United Airlines discriminated against female flight attendants from 1989 to 1994 by requiring them to stay thinner than their male counterparts, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled. Some female attendants lost pay when they were suspended or dismissed for being overweight. Others may have suffered emotionally and physically as they struggled to stay within the stricter weight standards imposed on women. Of the 16,000 flight attendants who worked for United in those years, an unknown number will be entitled to seek damages under the Court's ruling.
United had "maximum weight requirements" for both male and female flight attendants. These requirements were adjusted for sex, height and age. However, United used stricter standards for women than for men. The standards for women limited them to a maximum weight that corresponded to "medium female body frames." In contrast, the standards for men were based on "large male body frames." The Ninth Circuit found that the different "medium" and "large" body frame standards applied by United imposed "unequal burdens" on women. The standards were thus "facially discriminatory" in violation of Title VII. Accordingly, the Ninth Circuit reversed the decision of the judge below and granted summary judgment in favor of the class of female flight attendants.
The Court acknowledged that not all sex-differentiated appearance standards are discriminatory. Standards for men and women may be "different," but they must impose "essentially equal burdens on men and women." If the burdens on men and women are unequal, the standards are "facially discriminatory." Such discriminatory standards can only be justified if they can be shown to be a "bona fide occupational qualification." United, however, could not show that stricter weight standards were a bona fide occupational qualification for female attendants.
The lesson of the United case is that while employers can impose some standards that are specific to men or women, those standards must be functionally equivalent and may not impose heavier burdens on one gender than on the other.