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If the Supreme Court upholds those rulings, Hopkins will be entitled to a new hearing to determine what compensation she is owed, and employers in general will have to work harder to defend themselves against discrimination claims. That change could be especially important in cases involving higher job levels like partnerships or executive slots, where promotions are often decided upon by groups of executives, whose motives can be hard for plaintiffs to separate and pin down.
| Hopkins' suit dramatizes the dilemma faced by many professional women who attempt to walk the narrow line between appearing serious and seeming overly severe. "Men in fields that have long been dominated by males tend to expect women to act both feminine and businesslike," says Herma Hill Kay, a sex- discrimination expert at the University of California, Berkeley. "I think they don't realize they're sending out conflicting messages."
Ironically, the Hopkins case has arrived at the high court at around the same time a related but different dispute may be heading toward a courtroom in Florida. Until recently, Brenda Taylor was an assistant state attorney in Broward County, Fla. But earlier this year she was reprimanded by her boss, John Countryman, because of the clothes she favored for court appearances. Taylor, 25, has a penchant for short skirts, designer blouses, ornate jewelry and spike heels with colored hosiery. She says she has a flair for fashion. Countryman told her she looked like a "bimbo." In September, after Taylor complained to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was fired. Though told that the dismissal reflected her poor job performance, she insists it was discrimination: "This is something that should not happen to anybody in this day and age."
In general, the law permits offices to establish dress codes, so long as they impose equivalent restrictions upon both sexes. Taylor's office has such a code, which mandates conservative dress for all. Though her fashion judgment may be subject to question, her complaint illustrates how the right image for working women is still unsettled. "Almost anything you wear runs the risk of looking like you're trying to appear just like a man, or too feminine," says University of Miami law school professor Mary Coombs. Still, common sense would seem to rule out some costumes. Says dean Roger Abrams of the Nova University Center for the Study of Law in Fort Lauderdale: "I think neither a man nor a woman can be outright sexy and be an attorney." Wait until they hear that over at L.A. Law.