Question

Carla McFarland was an associate professor of English literature at Highland College. She was the only single person in her department. Consequently, she was frequently assigned classes late in the evening, on weekends, and during the summer semester. She was also called upon to pick up visiting professors and serve as their escort and guide during their stays at the college. She received extra duty as adviser to the The Highland Review, the college’s literary magazine. When McFarland complained about the unequal treatment, she was told that the married professors had family responsibilities that she did not have, which took up much of their time and prevented them from having the flexibility that she had. Thus, she would continue to carry the extra load. McFarland filed a complaint with the EEOC.

Required:
Can discrimination based on an employee’s status as a single person be considered unlawful under the Civil Rights Act? Explain. Is this a case of disparate impact or disparate treatment? Explain.

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

The case shown above is an example of discrimination by civil status, however it is not an example of violation of the civil rights law, as it is not prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, some states have their own legislation that prevents this type of discrimination, which makes it a violation of state laws, which can lead the offender to be severely punished.

This is an example of case of disparate treatment, as we can see that there is discriminatory treatment with an employee, where she is treated differently compared to other employees because of a characteristic of her personal life.

This would be a case of disparate impact if there were a group of protected and privileged employees at the expense of the exploitation of other employees.