bona fide occupational qualification


bona fide occupational qualification

A factor used to determine whether a person can be employed1 in an position based on a parameter (e.g., the person’s sex) that might otherwise be viewed as discriminatory—e.g., the hiring by an airline of a female for the position of flight attendant is not acceptable either because the company assumes that females are more caring and effective in soothing passengers, or because the airline wishes to project a more “attractive” image, whereas on the other hand, a person’s sex can be viewed as a BFOQ in some certain situations, such as hiring male guards over female guards in an understaffed high-security male prison which has a high number of sex offenders.