IntroductionDiscrimination involves acting against individuals on the basis of their group membership; Baron and Byrne (1994) defined discrimination as prejudice in action. Discrimination can take a very obvious form (for example, refusing to hire women in certain jobs), but in many cases, gender discrimination involves the degree to which the workplace is open or resistant to women's participation. Although many discussions of gender discrimination have focused on how managers and supervisors treat men and women, gender discrimination could involve managers, coworkers, subordinates, customers, or clients. In general, gender discrimination includes behaviors that occur in the workplace that limit the target person's ability to enter, stay, succeed, or progress in a job and that are primarily the result of the target person's gender. There are two reasons why gender discrimination is a particularly important topic. First, the likely presence of systemic discrimination on the basis of gender suggests that the number of people who could be affected is enormous, i.e. that discrimination against women would put half the population at a disadvantage. Given the potential impact of gender discrimination, it is necessary to consider the possibility that gender has an important influence on people's working lives. Secondly, there is ample evidence that men and women are treated differently in the workplace. Women receive lower wages than men, are segregated into low-level jobs and are less likely to be promoted. It is sometimes difficult to determine exactly why men and women take on different jobs or receive different pay, and what appears to be gender discrimination in the workplace may actually reflect a much broader social situation. ..always justified. References Baron, R. A., & Byrne, D. (1994). Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction, 7th ed., 140-145. Chandler, P., & Waud, C. (2003). Waud Employment Law: The Practical Guide for Human Resource Managers, Employers, Employees and Union Officials Lawyers, 14th ed., 216-219Cleveland, J., Stockdale, M. & Murphy, K. (2009) Women and men in organizations : sex and gender issues at work, 159 -164. Crosby, F., Stockdale, M. & Ropp, A. (2007). Sex Discrimination in the Workplace: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 7-15 Daniels, K., & Macdonald, L. (2005). Equality, diversity and discrimination: a student text, 65-69. Gutek, B. (1992). Understanding Sexual Harassment at Work, 335.Heilman, M.E. (1994). Affirmative action: Some unintended consequences for working women. Organizational behavior research, 16, 125-169.