Labor & Employment
Academic Booted From School Soccer Team Sues for Discrimination
Posted Jan 15, 2008, 10:38 am CST
By Martha Neil
An Oxford University don has sued the renowned British institution for employment discrimination, contending that she was excluded from a staff soccer team that is considered a department of the university because she has children.
An economics lecturer at the university's Balliol College, 40-year-old Cecile Deer is also an expert on European employment practices, reports the London Times. She says the team falsely contended that she was unreliable and benched her while putting weaker players on the field, because Deer is a mother of three young children.
Deer argues that preferring women without children is a form of sex discrimination. The university says that no such preference was shown by the soccer team. The newspaper article refers to the team as a "football" team because that is how soccer is described in Europe.