Gender Discrimination

California statutes prohibit employers from unfairly treating employees based on gender. Workplace gender discrimination affects every aspect of the job, including promotion, pay, firing, and hiring decisions. If you have had an experience that you believe is discrimination by your employer, the law allows you to file a lawsuit seeking compensation from the employer. Proving gender discrimination is difficult. You can increase the chances of obtaining maximum damages by speaking to the Sexual Harassment Attorney. Our attorneys will explain gender discrimination and assist you in navigating the process for a favorable outcome.

Gender Discrimination Legal Definition

Sexist or prejudicial conduct against another person is discriminatory and prohibited under the law. Gender discrimination, especially in the workplace, is rampant and often involves establishing power or control over people. Per the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), it is unlawful for a boss or employer to mistreat workers because of gender, sexual identity, orientation, or expression. Gender expression consists of sex-related conduct or appearances, not necessarily your birth sex.

Sexual discrimination at work entails conduct or attitude-based stereotypes. These stereotypes result in devaluation or discrimination, mainly depending on their sex, like limited employment opportunities, derogatory comments about appearance, and unequal pay for female workers in the same job group as men. Other examples of gender discrimination on the job include:

Employing, promoting, or firing a worker because of their gender.
Failure to hire, promote, or fire an employee because of their gender.
Concealing job opportunities or vacancies from homosexuals or transsexual people.
Unequal pay in instances where a female worker who has held the same job position in an organization for years. discovers that a newly recruited male counterpart working in the same role is paid more than they do.
A female worker who receives a pay reduction after giving birth is denied the chance to earn the same wages for overtime. In contrast, male colleagues who reduce their overtime hours for individual reasons are not penalized.
Female workers being denied the chance to include their husbands in health insurance benefits because the employer assumes the husbands have other benefits.

Examples of gender discrimination specific to female workers are:

Failure to promote a qualified employee because of their sex.
Paying male workers more than their female colleagues despite having the same duties, qualifications, and competencies.
Laying off female workers who take maternity leaves or plan on beginning families.

Gender discrimination is based on the premise that one gender is superior or more valuable than the other. Sexist behavior at the workplace, especially that directed towards female workers, makes them look invaluable, encouraging inequality.

Sex and gender are used interchangeably but have different meanings. Sex means your biological identity, that is, male or female. In contrast, gender is the socially constructed masculine or feminine features the community associates with a person and which the individual identifies with.

Under FEHA, discrimination goes beyond workplace treatment of male and female workers to:

Pregnancy discrimination.
Childbirth-related medical conditions.
Breastfeeding.

FEHA also forbids labor organizations from expelling, limiting, or excluding membership because of gender.

People should have job opportunities based on their abilities and not gender. FEHA protects you from this unfair treatment, so you should not tolerate the behavior. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also enforces federal statutes that employers with over fifteen workers must employ.

Therefore, if you believe your employer has discriminated against you because of your gender, you should speak to the Sexual Harassment Attorney to decide whether you should file a claim under state or federal law. Evidence is rarely available in gender discrimination claims because the harassment happens secretly as employers understand the law prohibits discrimination. So, they ensure their unlawful actions have no witnesses or physical evidence, making it challenging to prove your case. Nevertheless, with the assistance of an attorney, you can even rely on circumstantial evidence to build a solid case that will ensure the court awards you reasonable damages.

California Gender Discrimination Statutes

The state’s employment statutes aim to guarantee equal treatment of male and female workers. When an employer has over five workers, FEHA guidelines apply. Therefore, when you experience gender discrimination in this work setting, you should file your claim under FEHA. California Government Code 12940 has the strictest discrimination statutes protecting many people, including job applicants, interns, contractors, and workers.

California workers also enjoy protection from discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The law applies to employers with at least fifteen workers. When you suffer gender discrimination in this work environment, you can sue the employer under EEOC. Nevertheless, the statute applies to government agencies, unions, labor organizations, learning institutions, private and public, and employment organizations. The gender discrimination prohibited under the statute pertains to:

Job advertisement.
Transfers and promotions.
Unfair male and female worker testing.
Employing discriminatory job terms.
Hiring and firing.

Another statute that forbids gender discrimination is the 1963 Equal Pay Act, which expanded Title VII and protects workers against unequal pay or wage discrimination. The Act prohibits employers from paying male workers more than female ones for substantially equal responsibilities, skills, or efforts in the same work environment.

The Fair and Equal Pay Act aims to narrow the wage gap between male and female workers playing the job role. Per the two acts, employers equal wages to male and female employees holding the same job positions and with similar roles and skills. The only exceptions for the salary disparity should be:

Bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ).
Use of seniority systems.
Use of merit systems.
Use of systems that measure pay based on production quality or quantity.

The purpose of these laws is to protect you, an employee, from stereotypes relating to your gender and provide you with job opportunities based on your abilities and skills.

However, these statutes have exceptions where employers can treat certain workers differently. One exception is the bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ), which employers commonly use as a defense. This exception allows employers to exclude particular workers from specific laws because of their inability to safely and effectively execute tasks and ensure the smooth running of business operations. The exceptions are due to privacy or limited therapy.

Gender Discrimination Signs

Many workers do not file lawsuits against employers for gender discrimination simply because they are unaware. The signs you can look out for to know that your employer is discriminating against you because of your sex are:

Sharing offensive memes.
Forcing you to resign from the job because of pregnancy.
Assigning men and women different roles.
Excluding men or women from specific meetings.
Sudden adjustments in job performance reviews.
Laying you off in case of a gender identity adjustment.
Supervisors disregarding gender discrimination reports.
Permitting on-the-job sexual harassment.
Retaliating against workers reporting gender discrimination incidents.
Promoting one sex more often than the other.
Managers encouraging female workers to wear revealing clothes when meeting male clients.

When you notice any of these signs in your workplace, chances are you are undergoing gender discrimination and should speak to an experienced attorney to guide you on handling the matter.

Handling Gender Discrimination

When you notice gender discrimination, you can take several steps to end the discrimination and receive compensation for the emotional suffering and all other damages related to the lawsuit. Do not fear that legal action against the employer will result in discrimination. Existing legal laws anticipate that employers can retaliate against those who file gender discrimination reports, so they prohibit bias or retaliatory action.

If a gender discrimination incident occurs, start by noting the date, the perpetrator's name, the place, and the number of occurrences. Be sure to preserve copies of the notes because you will need them in court. Paperwork is necessary to keep track of the events and prepare evidence.

Once you have taken note of the events, present a formal written complaint to the employer through the management or human resources department. If the employer disregards the complaint, you can further report the gender discrimination to the relevant government agency.

Gender discrimination violates both federal and state statutes. You can report your case to the EEOC if federal laws apply. Alternatively, you can report the matter to the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), where your employer has violated the state statutes. If both statutes apply to your case, it can be challenging to decide where to report it. At Sexual Harassment Attorney, we encourage you to bring your claim under the California statutes because they are broader and allow you extra time to sue.

Gender discrimination statutes have strict timelines. EEOC and CRD apply different timelines for suing, so you should know when to submit a complaint. With EEOC, the timeline is 300 days, while CRD gives you twelve months after the incident to report. After the timeline lapses, you lose the right to sue the employer. So, speak to an attorney with experience handling cases like yours to know your eligibility and the chances of a favorable result.

Reporting gender discrimination does not result in a direct lawsuit. You will undergo many administrative solutions before suing the employer. Therefore, when you report the matter to CRD, you must undergo the department’s complaint process, which is lengthy. Nevertheless, when you first go to your attorney with the issue, they will advise you appropriately to avoid the lengthy process. An attorney will present the complaint to CRD to acquire immediate rights to sue the employer, avoiding lengthy administrative procedures. Only your legal representative can obtain the right to file a lawsuit against your employer. So, if you want to avoid the administrative process, you should seek the help of an attorney with knowledge of sex discrimination statutes.

The Complaint Process

FEHA allows you to present a pre-complaint inquest directly to CRD within 36 months of the harassment, discrimination, or retaliation. You can complain over the phone, online, or by downloading a complaint form or paperwork from the agency’s site.

CRD then schedules an interview within sixty days to determine if your complaint has substantial evidence to investigate further. If, after the interview, the department of the investigator handling your complaint determines it is not worth pursuing, your case will be thrown out, and from there, you can sue the boss directly. However, if the complaint can be substantiated, the investigator will prepare a formal complaint with your signature and send it to the boss. A dual filing with EEOC is also possible.

Once the employer receives the complaint, they file a response. The work of CRD is to evaluate the response and offer remedies to help both parties settle the matter out of court. When negotiations fail, the investigator assigned to your case opens an official investigation to establish if you were discriminated against at the workplace because of your gender. The file will be closed if the investigations do not violate FEHA statutes. When this happens, you should contact a sex discrimination lawyer immediately to sue the employer. On the other hand, if the employer violated California statutes, the case proceeds to the legal division of CRD.

Litigation or Arbitration

CRD’s legal division encourages arbitration or mediation between you and your employer when they discover a violation. Here, a mediator or arbitrator helps both parties find a remedy to the problem without going to court. If no settlement is arrived at after negotiations, then CRD itself sues the employer on your behalf to claim compensation for the gender discrimination. The agency can also opt not to pursue the claim and close your file. Once they close the case, you can sue directly in court.

You must know that the administrative process differs when you report the discrimination to EEOC. When you report the matter to the agency, it sends you a copy containing the charges and the charge number. They then notify your employer about the complaint, which will accompany a copy of the charges. The notice encourages the employer to mediate and resolve the matter with you or file a written response.

When the employer files an answer, an investigator takes up the case and conducts more inquiries on the issue, including recording witness statements and gathering documents that prove gender discrimination. If the employer chooses mediation, you can resolve the issue in three months. However, investigations take six months, and once they close, you and the respondent will receive the outcome. If the conclusion of the investigations shows no discrimination, they will end the case and notify you of the right to take the employer to the federal court. You have ninety days to sue upon receiving the notice. Also, you cannot sue without this legal document or notice from EEOC.

When CRD or EEOC sends you a dismissal notice or right to sue, talk to an attorney immediately to file a claim before the lapse of the provided timeline.

You have several options for engaging your employer. You can engage in voluntary negotiations, sue them, or take the matter to court with the guidance of an attorney.

Suing Your Employer for Gender Discrimination

The law allows you to sue your boss for gender discrimination. However, before moving to court, you should report the complaint to the relevant government agency. You cannot go to court directly without authorization from either of these agencies.

After the agency issues you a dismissal notice or right-to-sue notice, you can move to court. You can file the claim with the document. The only way to bypass the administrative remedies by government agencies is by hiring an attorney to file the complaint for you with EEOC or CRD. After that, your lawyer will have the right to file the case with the Superior Court where the unfair treatment occurred.

The employer or any other third party in the suit will be served. The served parties then file responses, after which the case proceeds to litigation. Even if the case is in court, you can always try an out-of-court settlement if the trial has not ended. The goal is to obtain maximum compensation to cover all your damages.

Damages in Gender Discrimination Cases

California statutes have no limit on the punitive or compensatory damages you can receive for your claim. However, if you sue under federal laws, there is a cap on the compensation you should receive.

The damages depend on the losses suffered and the harm from sex discrimination. The damages depend on your case's circumstances, including back and front salary, higher wages from a salary increase, bonus payments, increased salary from a promotion, pain and anguish, and emotional distress.

Additionally, you can pursue attorney fees. If the case was resolved in court, the judge could impose punitive damages to punish the employer and discourage the same form of discrimination from your boss and others.

When gender discrimination results in firing or layoff, the mediator or court can instruct the boss to reinstate you. Nevertheless, you do not have to return to a workplace where they discriminated against you.

Do not fear retaliation when you report your employer, and they are forced to compensate you. If you are fired for the lawsuit, you can report them again for wrongful termination.

Find an Experienced Sexual Discrimination or Harassment Attorney Near Me

All workers have the right to protection in the workplace. No one should have to deal with gender discrimination at work, but unfortunately, these cases exist. If you have been through any sexual harassment or discrimination in your workplace, you should speak to a lawyer for guidance. At the Sexual Harassment Attorney, we can assist you in seeking justice for unfair treatment. Contact us at 800-905-1856 for a no-obligation consultation in California.