Do you think it is sexist for a barber to refuse to cut a woman's hair?

They weren’t allowed to cut women’s hair? That’s kind of stupid. I don’t see any difference between men’s hair and women’s hair.
I wouldn’t exactly call it sexist, I’m not sure that that would be the right term, but I suppose you could say gender discrimating.
That’s kind of messed up, honestly. How can you not be qualified to cut women’s hair?

First of all, the barber shop, a private business, is within their right to refuse if the refusal is not based on sexual discrimination.

Second, if the barber is unqualified to cut women’s hair, he shouldn’t. This just makes sense.

Third, there may be a state law (driven by unions, probably) that requires two different certifications—and fees for those certifications—for cutting each gender’s hair.

Fourth, you don’t ever want to get shot. It hurts.

I thought barbers only cut beards.

If someone does not want to cut my hair for any reason at all, the last thing I think I’d want to do is try to make him do it. Does that make sense to you to make someone cut your hair? They’d give a bad haircut and you’d have no legal recourse then. We’ve all had bad haircuts. I’ve been to go to places where the cut was not necessarily bad but it took a lot of work to get it to look good. That’s from the stylist not really knowing what she’s doing. I don’t see the logic of forcing someone to cut my hair. .

“It is also specified that the insurance the business operates under is specifically for the cutting of men’s hair.”

If the law allows insurance to be based on the gender of the customer, then the law is the determining factor.
A business cannot be successfully sued for following the law.

No. There’s a difference between men and women, and if you decide your business will only serve men, it’s your business and you could apply any rules you like. Personally, I do like some gender-specific businesses.

No. How ridiculous. She may have thought she could just get away paying lkess at a Barber Shop than in a Salon. I’m glad her stupid, frivolous case was dismissed. Are men not allowed to have exclusive, male only clubs? Will she go to a Haberdasher and pitch a fit? Absolutely ridiculous premise. Dumb girl.

No. Men have barber shops, women have beauty shops, and the non-preferred unisex chain shops will probably shave yours legs if you ask.

I totally get the “insurance purposes” thing. In the majority (though I understand not all) cases, when a dude gets a bad haircut, he wears a hat for a few days until you can’t tell anymore. Some women (but of course not all), when they get a bad cut, will refuse to pay, and demand the shop pay for it to be fixed elsewhere. It can add up to a lot of money.

If the insurance company is willing to cover male haircuts only, and it is legal for them to do so, there is no issue here.

It sounds like sexual discrimination.

It’s a service establishment, not a private club, religious society, or group that falls under an acceptable division of sexes, like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc.

It’s one thing if the female customer had asked for a hair service that the barber shop staff wasn’t equipped or trained to do. In this case, the lady asked for an undercut, which is a style that men also request.

It doesn’t sound like a style I’d request.

@Pied_Pfeffer It’s not sexual discrimination.

Just because an establishment caters to one sex or the other, it isn’t sexual discrimination.

Get informed: http://www.beautyschoolsdirectory.com/blog/cosmetology/barber-school-vs-cosmetology-school-whats-the-difference/

No. This described action falls under the right of the business person to refuse service to anyone, for whatever reason. And I suppose certain barber licenses can be pretty specific on whose hair a certain barber might be allowed to cut.

In some states a “Barbers License” is for cutting only men’s (or boy’s) hair.

This happened in Ireland. There are no legal license requirements for barbers to practice.

I looked it up.

@Seek “All states require candidates for barber licenses to take and pass a state barber examination…..”
http://www.barber-license.com/

(Or were you talking about Ireland?)

There’s no need to look anything up. The precedent was cited in the Source provided in the OP:

“The company referred to a section of the Equal Status Act that states, “differences in the treatment of persons on the gender ground in relation to services of an aesthetic, cosmetic or similar nature, where the services require physical contact between the service provider and the recipient.””

Comment section below the article, first comment: ”seriously? This was an actual case? I’m pretty sure if she had gone into a dog groomers they wouldn’t have cut her hair either, would she have sued them?” Haha I love love love the comment section.

@disquisitive I understand that the barber shop is protected by the the law for turning down the customer. Does that make the current law right? After all, the woman just wanted a cut that any barber should be able to perform.

The barber shop acted exactly as they should, the woman acted like a dick, case closed

There might be some archaic, local laws that prevented the barber from cutting a woman’s hair. Or the barber may have thought that such laws existed.

For many years, a number of U.S. states and localities didn’t allow hairdressers, trained and licensed to treat and cut women’s hair, to have male clients. Men had to go to barbershops. The opposite was often true for barbers and female customers. That’s certainly changed, but there could be some places where the old rules continue.

Why would anyone want to force someone to cut his/her hair, especially if the person’s expressed a lack of skills or willingness? Is it really a good thing, in anyone’s mind, to get a bad haircut and look dreadful?

I think that the answer probably should have been, ” we only do traditionally male haircuts. If you would be happy with one of these cuts (shows pictures of cuts they do well) we would be happy to accommodate you. ”

@Pied_Pfeffer , the woman can argue the law in court if she “feels it is not right”. What an exercise in pointless conflict and confrontation. Put her money where her big flappin’ mouth is and try to get the law changed and THEN go try to impose her stupid will on the hapless barbers. You don’t get to go to a restaurant and order meatballs when they’re not on the menu and then whine about it, claiming that they should be able to make them, they have hamburger in there after all, and the cooks know how to make them. Then what, sue that she was discriminated against for being Italian? Jesus H Christ, what a fucking ridiculous waste of time and energy, and even more so for involving the courts on something so asinine. BOO! to the doofus lawyer who willingly represented her.

I find this discussion very interesting, because there are beauty salons and barbershops that cater to ethnic clients. A barber might specialize in cutting African American men’s hair, or a hairdresser may be an expert in treating and styling certain types of Latina hair (there are Dominican beauty shops all over NYC). Such people excel at what they do, but they might not be comfortable with my stick-straight European hair. Nobody objects to what these businesses do or accuses them of segregating.

Why do I get the feeling that if the barber had cut her hair and made a mess of it she would have sued him.

Not sexist.

Is much rather a barber or hair stylist say they aren’t confident or qualified then actually cut someone’s hair when they didn’t think they could do a good job.

Some hair stylist specialize in color, some cuts, some “black” hair, some sets, some styling for events.

They can specialize in whatever or whoever they want in my opinion.

But if a woman wanted a cut that they specialized in like a flat top or something there’s no reason I can see why they would deny her

^ Because the company’s insurance policy did not allow it.

This is discrimination in exactly the same way Hertz Rent-a-car wouldn’t allow me to drive a rental car on my honeymoon because I wasn’t 27 years old.

If she wanted a short back and sides, I can’t see any justification for a barber to refuse to cut her hair (outside of any legal or insurance restrictions). Hair is hair, and so long as everyone is clear about the haircut she will receive, to refuse seems ridiculous. If she wanted the barber to give her a women’s styled cut and blow-dry or something, that’s probably beyond their skill level.

@Earthbound_Misfit Read @Seek‘s answer above yours.

@lugerruger Umm there’s actually pretty significant differences in the way men’s and women’s hair should be cut. Women’s hair generally has a more softer finish to it. It’s likely that if they had of cut this young girls hair, she’d be complaining that there was no shape to it.