Is This Job Advert Not Illegal under the SDA (Sex Discrimination Act)?
You are indeed correct. There are only very few jobs in which the employer is allowed to specify that they wish to hire a person of a particular gender. Acting jobs are one, where obviously believeability of the character depends on the gender of the actor playing the role. Jobs such as being a caregiver, or working with troubled/disadvantaged people, are others, if it is believed that it is in the best interests or the person being cared for/helped to have someone of a particular gender in the role. Interestingly, I have only ever seen one advert for a job such as this, which was advertising specifically for a female as the job was working with female rape victims, and the advert included a clause which said something like “this job is exempt from the Sexual Discrimination Act” or something like that. I’m curious to know why they have posted this ad, when it’s only going to cause them problems, when they could have *not* used the word “female” but still hired a female anyway if they’d
