A Woman Says She Was Denied Service at a Hair Salon Because of Her Gender
A woman in Australia was reportedly turned away from getting her hair cut at a barbershop...because she's a woman.
Vivien Houston told Australian newspaper ABC that she couldn't get her hair cut at Jimmy Rod's Barber Shop in Queensland, an establishment she'd frequented for two years, solely because of her gender.
At first, she thought she was being sent away because the line was too long, but she alleges the management told her explicitly that it was because she was a woman. "She said 'No, we signed a lease with center management that says we're not able to cut women's hair,' and the reason for that is that they don't want Jimmy Rod's Barber Shop to cause competing business for the hair dressing salons in the center," Vivien told the publication.
"I thought [the barber] was kidding," she added about being refused service. She added that the staff at Jimmy Rod's suggested that she get her hair cut at one of the other hair salons in the shopping center, but she didn't want to. "I want to use a barber shop, because that's the style of haircut I have," she explained.
After the incident, Vivien filed a complaint with Queensland's Anti-Discrimination Commission, which by law prevents companies from discriminating against anyone based on sex, gender identity, sexuality, religion, and other attributes."If we allow people to apply discrimination, even in the most smallest sense such as getting your haircut, we essentially breed more discrimination," she told ABC.
James O'Brien, the salon's managing director, confirmed that women were not allowed to have haircuts at the shop, but says that it's an issue of real estate rather than discrimination: "We are exclusively only to cut men's hair due to three other hairdressers being in the centre, and if we do cut women's hair there, we will be breached and it could cause our lease to get cancelled," he told ABC. "Unfortunately I can't negotiate. That's the centre's rules. In all our other stores — we have 13 shops — we cut women's hair."
He notes that Vivien could have gone to any of Jimmy Rod's other 13 locations to receive service, but that this particular shop wasn't able to take her on as a client. "I'm going to be called a sexist in one way or I'll get a breach on my lease the other way. So my hands are quite tied at the moment," he said.
Related:How to Fight Discrimination
Check This Out:
