Teresa Harris V. Forklift Systems, Inc.

Teresa Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc.United States Supreme Court 510 U.S. 17 (1994)Plaintiff Harris was a manager for Defendant Forklift Systems, Inc. During her tenure at Forklift Systems,Plaintiff Harris was repeatedly insulted by defendant’s president and, because of her gender, subjectedto sexual innuendos. Numerous times, in front of others, the president told Harris, “You’re just awoman, what do you know?” He sometimes asked Harris and other female employees to remove coinsfrom his pockets and made suggestive comments about their clothes. He suggested to Harris in front ofothers that they negotiate her salary at the Holiday Inn. When Harris complained, he said he would stop,but he did not; so she quit and filed an action against the defendant for creating an abusive workenvironment based on her sex.The district court found in favor of the defendant, holding that some of the comments were offensive tothe reasonable woman but were not so serious as to severely affect Harris’s psychological well-being orto interfere with her work performance. The court of appeals affirmed. Plaintiff Harris appealed to theU.S. Supreme Court.Justice O’ConnorIn this case we consider the definition of a discriminatorily “abusive work environment” (a “hostile workenvironment”) under Title VII.Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it “an unlawful employment practice for an employer… todiscriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges ofemployment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”… [T]his language“is not limited to ‘economic’ or ‘tangible’ discrimination. The phrase ‘terms, conditions, or privileges ofemployment’ evinces a congressional intent ‘to strike at the entire spectrum of disparate treatment ofmen and women’ in employment,” which includes requiring people to work in a discriminatorily hostileor abusive environment. When the workplace is permeated with “discriminatory intimidation, ridicule,and insult,” that is “sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employmentand create an abusive working environment.”

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