Sex Discrimination in Specific Industries 

Some Workplaces Are Worse Than Others, And We Know Which Ones

Sex discrimination can happen anywhere, but certain industries seem to nurture it in ways that are harder to spot and even harder to challenge. The biases aren’t always about someone openly saying, “We don’t hire women for that role,” or “We only promote men into leadership.” Instead, it’s often about systems, traditions, and cultures that keep one gender in power and make it more difficult for others to break through.

At Horn Wright, LLP, our employment law attorneys have seen patterns emerge again and again. In some industries, we see the same roadblocks appear so consistently that they almost feel baked into the job description. Workers come to us thinking their struggles are personal failings, when in reality, the culture they’re in has been shaping careers this way for decades.

Knowing where these biases are most likely to crop up doesn’t just help you see the problem, it can help you build a stronger case. If an entire industry is known for the same discriminatory behaviors, your experience fits into a broader pattern that the law can address.

The Problem with Tech’s “Bro Culture”

The tech industry has a reputation for innovation, but its workplace culture often seems stuck in another era. “Bro culture” is more than just a buzzword, it describes a work environment that values aggressive competition, favors informal networking in male-dominated spaces, and downplays or dismisses concerns raised by women and nonbinary employees.

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2), employers are prohibited from making decisions based on sex, but discrimination in tech often hides in areas like project assignments or startup equity distribution. New York’s Executive Law § 296 adds protections by holding even smaller tech companies accountable, which matters because many startups fall below federal size thresholds.

Imagine a software engineer being consistently left out of high-profile coding projects because “the guys work better together.” Or a product manager being excluded from after-hours strategy sessions at the local bar where key decisions are made. These aren’t just social slights, they’re lost opportunities with measurable career consequences.

Gender Bias in Healthcare and Education

Healthcare and education may appear more balanced on the surface, but gender bias runs deep in both. In healthcare, women make up the majority of the workforce but are still underrepresented in top leadership positions. Men are often steered toward specialties that pay more, while women are concentrated in lower-paying departments or part-time schedules, supposedly to “accommodate” work-life balance.

New York Labor Law § 194 prohibits paying employees less for substantially similar work based on sex. Combined with federal protections, this law has been used to challenge pay disparities between male and female surgeons, professors, and administrators in New York institutions.

In education, discrimination may appear in who gets tenure-track positions, whose research is funded, or which teachers are chosen for leadership programs. A female faculty member may be praised for her teaching skills but quietly passed over for department chair in favor of a male colleague with less experience but “more presence.”

Documenting Industry-Specific Discrimination

In any discrimination case, evidence is king. But in industries with deeply rooted traditions, you need to show not just your personal story, but how it fits into a pattern the industry has been slow to change. That means looking beyond your own HR file.

Under New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) Article 31, you can request documents during litigation that reveal patterns across employees, pay scales, promotion rates, performance evaluations, and complaint histories. In tech, that might mean analyzing how often women are promoted to senior engineering roles. In healthcare, it could be comparing how male and female doctors are assigned operating room time or patient loads.

The goal is to paint a picture that makes it impossible for the employer to claim your situation is an isolated incident. Industry data can show the court that what happened to you is part of a much bigger story.

Vermont has fewer industry-specific legal protections than New York

Where you work matters, and not just in terms of the company. State law can shape your case from the start. Vermont’s laws protect workers from discrimination, but they don’t have the same breadth of industry-specific enforcement mechanisms you’ll find in New York.

In New York, the Division of Human Rights has authority to investigate discrimination complaints in both the public and private sectors, regardless of industry. That means a nurse in a private hospital or a software developer at a startup has access to the same robust state protections. Vermont’s enforcement system is more limited, and certain smaller employers may not be covered in the same way.

This difference can impact not just whether your claim is heard, but how much leverage you have in settlement discussions. Employers know the law too, and they calculate their risk based on the strength of the legal system in their state.

Strategies for Winning in Male-Dominated Fields

Winning a discrimination case in a male-dominated field often requires a mix of patience, precision, and persistence. First, you need to counter the idea that your experience was simply “how the industry works.” That’s where industry-specific data and examples come in.

Under 29 C.F.R. § 1604.3 (EEOC guidelines on sex-based discrimination), patterns of unequal treatment, even if they’re normalized within an industry, can still be unlawful. New York adds teeth to this with Executive Law § 296(1)(a), which makes it unlawful to discriminate “in compensation or in terms, conditions or privileges of employment.”

Your strategy may also involve finding allies, not just coworkers, but others in the field who’ve faced similar barriers. These voices can help establish that the bias is real, widespread, and harmful.

What to Do When Bias Is Built Into the Culture

When discrimination is tied to company culture, changing one policy won’t solve the problem. You might be dealing with a workplace where exclusionary behavior is rewarded, networking happens in closed circles, or leadership consistently undervalues certain employees’ contributions.

Start by keeping detailed notes of incidents that show the culture at work, who was included in important conversations, how assignments were handed out, what was said in meetings. If you see patterns, those notes can become powerful evidence.

If you’re still employed, you may be able to use internal complaint processes to put the company on notice. Even if that doesn’t fix the problem, it creates a record that can strengthen your legal position later.

Horn Wright, LLP, Understands Industry Culture and How to Fight It

The culture of your industry might feel impossible to change, but the law doesn’t give employers a pass just because “that’s how it’s always been done.” At Horn Wright, LLP, our employment law attorneys know how to take apart a culture of bias and show the real damage it causes to careers.

We’ve represented clients in tech startups, major hospitals, and universities, industries that operate very differently but share one troubling feature: they allow outdated ideas about gender to shape opportunity. With the right evidence and strategy, those patterns can be exposed and challenged.