Frequently Asked Questions

In addition, whether on or off the job, a significant number of employees will themselves face discrimination - shaming, isolation, harassment, or even assault - simply because they don't meet some else's idea of a "real man" or a "real woman." It could be their behavior, dress, or even sexual orientation. But what is important is that, as cornerstones of their communities, workplaces have an obligation to send a strong message that discrimination due to gender stereotypes is wrong and intolerable.

From a business standpoint, the best reason is simple goodwill. We believe there is a consensus among most Americans that employees ought to be judged on the quality of their work, not on extraneous factors such as their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sex, or sexual orientation. Organizations that adopt "best practice" EEO policies cannot help but be rewarded with a measure of public goodwill for their efforts.

However the business reasons for such adoption extend well beyond goodwill to bottom-line economics. When a trained employee or a qualified candidate is lost due to discrimination based on their membership in a disfavored group, it degrades the competitiveness of the corporation as a whole. This is especially true in larger companies, where a business can easily invest tens of thousands of dollars attracting and holding on to the right employee.

In addition, organizations that establish an image of fostering fair and diverse workplaces enjoy the competitive advantage of being able to draw from a larger pool of applicants and retain students from more diverse communities. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, diversity pays.

2. Isn't gender stereotyping in the workplace mainly a women's problem?
Once, perhaps, but if it ever was it's not anymore. According to the New York Time, male-on-male gender harassment now accounts for one-in-seven new claims filed with the EEOC. That's double just ten years ago. For example, Joseph Oncale, plaintiff in the Supreme Court's Oncale v. Sundowner case was repeatedly menaced by oil-rig co-workers for being slender, blond, longhaired, and wearing an earring.

Firms that are not pro-active in anticipating and heading-off new types of workplace discrimination may leave themselves exposed to protracted and costly litigation.

3. Is gender stereotyping in the workplace illegal?
Yes, although it is still undeniably widespread in actual practice. Since the Supreme Court's landmark 1989 ruling, Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse, discrimination based on gender stereotypes has been widely considered to be illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, there is still debate over how broadly the Court's ruling can be applied, which is why - until there is Congressional legislation - signing this diversity statement is so crucial.

4. Aren't gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans only targeted because of sexual orientation?
Not necessarily. In a recent GenderPAC survey, one third of gay, lesbian, and bisexual respondents who suffered workplace discrimination reported that it was due at least in part to their expression of gender. For instance, in the Dawson v. Estee Lauder case, 32 year-old Dawn Dawson was fired for allegedly looking "too butch."

5. Isn't "sexual orientation" protection sufficient?
No. As illustrated by cases like Jespersen v. Harrah's Resorts, gay employees can also face discrimination because of their gender.

In fact in a recent GenderPAC survey of LGB respondents reporting workplace discrimination, about a third said it was due at least in part to their expression of gender, and about 10% said it's due strictly to their expression of gender. Gender remains very much a workplace issue for lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees.

In addition, sexual orientation protection leaves heterosexual employees who transcend gender stereotypes exposed to significant workplace discrimination.

It's worth noting that gay employees may face gender-based discrimination based on their sexual orientation - that is, the prejudice that, no matter how they dress or behave, gay men are unmanly and lesbian women necessarily unfeminine. Indeed, underneath homophobia, is often fear and antipathy toward those who do not meet their assigned gender roles, including their choice of sexual partner.

6. But don't only gay and transgender people have problems with gender stereotypes?
No. Anyone who fails to meet expectations for a "real men" or a "real woman" can become a target. This can include anyone from a successful professional like Anne Hopkins (Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse), who was fired for being "too aggressive," to a waiter like Antonio Sanchez (Sanchez v. Azteca Restaurants), who was forced from his job when co-workers began regularly harassing him for carrying his tray "like a woman," and verbally taunting him as "she," "her," "f-cking female whore," and "faggot."

Gender stereotyping is also a significant workplace problem for transgender employees. For instance, in Oiler v. Winn-Dixie (2001), Peter Oiler was fired after more than two decades on the job for crossdressing on his own time. And in Ulane v. Eastern Airlines (1984), Karen Ulane, a highly successful airline pilot, was fired after she transitioned from male to female.

7. Isn't gender discrimination a problem only for our transgender employees?
Sometimes it is. For instance, in Oiler v. Winn-Dixie (2001), Peter Oiler was fired after more than two decades on the job as a truck-driver when he told his manager that he cross-dressed off the job. And in Ulane v. Eastern Airlines (1984), a highly successful airline pilot, Karen Ulane, was fired after she transitioned from male to female.

Just as often, though, employees who become targets for discrimination or harassment are gay, lesbian, or even straight, because they fail to conform to common gender stereotypes.

For instance in Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse (1989), Anne Hopkins was terminated from a partnership track at a major accounting firm after senior partners informed her that she was too aggressive and mannish, and should learn to act and dress in a more feminine manner.

In Oncale v. Sundowner, Joseph Oncale was sexually harassed by his male co-workers because of his gender: because he was young, blond, longhaired, slender, and wore an earring.

And in Jespersen v. Harrah's Resorts (being filed), Darlene Jespersen was fired after more than two decades at her job when she refused to comply with a new dress code that would have made her wear facial make-up, feminine hairstyles, and high-heels.

In all these cases, although some of the individuals were gay and some female, the sex or sexual orientation of the employees had no apparent direct bearing on their termination. Instead, the issue was their conforming to narrow gender stereotypes.

GenderPAC believes that EEO policies need to anticipate gender-based discrimination towards diverse sorts of employees. Rather than interrogating employees' identities, we believe corporations should concentrate on providing fair and safe workplaces in which all employees are valued and respected, regardless of their gender.

8. How is protection for "gender" different from that for "sex?"
There is currently a vigorous legal and scholarly debate on this topic. For our purposes, it's sufficient to note that underneath misogyny is also gender - the conviction that women are naturally unaggressive, nurturing, sensual, and emotional, and thus inappropriate candidates for high-pressure work, managerial positions, jobs requiring cognitive skills, or high-level advancement.

At the same time, discrimination based on "sex" has generally been interpreted to apply to an animus based on biological sex, not the way that sex is expressed through clothing, hairstyle, facial make-up, vocal inflection, posture, and masculine or feminine behavior - i.e., gender.

9. Does this mean my company has to abandon dress codes?
No. It does indicate a willingness to be flexible in applying them, especially when dealing with fundamental and persistent aspects of an employee's sense of their gender. This could include accommodating a female employee who is more comfortable complying with a masculine dress code, or (more rarely) vice versa, as well as an employee who transitions or has transitioned from one gender to another. In any case, employers have the right and obligation to set and maintain standards of appropriate business dress in the workplace.

10. How do I best explain transsexual employees to my company?
Some HR departments start from the specific and more problematic -- transsexuals -- and then move on to the general and more acceptable issue of the needs of their general employees. And there is no doubt that some corporate officers will immediately ask about transsexuals.

However, in our experience with corporations, courts, and legislators, people are generally more receptive when we start from the most acceptable and least threatening cases, such as a feminist soccer mom who is called a "dyke" behind her back because her workplace attitude is aggressive, a young worker harassed because he wears an earring, a lesbian fired for refusing to wear make-up or a gay man for being perceived as flamboyant.

Once we've established that gender-based discrimination or harassment in the workplace could strike someone our intended audience knows - their mother, uncle, or son -- we introduce the full spectrum of gender in the workforce, which naturally includes transgender and transsexual individuals.

In addition, our experience has been that, to the degree that we can drive home the reality that many kinds of employees are still targeted for gender-based discrimination and harassment, we are successful in getting organizations to embrace gender presentation as a valid and important workplace issue.

11. How can GenderPAC's Workplace Fairness Project help?
GenderPAC's Workplace Fairness Project provides education, advice, and HR-oriented workshops to support companies and employee groups in changing their EEO policies to ensure full equality for employees, regardless of their gender.

Corporations who have done so include AMR/American Airlines, Apple Computer, and Lucent Technologies, as well as host of smaller and medium-sized companies.

If gender is the new frontier, then the office and the cubicle are the new front lines. Today everyone -- from Human Resources professionals to line managers, from LGBT employee groups to individual workers -- needs to understand gender-based discrimination on the job: how to recognize it, how to speak to it, and what to do about it.