False Rumor About Sex for Promotion Could Be Sexual Harassment

A Virginia woman may be able to prove sexual harassment based on a workplace rumor that she was sleeping with her boss to get ahead, the Fourth Circuit ruled Feb. 8.

Evangeline Parker’s lawsuit against Reema Consulting Services Inc. “plausibly invokes a deeply rooted perception” that women uniquely face, and “one that unfortunately still persists,” the court said. Women, but not men, are stereotyped as using sex to achieve workplace success, it said.

That double standard means that the rumor a jealous co-worker started about Parker wasn’t just about her “conduct,” as a lower court found, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer ...