In most states, 25 years ago, a woman couldn't sign an apartment lease, get a credit rating, or apply for a loan unless her husband or a male relative agreed to share the responsibility. Similarly, a 1965 study found that 51 percent of men thought women were "temperamentally unfit for management" (Christopher 5). There can be no doubt that we have progressed a long way from these ideas in the last quarter century. However, it is also unquestionable that women in the work force, even (or perhaps especially) those in top management, are still discriminated against.
In this paper we will address some of the forms this discrimination takes, such as the differences in professional status, management level, and earning capacities for male and female executives. We will also examine two significant court cases involving sex discrimination in upper level management as illustrations of what kind of legal remedies are currently available.
Anyone who thinks sex discrimination is a thing of the past only has to ask Muriel Kraszewski or Ann Hopkins to learn differently. Muriel Kraszewski worked for State Farm Insurance Company for 12 years and was the leading candidate for an important promotion. She was denied the promotion because, her employers said, she had no college degree and was too much under the control of her husband. Kraszewski sued the company and won her case, after a nine year battle, in late January 1988. She was given what may be the largest sex-bias award in history: up to hundreds of millions for 1,113 other female State Farm employees with similar complaints, and $433,000 for Kraszewski herself ("State" 10).
Ann Hopkins was one of Price Waterhouse's top young executives. She had the best record for getting and maintaining big accounts, but when she came up for a partnership in 1982, she was denied because several male partners had evaluated her as "too macho." They advised her to walk, talk, and dress more...