Wilson Vs Southwest Airlines Summary

In Wilson v. Southwest Airlines Company case, a male sued the airline after he was not hired as a flight attendant, because he was male. Southwest argued that allowing only females to be flight attendants was a BFOQ. The airline claimed that maintenance of its female-only hiring policy is crucial to be financially successful.

Bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) is legalized discrimination, and available only on rare occasions, when the employer is able to prove that the ground for choosing one group over another goes to the essence of what employer is in business to do. BFOQ test include two steps: (1) does the job require that the employee be of the one gender only, (2) is that requirement reasonably necessary to the “essence” of the employer business. In Southwest’s case, primary marketing
It really has nothing to do with the primary function of the business – safely transferring passengers. So, answering question one – no, flight attendant job is not require to be female only. There is no difference among who will check luggage, serve drinks or assist passengers during the flight. Southwest failed to prove that this particular job must be done by females only. Secondly, hiring females were convenient for Southwest, but not necessary. The company was pursuing a goal of making money, but BFOQ focuses on services provided, functions and job tasks, not business goal. Personally, I don’t think the standards for BFOQ are too strict; actually, I think it should be more of them. A lot of companies concentrate too much on their marketing, and forget about Title VII, which I think one of the major achievements of the