This program will explore an open question in employment discrimination jurisprudence – What is the scope of an employer’s ability to regulate appearance in the workplace? In partnership with the Sections on Islamic Law, Minority Groups and Women in Legal Education, the program will engage more broadly the concept of diversity and inclusion in modern employment settings and ask – What does leadership look like in the 21st century?
Case law which spans 35 years addressing employer dress and grooming standards, on the one hand, and physical appearance including bodily and facial characteristics of individuals, on the other, reflects the judiciary’s continuous struggle to balance employers’ business judgment and the identity and dignitary interests of workers. Through perspectives on a range of developments including enforcement litigation by the EEOC and notable anniversaries of seminal cases, the panelists will examine the impact of appearance norms on workplace dynamics and notions of belonging, as well as the evolution of interpretive frameworks in anti-discrimination law based on gender, race, color, national origin, religion, as well as the cultural and social contingency of “looks” generally.
This program offers an opportunity to reflect on appearance norms, the substantive contours of the anti-discrimination law, and significantly, the impact of these developments on workplace opportunities for women, people of color, and others whose physical appearance, features or related characteristics raise important questions about employer selection procedures and policies, actual job capacity, and diversity and inclusion in the contemporary workplace. Anti-discrimination scholarship reflects a range of interventions over the years from scholars’ efforts to contextualize the various identity categories and the meaning of employment discrimination. This program includes some of the notable and most impactful voices on the issue.
Program papers will be published in the SMU Law Review.
The Section held a virtual business meeting in advance of the Annual Meeting.