Gender profiling has become known as the intersection of one’s sex and gender as well as the perceived femininity or masculinity of one’s race. While these perceived characteristics create an individual’s gender profile, studies suggest that different workplace occupations also have gender profiles, meaning that some groups are more likely to succeed in such roles that match their own gender profile. But is gender profiling in the hiring process discriminatory?
Gendering Job Positions Has Long-Term Impacts
Even in today’s modern society, many employment opportunities are gendered–from nursing to teaching, being a midwife, or mailman, the implications of the gendered stereotypes often hinders many qualified individuals from applying for, or even being considered for jobs based upon their gender.
In many ways, these roles came about because of the gender stereotypes women and men had been pigeonholed to such as women being nurturing and men as being breadwinners and decision-makers.
A 2017 study showed that when job roles become gendered, not only does it impact who gets the job, but also determines if it is more credible than others.
But what happens when these stereotypes invade the hiring process. Is it discriminatory?
Gender Discrimination in the Hiring Process
Gender bias is the discriminatory treatment–be it explicit or implicit–of job candidates based upon their gender. Typically, this is not done intentionally to hurt a candidate, but rather is an unconscious bias based upon stereotypes. However, when employers begin to make hiring decisions based upon candidates’ gender and their perceived ability because of their gender status, they are being discriminatory. This is because an employer hiring one candidate based on their gender means that they will not hire another because of their gender.
In any stage of employment from hiring to firing, it is illegal to discriminate against a job applicant because of their race, color, religion, sex, disability, or genetic information.
In addition, the June 2020 Supreme Court Ruling in the case Bostock v. Clayton County ruled that “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”
In this way, more sex and gender protections have been expanded to protect more employees from discrimination in the hiring process.
Protection From Gender Discrimination: Brown Kwon & Lam
If your rights have been violated in New York as a result of gender discrimination, you deserve justice. Contact the employment discrimination attorneys of Brown Kwon & Lam today. We will fight for you.