The New Sex Discrimination

63 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2013

See all articles by Zachary A. Kramer

Zachary A. Kramer

Arizona State University - Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law

Date Written: November 26, 2013

Abstract

Sex discrimination law has not kept pace with the lived experience of discrimination. In the early years of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, courts settled on idea of what sex discrimination looks like — formal practices that exclude employees based on their group membership. The problem is that sex discrimination has become highly individualized. Modern sex discrimination does not target all men or all women, nor does it target subgroups of men or women. The victims of modern sex discrimination are particular men and women who face discrimination because they do not or cannot conform to the norms of the workplace. These employees have been shut out of a sex discrimination regime that still expects employees to anchor their claims to a narrative of group subordination.

This paper proposes a new regime for sex discrimination law. The model for the new sex discrimination regime is religious discrimination law. Unlike other areas of employment discrimination law, religious discrimination law offers a dynamic conception of identity and a greater array of different theories of discrimination. Sex discrimination law can and should work this way, too. On a broader level, the paper recalibrates sex discrimination law’s vision of equality. Difference is universal; no two people are the same, and this is a good thing. Thus the central task of sex discrimination law should be to better recognize — and in turn protect — the distinctive ways in which employees express their maleness and femaleness. It is these differences, after all, that shape the way employees experience modern sex discrimination.

Keywords: Discrimination, Equality, Title VII, Sex, Sexuality, Gender

Suggested Citation

Kramer, Zachary A., The New Sex Discrimination (November 26, 2013). Duke Law Journal, Vol. 63, No. 4, 2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2367533

Zachary A. Kramer (Contact Author)

Arizona State University - Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law ( email )

Box 877906
Tempe, AZ 85287-7906
United States

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