Sex Discrimination Act 1975

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 is a United Kingdom statute that made it unlawful to discriminate against a person on grounds of sex or marital status in employment, education, and the provision of goods, facilities and services. It covered both direct discrimination, treating someone less favorably because of their sex, and indirect discrimination, applying a requirement that disproportionately disadvantages one sex without justification, and it established the Equal Opportunities Commission to enforce the law and promote equality of opportunity between women and men. The act worked alongside the earlier Equal Pay Act 1970, which had addressed pay discrimination specifically, and both came into force on the same day, 29 December 1975, giving employers a five-year transition period from the Equal Pay Act's original passage to bring their pay practices into compliance. The Sex Discrimination Act was later amended to cover discrimination against transgender people and was eventually consolidated, along with other equality legislation, into the Equality Act 2010.