Title VII is Still the Law

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is still very much the law.

I was at a conference recently with several hundred other professionals committed to making higher education institutions places free from discrimination and where each student, faculty member and staff member can thrive. I was surrounded by brilliant ideas and learned a lot. That said, one thing that surprised me was that I spoke with several folks who were unfamiliar with Title VII.

A law since 1964, Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment based on one's race, color, religion, national origin, and sex in organizations with at least 15 employees. This means that your employer, or your manager, may not treat you negatively BECAUSE of your membership in one of these groups. Title VII protects you REGARDLESS of your race, sex or any of the listed identity groups.

As an oversimplified example, a man and a woman with very similar qualifications applied for a position as a nurse, but the hiring manager told the search team that women have better bedside manners, so the female candidate was hired as a result --> discrimination. Swap the sexes in the example --> still discrimination. P.S. That hiring manager could have been either male or female and acted on that stereotype --> still discrimination.

All this to say, there is a lot of muddying of the waters going around related to one's rights. Employment discrimination remains illegal.

Aaaaaaaand. . .one important note: Recent Executive Orders have clouded the law specifically related to sexual orientation and gender identity. In 2020, the Supreme Court in Bostock vs. Clayton County said that Title VII's protection from discrimination based on "sex" includes both gender identity and sexual orientation; the recent EO 14168 says otherwise. Litigation is pending; definitely work with your lawyers on how to best navigate this.