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Gender - Legislation
Gender or sex discrimination is covered by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA) as amended by the Sex Discrimination Act (Amendment) Regulations 2003. Download a guide to the Act (133 KB)
It's unlawful for an employer to treat someone differently from others because of their sex, because they are married, or if they've had, are having or are going to have gender reassignment.
What is sex discrimination?
Equal opportunities laws aim to create a 'level playing field' so that people are employed, paid, trained and promoted only because of their skills, abilities and how they do their job.
Under the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against anyone because of their sex or because they are married. It's also unlawful to discriminate against anyone because they've had, are having or intend to have, gender reassignment. This means someone, supervised by a doctor, who changes their gender.
The discrimination can be 'direct' or 'indirect', deliberate or accidental. If someone is disadvantaged at work because of their sex, marital status or gender, it is unlawful, and the employer should stop the discrimination.
Sex discrimination laws cover almost all workers (men and women) and all types of organisation in the UK.
Equal pay
The 1970 Equal Pay Act makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate between men and women in terms of their pay and conditions where they are doing the same or similar work; work rated as equivalent in a job evaluation study by the employer; or work of equal value.
Different kinds of sex discrimination
Sex discrimination at work is unlawful in all parts of employment. The law covers recruitment, terms and conditions, pay and benefits, status, training, promotion and transfer opportunities, right through to redundancy and dismissal.
However, in some cases, a job can be offered to someone of a particular sex, because of what is called a 'genuine occupational qualification'. Examples could include:
- some jobs in single-sex schools
- jobs in some welfare services
- acting jobs that need a man or a woman
Different types of discrimination
There are four types of discrimination:
- direct discrimination - treating someone differently because of their sex, because they are married or because of their gender reassignment (eg paying men more than women for doing the same job, promoting someone because they are single instead of an equally qualified person, or sacking a woman because she says she is pregnant or might start a family.
- indirect discrimination - putting someone at a disadvantage because of certain working practices or rules (eg setting a minimum height, which might discriminate against most women, or an employer's refusal to recruit part-time workers without good reason)
- harassment - behaving in an offensive manner, or encouraging or allowing other people to do so (for example, making sexual remarks or gestures, allowing displays or distribution of sexually explicit material, or giving someone a potentially offensive nickname because of their gender)
- victimisation - treating someone unfairly for making a complaint about discrimination (for example, preventing someone from going on training courses, taking unfair disciplinary action against them, or excluding them from company social events)
Crucially employers who don't stop sex and gender discrimination by their employees may themselves be discriminating unlawfully.
Download a guide to the Act (133 KB)
