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GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT

GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT: CASE OF ANN HOPKINS

This case analysis report discusses the legal and ethical issues associated with the failure of Ann Hopkins ("Hopkins") to be selected for a partnership in the international public accounting firm of Price Waterhouse ("PW") in 1982 and its aftermath. In 1984, after she failed to be selected as a partner by the firm and resigned, Hopkins sued PW in federal court. After a battle of nearly seven years in the federal courts, Judge Gerhard Gesell of the Federal District Court in the District of Columbia ordered PW to make Hopkins a partner retroactive to 1982 with back pay.

The law case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 109 S.Ct. 1775 (1989), and its sequel after it was remanded to the District Court, Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse, 737 F. Supp. 1202 (D.D.C. 1990), broke new ground. It represented the first time that a court ordered a private firm to grant a partnership to a plaintiff as a remedy for gender discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (CRA). However, the guiding opinion of the Supreme Court in the Price Waterhouse case was full of contradictions and led to confusion in the lower courts as to the type and quantum of proof of discrimination required of plaintiffs before they can prevail. The difficulties faced by plaintiffs in proving so-called mixed-motivation gender discrimination employment cases led to disillusionment in feminist circles with their prospects for invoking the law to assist them in their struggle to penetrate the glass ceiling.

In terms of business ethics theory, the type of gender discrimination encountered by Hopkins cannot be justified. The individual and social harm caused by such discrimination outweighs its benefits under utilitarian moral philosophy. Such discrimination fails to meet the tests of reason and moral imperatives under deontological or Kantian philosophy. And it is inconsistent with ethical th...

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GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN EMPLOYMENT. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:02, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681506.html