Gender Discrimination

Discrimination based on gender (or sex) is a common civil rights violation that takes many forms, including sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and unequal pay for women who do the same jobs as men. Unfortunately, most U.S. women are all too familiar with all of these inequalities. This section offers in-depth information on unlawful gender and sex discrimination in a number of settings -- including employment and education -- and provides links to key federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court decisions related to gender and sex discrimination. Gender discrimination laws also protect the rights of transgender individuals. Girls and women suffer most of the negative impact of rigid gender norms and roles, they are more likely to experience restrictions of their freedom and mobility, they experience epidemic levels of violence and harassment across the globe and have fewer opportunities to choose how to live their lives. But boys and men suffer too. Ideas about what it means to be a man force boys and men to behave in very limited ways which can harm them. Negative masculinities encouraged in boys serve to perpetuate the cycle of discrimination and inequality.Denying people the freedom to choose their path in life because of their gender prevents them from fulfilling their full potential. There is lots we can do to help build a more gender-equal world.