordinances and laws. While it is illegal for federal employees to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, there is no federal law preventing it in the general workplace. However, some states and cities have passed local legislation making such discrimination illegal.
• Some states also recognize homosexual domestic partners as spouses who qualify for benefits. In these states, refusal to cover a domestic partner is an instance of sexual discrimination.