Law Commons^™

The Case Of The Male Ob-Gyn: A Proposal For Expansion Of The Privacy Bfoq In The Healthcare Context, Emily Gold Waldman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The article proceeds in three main parts. First, it discusses the general case law surrounding customer preferences for a particular gender, looking at the enactment and development of the BFOQ defense, particularly in the context of customer preferences. It argues that the courts' general rejection of the customer preference rationale for BFOQs was entirely appropriate, given that these preferences typically reflected malignant gender biases--most often, chauvinistic attitudes that result in female subordination. Second, the article examines the rise of the privacy BFOQ. It argues that the courts were correct in recognizing the privacy BFOQ, given the qualitatively different nature of …