Gender and Sex Discrimination

You have a right to succeed in the workplace based on your own hard work and individual talents. If you've been treated unfairly at work because of your gender or sex, you may have a discrimination claim.

At Zalkind, we have devoted our careers to fighting workplace discrimination, and have a long history of success representing individuals and groups who suffered under unfair employment practices. Our Massachusetts employment discrimination lawyers represent employees – both men and women – who have been subjected to sex and gender discrimination in their workplaces.

Gender and sex discrimination takes many forms, from intentionally discriminatory treatment to allowing practices that have negative impacts based on sex or gender, such as:

• Decisions regarding hiring, promotion, salary, benefits, work responsibilities, or any other action that affects the terms and conditions of employment that disadvantage certain people because of their sex or gender.
• Sexual harassment in the workplace, including verbal harassment, sexual or sexist jokes, unwanted touching, or sexual assault.
• Employers discounting women’s suitability for traditionally male-dominated jobs, such as construction, science, and finance.
• Actions and comments that unfairly criticize or single out individuals on the basis of their sex or gender identity.
• Differences in pay for the same work, based on the employee’s gender.
• Retaliation against employees who complain of discrimination, which may give employees further legal claims under state or federal law.

Any of these adverse actions by employers may constitute illegal gender discrimination.

Some of our most hard-fought cases involve claims of gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Employers often minimize or attempt to conceal the misconduct to protect the bad actors or their own reputations, and they tend to fight these types of claims to avoid public scrutiny or backlash. Our Boston gender discrimination lawyers have handled many cases involving serious claims of gender and sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexually hostile work environments. Our record of success includes:

• Won a $7.6 million jury verdict involving race and gender discrimination and retaliation claims against the MBTA.
• Won a $2.2 million jury verdict on behalf of a female police officer in a gender discrimination and retaliation case against a police union.
• Settled many cases involving claims of sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, equal pay, and gender discrimination in a variety of sectors, including banking and finance, higher education, law, municipal and state government, technology, and healthcare.

If you believe you have been discriminated against due to your gender, please contact us at 617-742-6020 or complete our contact form to get in touch with us.