So here's what happens. Someone treats you in an illegal and discriminatory manner. And you have to weigh up:
- what avenues you have and what it will cost to fight it
- how likely you are to win
- what the likely outcome is going to be (ie. will you actually get the job, the promotion, whatever, at the end of it)
- and whether you are going to be okay if you don't win.
There's one case in particular where the situation was very clear (they gave me their reasons in writing!), and my analysis of the above four points has me unwilling to take on a legal fight, even though the preliminary advice I have is that I would almost certainly win. I don't have a bank account deep enough for the fight.
And even if you fight it and win... what then?
The court "orders" your employer to give you that promotion / job?
You will be so loved on the workfloor!
You'll be that b*ch that got X fired or who got a promotion / job through court order.
All you will be gaining, is having to work in a toxic environment where managers / superiors with grudges will be luring for the first mistake you make, just so they can jump on it and get the satisfaction of firing you.
I'm an employer. I'm a nice guy and try to do right for my employees. However, I can honestly tell you that if I REALLY wanted to fire someone, it would take me less then a week to find (or rather:
invent) a valid legal reason to kick the person out on the spot without any obligations on my side to pay for anything at all. If I wanted to, I could even do it in such a manner that the person wouldn't even be eligable for unemployment welfare fees. It wouldn't even be that difficult. I know my employees well and I know their weaknesses. It would be childsplay to trap them into making a grave mistake that would warrant immediate firing. And I'ld be fully covered.
All that just to say: even going to court and winning, will not amount to anything beneficial for you. It would be no more then a symbolic win for the "woman in a man's world workforce". And unless that court case gets the right amount of momentum to really kick start a semi-revolution, like the whole #metoo thingy, it will be printed on page 25 of the newspaper once and then forgotten in the pages of history and nothing whatsoever will change.
At which point, you probably will have problems finding another job in the same sector, since now your name might be blacklisted as "
that woman that sues if she isn't given a promotion".
So you lose anyway. Even if you win.
So when I still worked in the corporate world, there was the guy in the next cubicle. We had the same job title, but I had broader responsibilities and I was much more highly qualified than he was (I had a degree where he'd finished high school). He was paid more than I was.
Again, it's illegal, but you have to be in a position for a potentially long and costly fight. Few of us are.
And here again, you may be sure that the lawyer team of the employer has an entire story ready. A story that will be either so complex that nobody will understand it (just for the benefit of confusion), or a story that will be so manipulative and "somehwat" correct, that you'll be looking like a money hungry fool.
Because how do you prove that someone else job is
exactly like yours?
Especially in larger corporations, and especially in the US, there is a reason why they have big budget legal departments. That's their job: to have a "legal" explanation ready for every document signed, including employee contracts.
Good luck fighting that department, comprised of an army of ivy league lawyers, with the community college lawyer that mere middle class mortals can afford, if they really scrape the pennies together
All that, just to say: I totally get what you mean.
Everybody knows it. Well.. most of us know it. It's a tough situation and you can't just go ahead and fight for a change. Not on your own anyway. This are the kinds of problems that only really change once there is a nation-wide, preferably world-wide, movement and / or raising awareness thing that happens.
I like the #metoo example as an analogy.
Personally I think the whole thing there was completely blown up out of proportion and it quickly turned into an over-the-top witch hunt where literally every movement of upper management males was suddenly suspect. So it went from one extreme to the other in a very short while. But that is what is necessary to really bring about change in such things. Now that the dust has settled somewhat around that thing, there no longer is such a witch-hunt.
But... the taboo has been broken in the process. Now, there is awareness about this issue.
Where no more then 5 years ago, most didn't even notice a manager flirting or unecessarily touching his secretary... today it's become very apparant. There is, more awareness. Among the collegues, among the secretaries, among the assistant managers, and, yes, among the superiors and managers themselves as well.
The world needs the equivalent of such a storm in context of gender equality. The problem... gender equality is a lot harder and obscurer then inapropriate sexual intimidation....