What constitutes discrimination against men?
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What constitutes discrimination against men?
I work as a part-time employee for a company and it was great but now I’m starting to hate it. My manager and
other managers I think are very sexist towards men. For example, my manager won’t let me work in the cosmetics section of the store because I don’t know anything about make-up and I’m a guy. However, I told him that I am willing to learn and work it and with in the rules of the company it says if you don’t know a customer’s question ask my co-workers Second, when it’s time for garbage they tell only the guys to throw out the garbage and not the women. I think we should both have the responsibility of throwing out the trash because it says we are both equal but obviously not I run the same risk of going out side and having something happen to me as a woman would. Is this discrimination towards men or being sexist towards men or both. If so, what should I do about this?
Asked on December 16, 2018 under Employment Labor Law, New York
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
It is not clear that the cosmetics issue is sex-based discrimination: there is a legitimate business reason to only have women in that section, since cosmetics are overwhelmingly bought by women and they will want to buy them from another woman who is herself using cosmetics and so "demonstrating" the product. There are a few cases where it is ok to "discriminate" because you need one gender or the other model a product, like hiring only females to model bras or only men to model jockey shorts.
Arguably, the garbage issue is discrimination, since there is no reason why women can't take out the garbage. But it's unlikely it's worth taking action, since you are not suffering any loss or damage from this, so there'd be little, if any compensation, you could get.
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