Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women's Lives at Work

Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women's Lives at Work

by Gillian Thomas
Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women's Lives at Work

Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women's Lives at Work

by Gillian Thomas

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Overview

“Meticulously researched and rewarding to read…Thomas is a gifted storyteller.” —The New York Times Book Review

Best known as a monumental achievement of the civil rights movement, the 1964 Civil Rights Act also revolutionized the lives of America’s working women. Title VII of the law made it illegal to discriminate “because of sex.” But that simple phrase didn’t mean much until ordinary women began using the law to get justice on the job—and some took their fights all the way to the Supreme Court. Among them were Ida Phillips, denied an assembly line job because she had a preschool-age child; Kim Rawlinson, who fought to become a prison guard—a “man’s job”; Mechelle Vinson, who brought a lawsuit for sexual abuse before “sexual harassment” even had a name; Ann Hopkins, denied partnership at a Big Eight accounting firm because the men in charge thought she needed "a course at charm school”; and most recently, Peggy Young, UPS truck driver, forced to take an unpaid leave while pregnant because she asked for a temporary reprieve from heavy lifting.

These unsung heroines’ victories, and those of the other women profiled in Gillian Thomas' Because of Sex, dismantled a “Mad Men” world where women could only hope to play supporting roles; where sexual harassment was “just the way things are”; and where pregnancy meant getting a pink slip.

Through first-person accounts and vivid narrative, Because of Sex tells the story of how one law, our highest court, and a few tenacious women changed the American workplace forever.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781137280053
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date: 03/08/2016
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

GILLIAN THOMAS is a Senior Staff Attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Women’s Rights Project. She previously litigated sex discrimination cases at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund). Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and Slate, and she has been interviewed by NPR and The Wall Street Journal, among others. She lives in Brooklyn.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Women and Children Last: Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation (1971) 7

2 Breaking Through the Thin Blue Line: Dothard v. Rawlinson (1977) 32

3 Live Long(er) and Prosper: City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power v. Manhart (1978) 60

4 A Hostile Environment: Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson (1986) 81

5 "A Floor, Not a Ceiling": California Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Guerra (1987) 106

6 Making "Lady Partner": Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (1989) 127

7 Potentially Pregnant: International Union, United Auto Workers of America v. Johnson Controls, Inc. (1991) 148

8 Taking It All the Way to "Sandra Fucking Day O'Connor": Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc. (1993) 169

9 Don't Shoot the Messenger: Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Company v. White (2006) 187

10 "Everyone Deserves a Safe Delivery": Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc. (2015) 206

Epilogue 229

Notes 247

Index 281

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