Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Florida

Reasonable Standard

I ws watching a show the other day that mentioned a ''reasoanble woman standard.'' But when researching this phrase in the law library, I do not find much reference to this. I think that this phrase means and the supreme court as well, states that if a woman has the slight sense of uncomfortable feelings from a co-worker, it is the employers job to make sure that any ''reasonable woman'' request would be adhered too. Please advise.

Thanks


Asked on 3/05/03, 12:18 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Anthony DeWitt Bartimus, Frickleton Robertson & Gorny, PC

Re: Reasonable Standard

The "reasonable person" standard in essence judges behavior by what a reasonable person would think of the behavior under the same or similar circumstances. In other words, if a male co-worker were to say to a female co-worker "my, you are looking very good today," a reasonable woman would most likely interpret this as a complement (depending, of course, on context, facial expression, time of day, place of occurrence, etc.). On the other hand, if the same co-worker were to say "My, you are looking very SEXY today," a reasonable woman might take offense (again, depending on factors too numerous to describe here).

In essence whether a behavior is inappropropriate or not boils down to how a reasonable person would react to it under the same or similar conditions. The law does not protect the feelings of unreasonable people. For example, if a woman was unreasonably self-conscious, and was offended by an innocent statement that her new dress looked nice, in the absence of a history of sexually inappropriate or offensive comments, that statement, standing alone and judged by a reasonable person standard would not be inappropriate.

I hope this helps.

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Answered on 3/05/03, 8:56 am


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