Allegedly condescending use of “she” in reference to plaintiff held sufficient to support triable claim of gender discrimination

Discrimination and harassment claims are often supported by a constellation of evidence designed to show that the employer’s proffered legitimate business reason for discipline or discharge was in fact a pretext for discrimination. In this case, the First Circuit held a supervisor’s use of “she” in a condescending tone to refer to the plaintiff was, along with other evidence, sufficient to warrant a trial, because a “speaker’s meaning may depend on various factors including context, inflection, tone of voice.”

Here, a meeting attendee, SFAM Ouellette, stated in an affidavit that Johnson “made frequent references to the way `she’ was doing things. He emphasized the word `she.'” SFAM Ouellette opined that he “felt it was a condescending way to speak about her and picked up on [Johnson’s] disdain for her and for [Ouellette] when [he] defended her.” SFAM Ouellette’s observations about Johnson’s tone are based on his perception as a seasoned manager on what he had just observed, not mere speculation.

The case was Burns v. Johnson, 829 F.3d 1 (1^st Cir. 7/11/16).