In the United States, employees work at will and employers are allowed to hire, fire, promote or refuse to hire anyone for any reason. However, there are some exceptions to this.  Civil rights laws on the federal level have established certain protected classes and the law says that there are certain things your employer is not allowed to use to make any decisions about your employment.

Gender is one of the things that employers are not allowed to consider. Your employer is not allowed to discriminate against you in any of the terms or conditions of employment on the basis of being a woman. If you are the victim of gender discrimination, you have legal rights. An experienced Florida employment discrimination lawyer can help you to pursue a claim and obtain compensation for damages caused by the wrongful discrimination.

Laws Protecting Against Gender Discrimination 

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, gender and national origin. Title VII applies throughout the United States.   This means that any employer in the country is prohibited by Title VII from discriminating against someone because she is a woman.

Employers are not allowed to consider your gender in any way.  For example, it cannot be a relevant consideration when they decide whether to hire you, fire you, give you workplace benefits or decline to give you a job.  You must be evaluated on the merits and treated the same as any male candidate.

There are very limited exceptions to this such as situations where there is a legitimate need for a male to do the job. For example, an employer could determine that it will hire only a male actor to play the part of a man in a movie.

However, in order to restrict a job to males only, it must truly be essential for a man to do the job. Employers may sometimes try to argue that men are stronger then women and thus they must hire a man to do a physical labor job. This is not permitted discrimination. If a woman is able to do the job, then her gender cannot be used to disqualify her.

The laws not only restrict employers from outright discrimination on the basis of gender but also prevent employers from having pre-employment testing in place that has a disparate impact on women. For example, an employer cannot make all candidates complete a test that disqualifies many more women then men, unless there is a legitimate reason for doing so and successful completion of the test is essential to doing the work.

If you suspect you were the victim of gender discrimination, you need to take legal action. Call Richard Celler Legal, P.A. to schedule an evaluation of your case and to learn more about how we can help you pursue a damage claim for the violation of your rights.