Former MetLife Executive’s Case Over Sexist Duties Splits Court

A federal appeals court appeared divided over reviving a former MetLife Group Inc. executive’s sex discrimination case alleging she was required to perform stereotypically feminine administrative tasks because she’s a woman.

During oral argument Thursday at the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Chief Judge William Pryor suggested the assignments Marybeth Lukie attributed to gender bias were infrequently doled out and were professional rather than administrative. Lukie also didn’t complain about being assigned feminized work at the time, he said.

“What she was saying was: ‘this is in addition to my other work and its an unfair distribution, ...