116
Opinion of the Court
nomic" or "tangible" discrimination,' Harris, [510 U. S., at 21] (quoting Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, [477 U. S.,] at 64), and that it covers more than 'terms' and 'conditions' in the narrow contractual sense." Faragher v. Boca Raton, 524 U. S. 775, 786 (1998) (quoting Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U. S. 75, 78 (1998)). As the Court stated in Harris, "[t]he phrase 'terms, conditions, or privileges of employment' [of 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2(a)(1)] evinces a congressional intent 'to strike at the entire spectrum of disparate treatment of men and women' in employment, which includes requiring people to work in a discriminatorily hostile or abusive environment." 510 U. S., at 21 (some internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Meritor, 477 U. S., at 64, in turn quoting Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power v. Manhart, 435 U. S. 702, 707, n. 13 (1978)).10
"Workplace conduct is not measured in isolation . . . ." Clark County School Dist. v. Breeden, 532 U. S. 268, 270 (2001) (per curiam). Thus, "[w]hen the workplace is permeated with 'discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult,' that is 'sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment,' Title VII is violated." Harris, 510 U. S., at 21 (citations omitted).
In determining whether an actionable hostile work environment claim exists, we look to "all the circumstances," including "the frequency of the discriminatory conduct; its severity; whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance; and whether it unreasonably interferes with an employee's work performance." Id., at 23. To assess whether a court may, for the purposes of determining liability, review all such conduct, including those acts that occur outside the filing period, we again look to the
10 Hostile work environment claims based on racial harassment are reviewed under the same standard as those based on sexual harassment. See Faragher v. Boca Raton, 524 U. S. 775, 786-787, and n. 1 (1998); Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 477 U. S. 57, 66-67 (1986).
Page: Index Previous 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007