Opinion ID: 3033618
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Qualitative comparison of treatment

Text: [6] We have previously held that it is error to conclude that harassing conduct is not because of sex merely because the abuser “consistently abused men and women alike.” Steiner v. Showboat Operating Co., 25 F.3d 1459, 1463 (9th Cir. 1994). In that case, the sex- or gender-specific character of the abuse directed at female employees was fairly obvious, and summary judgment was clearly inappropriate. Id. (“The numerous depositions of Showboat employees reveal that Trenkle was indeed abusive to men, but that his abuse of women was different. It relied on sexual epithets, offensive, explicit references to women’s bodies and sexual conduct.”). We went on 12112 CHRISTOPHER v. NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOC. to state that even if the supervisor had “used sexual epithets equal in intensity and in an equally degrading manner against male employees, he cannot thereby ‘cure’ his conduct toward women. Ellison unequivocally directs us to consider what is offensive and hostile to a reasonable woman.” Id. at 1464. [7] We acknowledge that our invocation of the “reasonable woman” standard, which renders sex-specific differences in the subjective effects of objectively identical behavior sufficient to ground a claim of discrimination, was rooted in the context of explicitly sex- or gender-specific conduct or speech. We now hold that evidence of differences in subjective effects (along with, of course, evidence of differences in objective quality and quantity) is relevant to determining whether or not men and women were treated differently, even where the conduct is not facially sex- or gender-specific. [8] The record reveals at least a debatable question as to the objective differences in treatment of male and female employees, and strongly suggests that differences in subjective effects were very different for men and women. One male UniServ Director (the same position held by Christopher), apparently had a very different experience with Harvey than Christopher did. Mark Jones stated that Harvey raised his voice to him only on a “couple of occasions” and that they were “able to talk it out — I mean the period of raising the voice was very short” and that “[s]ince then I have not experienced any of that.” Moreover, Christopher also testified that the character of Harvey’s aggressiveness with male employees was different from that experienced by female employees: it had the quality of “bantering back and forth with somebody, and being with the boys . . . at the end of the day, I would go in and he and Bob and Rich and Jeff are all laughing in Tom’s office, talking, talking, talking, laughing, laughing.” Similarly, Bhend stated that Harvey “shar[ed] a ‘we’re all guys here’ relationship with male employees.” However, Cloutier testified to an incident with Harvey that “scared the hell out of” him, during which, at one point, HarCHRISTOPHER v. NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOC. 12113 vey “instantly [ ] was three inches from my nose — chin, he’s a fairly short guy . . . And I don’t even remember what he was saying — very loud, spitting in my face, accusing me of being insubordinate.” This is the only incident described in the record that seems to be comparable in magnitude with the multiple incidents involving female employees described by the plaintiffs. Moreover, there is no evidence in the record that any male employee manifested anywhere near the same severity of reactions (e.g., crying, feeling panicked and physically threatened, avoiding contact with Harvey, avoiding submitting overtime hours for fear of angering Harvey, calling the police, and ultimately resigning) to Harvey’s conduct as many of the female employees have reported. A few instances of hostile behavior toward male employees — which the record suggests may have had a qualitatively different, “bantering” character — do not erase the possibility that a reasonable jury might find that the pattern of abuse directed at female employees was discriminatory.