concluding that a publisher facilitates discrimination by placing employment advertisement in a sex-designated column
How later courts described this case
- concluding that a publisher facilitates discrimination by placing employment advertisement in a sex-designated column
- departing from federal statute where federal statute drew distinction between sex and race discrimination
- ‘‘we follow the usual rule in statutory interpretation that the difference between the state and federal acts was purposeful and is meaningful’’
- reaching same conclusion under state antidiscrimination statute
Written by the judges who cited it.
Later courts went against this
Disagreed with by Thibodeau v. Design Group One Architects, LLC, 260 Conn. 691 (2002)
We also disagree with the Appellate Court’s reliance on Evening Sentinel v. National Organization for Women, supra, 168 Conn. 26, in which we noted our legislature’s “firm commitment ... to do away with sex discrimination altogether.”21 Id., 34.
The opinion
MacDonald, J.
(dissenting). I cannot agree with the majority opinion in either its reasoning, result or inherent philosophy. I find no evidence whatsoever in the record to support the finding that the plaintiffs in any way aided and abetted any violation of the ulifair employment practices prohibited by the statute by making any independent judgment with respect to the placing of an advertisement under a particular heading nor, for that matter, can I find any evidence of specific discrimination against any individual which resulted from the method of advertising which is under attack.
At the calculated risk of being accused of male chauvinism, I must observe that I consider this particular controversy nothing more than a tempest in a teapot that raises such ridiculous overtones as to call for some equally ridiculous observations. I do not consider it discrimination, for example, but merely a convenience to job hunters, to place under a “Help Wanted Male” heading the advertisement of a carnival for a strong man, of the Pittsburgh Steelers for a linebacker, or of a dramatic producer for a Winston Churchill. I consider equally non-ob jectionable to a potential National Organization for Men the placing under a “Help Wanted Female” *40 caption the carnival’s ad for a bearded lady, a nightclub’s ad for a topless dancer or the ad of a dramatic producer for a Lady Godiva or Cleopatra. And I shudder to contemplate the implications that might follow the nonclassified placing of the “Lonely Heart” ads!
Connecticut recently pioneered in overwhelmingly electing a woman as its chief executive purely on the basis of her qualifications for the position, and I applaud that equality of opportunity based upon qualification. By the same token I could even understand the acceptance of a qualified woman in response to an ad for a scoutmaster or of a qualified man as a den mother. However, some jobs remain which call for sex differentiation, even in these days when such differentiation has become increasingly difficult for the casual observer to discern — and differentiation is not discrimination. Accordingly, I see no reason why the so-called BFOQ (bona fide occupational qualification) exceptions should not be listed under separate male and female headings as a matter of reader convenience.
Differences of color, race, religious creed, national origin or ancestry are, basically, only skin-deep, but the differences between man and woperson, fortunately for the continued propagation of the huperson race, go somewhat deeper. And as the French person in the Chamber of Deputies once ecstatically cried, “Vive la difference!”