Gender Discrimination

The word discrimination comes from the Latin "discriminare", which means to "distinguish between"

Unlawful Actions

The law sets out the ways in which your employer (or the organization that has you on site as a contract worker) must not discriminate. You have these rights when you apply for a job, while you are employed and after you leave. The law says that discrimination should not take place:
• When jobs are advertised or potential staff are sought
• At the recruitment stage, including during job interviews
• During the job, by being given less favorable work related benefits, services or facilities
• or by being harassed at work or having to suffer being in a hostile or intimidating environment at work
• After you have left the job, perhaps in connection with disciplinary appeals or asking for references
• Some discrimination is very obvious – for example, if offensive things are said to you at work (or at a work function) that refer to your race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, etc. In some areas of discrimination law it will be called harassment. (Harassment means that your dignity has been violated by these remarks, or that the remarks have had the effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, offensive, or degrading atmosphere at work.)
Workplace Discriminations
• Saying that you don’t like working with gays in case you `catch something` - this would be harassment based on sexual orientation.
• Making remarks to women about their sexual lives – this would be a detriment based on sex (gender).
• Making negative remarks about their lack of mobility to someone who is in a wheelchair – this would be a detriment based on disability.
• Making so-called jokes about a person’s skin colour - this would be a detriment based on colour.
• Promoting men and not women where both had the same experience or qualifications (sex discrimination).
• Appointing a non-disabled person for a job, instead of a disabled person who was better qualified (disability discrimination).
• Not allowing a Jewish employee time off on a religious holiday where the holiday had been booked in advance but allowing other, non- religious, staff to take time off at short notice (religious discrimination).
• Dismissing a gay employee for the reason that his sexual orientation ` might cause offence to the clients` but not dismissing a heterosexual employee who has breached the disciplinary policy (sexual orientation discrimination).
• Inflexible shift arrangements – these may adversely affect single women with children or some religious groups.
Gender Discrimination
Gender discrimination is discrimination against a person or group on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
Socially, sexual differences have been used to justify societies in which one sex or the other has been restricted to significantly inferior and secondary roles. While there are non-physical differences between men and women, there is little agreement as to what those differences are.
Unfair discrimination usually follows the gender stereotyping held by a society. Women are often discriminated against in the workplace.
The United Nations had concluded that women often experience a "glass ceiling" and that there are no societies in which women enjoy the same opportunities as men. The term "glass ceiling" describes the process by which women are barred from promotion by means of an invisible barrier.
Sexual Discrimination
Many people, at some stage in their working lives, receive unwelcome sexual attention from colleagues. Sexual harassment covers a whole range of issues, from rude remarks to leering and unwanted physical contact, and in law is seen as direct discrimination under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. Although it usually applies to women, men can be victims too.
Protection From Discrimination
The law protects people at work from being discriminated against. The law at present protects people from discrimination for the following reasons:
• Race, colour, nationality or ethnic origins
• Religion or religious or philosophical belief
• Sex (gender)
• Transgender
• Marital status
• Sexual orientation
• Disability
• Part time workers
• Fixed term employees
If you are employed in a job or working on site as a contractor (but employed by someone else, such as an agency) the law will protect you from less favorable treatment (than another person in the workplace) for all or any of the above reasons.