The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Beyond Race to Employment Discrimination Based on Sex: The “Three Letter Word” That Has Continued to Vex Society and The United States Supreme Court

This article is a comprehensive review of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, more specifically, Title VII, which outlawed discrimination based upon, “race, color, creed, national origin, and sex.” The article traces the legislative genesis of the Act, the function of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and discusses some of the major cases decided by the United States Supreme Court and other federal courts that have defined both the reaches and limits of the legislation which initially focused on prohibiting discrimination based on “race.” The article then focuses on discrimination based on “sex” and highlights the role the United States Supreme Court has played in fleshing out the parameters of employment discrimination from the 1960s through the historic decision reached by the Court in June of 2020 in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, relating to sexual orientation, transgender status, and sex stereotyping.