Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Company Inc. - College of Social ...

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opinion for Jespersen v. Harrah’s, “Even those of us who don’t wear makeup know how long it
can take from the hundreds of hours we’ve spent over the years frantically tapping our toes and
pointing to our wrists” (4). As for the psychological burden imposed by Harrah’s “Personal
Best” policy, the decision to wear makeup, “literally the face one presents to the world- is an
intensely personal choice” (4); Jespersen felt that being forced into altering her appearance with
cosmetics “would conflict with her self-image” (17) and that “submitting to the artificial ‘dolling
up’ made her feel so exposed, demeaned, and alienated that she could not do her job effectively”
(16). The EEOC guidelines regarding unlawful sex discrimination in accordance with Title VII
defined sexual harassment to include, “such conduct that has the purpose or effect of
unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating,
hostile or offensive working environment” (13). Yet the Circuit Court decided that Jespersen
lacked the evidence to support her claim of greater burden, they felt that both men and women
were subjected to “grooming” requirements, and stated that, “grooming standards that
appropriately differentiate between the genders are not facially discriminatory” (4).
2. “Because of Sex” Gender Stereotyping:
In the case of Nichols v. Azteca Restaurant Enterprises Inc. the Ninth Circuit stated that,
“sexual harassment is actionable under Title VII to the extent that it occurs ‘because of’ the
Plaintiffs sex” (5). Also in the case of Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins the Supreme Court held that,
“we are beyond the day when an employer could evaluate employees by assuming or insisting
that they matched the stereotype associated with their group, for in forbidding employers to
discriminate against individuals because of their sex, Congress intended to strike at the entire
spectrum of disparate treatment of men and women resulting from sex stereotypes’” (6). In the