eories based on communitarian philosophies. However, efforts to compel an end to such discrimination through legal compulsion raise other ethical questions and value choices which are not easily resolved in the context of late 20th century American capitalism. At least one school of feminist thought has sought to overturn the dominant value systems of American private business management which have evolved under male leadership, but efforts to achieve such a revolution in thought and action at any time in the foreseeable future appear to be naive in the extreme.
a. Relevant facts. The facts relevant to a legal analysis of Hopkins' case are those which were regarded as germane by the federal courts involved in reaching their decisions. Hopkins' case was one of a number of cases in the federal courts in the 1980s which involved actions by employers against employees which were based on mixed-motivations, what Justice William Brennan for the plurality of four whose opinion governed the Supreme Court's decision in the case called at 1785 "a mixture of legitimate and illegitimate [discriminatory] considerations." The Court considered as highly relevant the information in Hopkins' record before the partnership policy board which tended to show that she had problems in her interpersonal relationships. This included abrasiveness and a tendency toward insensitivity in her dealings with her staff subordinates and otherwise within the firm (as opposed to her dealings with clients where her ratings were uniformly high).
The Court might have, but did not, consider that a showing that Hopkins had significant failings in interpersonal relationships was a sufficient basis for a holding that PW acted reasonably in denying Hopkins a partnership. The reason it did not was that it also regarded as highly relevant considerable evidence that sexual stereotypes and negative perceptions of Hopkins as a woman played an important role in the firm's deci...