In 2003, Courtney Price, an employee of the New York Rangers organization of the NHL sued the Rangers and their parent organization, Madison Square Garden, after she was fired for warning a fellow employee that a public relations executive within the organization had solicited her for sexual favors. In that case, the employer could have avoided liability by following up on the matter as soon as it came to light and disciplining the executive (Sandomir, 20071).
Instead, when the organization learned that the plaintiff had warned her coworkers to stay away from the executive in question and that her warning included repeating the prurient desires expressed to by that individual at a party hosted by the team, the organization fired her, allegedly for her discussions of an inappropriately sexual nature for repeating those comments. Rather than investigating the actual conduct that constituted overt quid pro quo sexual harassment, the Rangers management interviewed all of Price's coworkers (all fellow Rangers City Dancers) about her complaints in connection with which they coerced signed statements against Price (Sandomir, 20072).
A more recent and highly publicized case, also against Madison Square Garden, illustrated the third form of sexual discrimination without any claims predicated on quid pro quo.
Wrongful Termination:
The concept of wrongful termination refers to the firing of an employee based on gender, or in retaliation for filing complaints of sexual harassment or discrimination (Halbert & Ingulli, 2008). In 2007, a $11.6 million verdict was awarded to Anucha Brown-Sanders, a former New York Knicks executive against that organization of the NBA arising from her claims that General Manager Isaiah Thomas had degraded and insulted her because of her gender for a three-year period beginning when he was hired in 2003.
The Knicks' (and Rangers') parent organization, Madison Square Garden, was found liable, separately from Thomas, specifically for failing to respond appropriately after Brown-Sanders had filed formal complaints arising from Thomas' conduct and for firing her shortly thereafter instead (Crouse, 2007). The Anucha Brown Sanders case presented both sexual discrimination...
Generally, women rarely worked outside the home in great numbers until the war effort employed thousands of American women for the first time, out of necessity, to fulfill necessary functions while all able-bodied adult males served in the military between December 1941 and May 1945. In many respects, that triggered the single most fundamental change in the composition of the American workforce in history other than the Civil War and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1865.
For decades thereafter, women suffered many forms of rampant discrimination, including sexual harassment until the changes associated with the Civil Rights Era and the subsequent evolution of legislative and judicial recognition of specific components of liability for sexual discrimination. In retrospect, the shift toward a two-gender workforce has resulted in numerous social changes both in and out of the workplace environment.
Among them, recognition of sexual discrimination and harassment issues constitutes one of the most comprehensive and beneficial influences on American social culture.
References
Crouse, K. (2007). Browne Sanders Is an Inspiration After Winning a Lawsuit. The New York Times; November 4, 2007. Dershowitz, a. (2002). Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age. New York: Little Brown & Co.
Finn, R. (2007). A Warrior in the Sexual Harassment Battle. The New York Times; October 26, 2007.
Friedman, L.M. (2005). A History of American Law. New York: Touchstone.
Halbert, T., Ingulli, E. (2008) Law & Ethics in the Business Environment. Cincinnati, OH: West Legal Studies.
Sandomir, R. (20071). Jury Finds Knicks and Coach Harassed a Former Executive. The New York Times; October 3, 2007.
Sandomir, R. (20072). Madison…
