GPAC Disappointed: Makeup Can Be Required of Women

Date: 4-Jan-2005

~ Appeal Denied in Jesperson v. Harrahs Sex Stereotyping Case ~

WASHINGTON (January 4, 2005) The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) today denounced a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals holding that a female employee fired for refusing to wear makeup cannot sue her employer for sex discrimination.

Said GenderPAC Executive Director, Riki Wilchins, “This ruling would be right at home in the 19th century. Women long ago won the right to be judged on the quality of their work, not whether they conform to some outdated standard of feminine attractiveness. These judges need to wake up and smell the coffee.”

The employer, Harrah’s Resorts, had implemented a new “Personal Best” policy that required it’s female employees to wear their hair "teased, curled or styled," and wear "foundation/concealer and/or face powder, as well as blush and mascara," nail polish, and lipstick.

Darlene Jespersen – an exemplary employee for two decades – was fired when she objected that the new standards "forced her to be feminine" and made her feel "dolled up" like a sex object.

The 2-1 decision rejected Jespersen’s suit, countering that she had not shown that feminine standards were significantly more burdensome than those imposed on men. The Court held that sex stereotyping rulings – such as the landmark Supreme Court case decision Hopkins v. Price Waterhouse – did not specifically address the issue of sex-differentiated grooming standards.

Male bartenders at Harrahs’ were only required to wear their hair above the collar and keep their nails clean and neatly trimmed.

Said the lone dissenting judge, "Sex-differentiated appearance standards stemming from stereotypes that women…fulfill a different role in the workplace…systematically impose a burden on women, converting such stereotypes into stubborn reality."

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) is the national advocacy organization working to end discrimination and violence caused by gender stereotypes.