South Florida Personal Injury Blog

Palm Beach injury attorneys Alitowski and Moore handle a variety of cases based on discrimination and harassment, which often occurs in the workplace. Although many kinds of discrimination and harassment have nothing to do with sex, such as religious discrimination or racial discrimination, many forms of discrimination have a gender component. Frequently, these tough situations hit women hard on both a personal and an economic level. Women who experience discrimination may receive fewer benefits, have difficulty retaining their jobs, or get less pay for their work.

According to West Palm Beach injury lawyer Alitowski, pregnancy discrimination remains an issue for young women. Congress enacted protections from women in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prevents discrimination against women because they are pregnant or could become pregnant. An employer cannot refuse to hire a woman due to these factors so long as she can perform her job adequately. This is true even if the employer believes that clients or customers would be disapproving. Employers must even hold the pregnant employee’s job if she must miss work to give birth or for other conditions related to her pregnancy for at least the same period it would be held for other workers who were sick and had to miss work. Additionally, she must receive the same benefits as other employees who take sick leave receive. Women comprise almost half of the workforce in the United States and although they have made tremendous advancements, women still find that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions poses a problem at some jobs. An example of discrimination is an employer who attempts to deny a woman health insurance during the period she is on maternity leave, although employees who miss several weeks of work due to illness continue to receive the benefits.

Palm Beach personal injury lawyer Alitowski notes that gender discrimination is a problem many women in Florida still face every day. The Civil Rights Act also protects people – in most cases, women – from discrimination on the basis of their sex. Gender discrimination is not necessarily patently sexual, although it often takes that form. A boss or co-worker who makes sexual jokes or comments about an employee’s body is engaging in sexual harassment. Likewise, a company that does not promote a successful woman because she is doing a job more traditionally performed by men is engaging in gender discrimination. Extremely overt advances, such as attempts to get sexual favors or some other kind of relationship in order to retain a job or win promotions, are perhaps the most well-known type of gender discrimination.

Women continue to grapple with these issues. Gender discrimination affects men, although rarely, and one man famously – and successfully – sued the public Mississippi University for Women to be admitted into the school’s nursing program because the closest one admitting men was very far from his home.