The title of this post is from an allegation made against a supervisor by an employee in a new federal court decision.  The case, otherwise rather ordinary, is noteworthy to us simply because, given the facts alleged in the complaint, the Defendant actually believed that it would succeed in moving to dismiss Plaintiff’s Title VII sex discrimination claim.

A fired former City attorney sued the City of Evanston, Illinois, claiming, among other things, sex discrimination.  Although her complaint was chock-a-block full of allegations of sexist comments, the City nonetheless made a motion to dismiss.

Plaintiff alleged that she has always received excellent performance evaluations and was never disciplined; that she received a lower salary than similarly situated male employees; that she was denied her vacation time and after filing a complaint with the state Department of Labor was fired – and then was told that it was because of “ongoing performance issues” and because she filed the complaint.

The kicker was her direct evidence of discriminatory animus:  “She was also told by her superiors that she was “not that pretty,” and one superior told [her] that the previous attorneys he had hired were “smart . . . good-looking . . . just gorgeous . . . [and wore] tight sweaters . . . short skirts . . . .”    She also alleged that she “was accused of having a sexual relationship with a male colleague by one of her superiors,” that she and other female attorneys were told by a superior that “it’s been all downhill since women got the vote,” and that these women employees “were also instructed to get rid of magazines about female attorneys.”

The Court, unsurprisingly, found that her complaint was adequately pled, and denied the City’s motion.