Table 2 Forms and types of sex or gender discrimination

Gender discrimination can be direct [[24]] and overt [[41]] or indirect [[24]]:

• Direct: intentional or explicit discrimination, in law or in practice (for example, job advertisement excluding women or men), arising when factors unrelated to merit, ability, or potential are used as an explicit reason for excluding or restricting participation of a person or group

• Overt: hostility or a ‘discriminatory animus’ toward women in the workforce

• Indirect: an apparently neutral situation, measure, law, criterion, policy, or practice that disproportionately and negatively affects persons from a particular group (for example, exclusion of domestic, informal, or home health workers from protective labour legislation)

Sex or gender discrimination can take multiple forms:

• Vertical and horizontal occupational gender segregation

• Wage discrimination

• Sexual harassment or unwanted or offensive conduct that creates an intimidating, hostile, or humiliating school or work environment

Sex or gender discrimination can be based on a variety of factors:

• Marital status or pregnancy

• Family (or ‘caregiver’) responsibilities

• Age

Disparate treatment or impact [[41]] amounts to ‘second-class citizenship’:

• Can occur at any phase of the employment relationship

• Consists of intentional or unintentional restrictions or exclusions that have bias or discrimination as their source

• Results in disadvantages in recruitment, hiring, compensation, promotion, or work conditions

Gender stereotyping [[41]] can be involved in all forms of gender discrimination:

• Expresses and reinforces women’s traditional - and inferior - role in the workforce

• Can affect occupational or employment decisions (for example, recruitment, hiring, promotion, termination)