Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

Sex Discrimination in the Nineties, Seventies Style: Case Studies in the Preservation of Male Workplace Norms

By
Michael Selmi

Abstract

The prevailing sentiment today is that overt intentional sex discrimination in the workplace has receded substantially and has been replaced by more complicated practices of subtle or structural discrimination often tied to women’s family commitments. This article challenges that consensus by exploring the rise of class action sex discrimination cases that have uncovered what ought to be defined as overt intentional discrimination with a design to preserve existing male norms in the workplace. The article analyzes cases that have arisen in the securities and grocery industries, as well as a spate of class action sexual harassment cases, all of which reveal entrenched patterns of institutional discrimination.