Description of Gender Description

What is gender discrimination?

Gender discrimination is sexism or prejudice based on someone’s sex or gender, and it can happen to anyone, anywhere. But when it happens in the workplace? It’s illegal.

Still, despite there being laws in place to protect employees and job applicants, gender discrimination occurs fairly often. According to the Pew Research Center,  42 percent of working women in the U.S. have faced gender discrimination while on the job.

Yes, you read that right. It’s likely that half the women in your office have experienced some sort of discrimination based on their gender over the course of their career—when they applied for a job, when they were passed over for a promotion, during the interview, when they received their job assignments. They might have even been fired because of it.

Clearly, there’s a larger cultural problem afoot here, but it’s important to know that:

1) You have rights

2) You’re not crazy if you think you’re being discriminated against

3) You’re not alone

Here’s everything you need to know—from legality to office allies—about gender discrimination in the workplace.