Legal Question in Business Law in Pennsylvania

discrimination and independent contractors
I'm a female brand new (2 months ago) sole proprietor doing seminars on sexuality and relationships and also doing in- home erotic toy parties. I'm interested in bringing on some independent contractors to present the sexual products to females in their home. I had a male interested and now I'm faced with a problem. Due to the nature of the business it'd prefer having only women contractors. I know customers would be uncomfortable with a man they don't know coming into their home for this purpose and I don't have the resources to do background checks to make sure potential contractors aren't sex offenders.

The question is, since I'm not employing them and they're independent contractors, can I specifically not contract someone because and only because they are male or could this be considered sex discrimination? I know there are dozens of similar companies (passion parties, slumber parties, pleasure parties, etc) and I believe they have a no-male policy as well. Thanks for the advice!

Asked on 10/03/07, 3:58 pm

Roger Traversa Arjont Group (Law Office of Roger Traversa)

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Re: discrimination and independent contractors

You asked about how to go about discriminating in employment based on gender.

There are safe ways to do this but you must have an attorney design your internal policies to deal with this topic.

Your idea about being able to discriminate due to the fact that the agents will be contractors is actually wrongheaded.

I'd be happy to discuss this issue further when you are ready to proceed. I have ideas on how to make the idea workable.

Regards,

Roger

Answered on 10/04/07, 1:24 am

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