Determining Discrimination
Although discrimination still occurs in society today, the legalsystem in the United States has taken several steps to limit andprevent the number of instances in which this occurs. First, thelegal system provides protection for individuals who haveexperienced disparate treatment, or have been dealt withdifferently in selection or employment settings due to theirdemographic characteristics. Second, laws against disparate impact,or unintentionally having hiring practices that affect members of aprotected group, have been enacted to protect minorities. Afour-fifths or standard deviation rule is used to determine ifadverse impact has taken place. Lastly, reasonable accommodationhas been emphasized by the legal system in making facilitiesaccessible to individuals with disabilities or observing religiouspractices. In this exercise, please read the mini-case and answerthe questions that follow. Gloria Santiago, a Latin American woman,overheard two of her male co-workers boasting about the promotionsthey had just received to district sales managers. When Gloriacomplained to her boss about not receiving the same promotion, hetold her the men were among the company's top salespeople and thecompany had to offer them a higher position to keep them fromjoining one of the company's competitors. Gloria was not satisfiedwith this response as she had been working hard all year to reachhigh sales figures. She decided to check the archival data thecompany stored on each employee's sales. She discovered thatalthough one of the men had sold more than she had, Gloria actuallyhad almost exactly the same sales numbers as the other salesman.She went back to her boss to reveal her findings and he told herthat since most of the customers were male, he felt as thoughhaving men in the district sales manager positions was necessarybecause it would help build rapport and enhance sales in thoseareas. After hearing this news, Gloria listed several instances ofwomen in district sales manager positions who had succeeded despiteserving mostly a male clientele.
1). What type of discrimination was taking place in thissituation?
A). Race
B). Age
C). Religion
D). Sex
2). It seems as though the manager was behaving differently tothe men because of their gender. This is referred to as
A). Disparate Treatment
B). Reasonable Accommodation
C). Sexual Harassment
D). The Four-Fifths Rule
3).Gloria has the burden of proving the manager has committed anillegal act. She can do this by demonstrating all of the followingEXCEPT
A). That someone filled the position with similarqualifications
B). That she was qualified for the promotion
C). That she belongs to the Latino American community which is aprotected group
D). That she was rejected for the promotion despite herqualifications
4). When the boss stated that he thought being male was anecessary qualification for the promotion because the customerswere mostly male, he was trying to argue that this was a
A). Disparate Impact
B). Prima Facie
C). Bona Fide Occupational Qualification
D). Reasonable Accommodation
5). After the boss provided the reasoning for his employmentdecision, Gloria cited examples of women in district sales managerpositions. She was trying to demonstrate that his reason wasactually a ____________ for the actual decision.
A). pretext
B). mixed motive
C). reasonable accommodation
D). prima facie
