Question：A job interviewer asks a woman about her plans to have a family. She eventually does not get the job, because she lacks qualifications which are listed as essential in the person specification. However, she later finds out that men who attended interviews were not asked questions about their plans to have a family.

　　Which of the following statements correctly describes the situation?

　　A. The woman would have a successful claim of indirect sexual discrimination

　　B. The organisation has laid itself open to a claim of indirect sexual discrimination, but such a claim would not be successful

　　C. The organisation has not laid itself open to any claim of discrimination

　　D. The woman would have a successful claim of direct sexual discrimination

　　The correct answer is: The organisation has laid itself open to a claim of indirect sexual discrimination, but such a claim would not be successful

　　Rationale: The organisation has laid itself open to a claim of indirect discrimination, because if the selection decision had been made on the basis of a question asked of a woman but not of men, it may have been construed as such. (This rules out 'The organisation has not laid itself open to any claim of discrimination' and 'The woman would have a successful claim of direct sexual discrimination'.)

　　The claim would not succeed (ruling out 'The woman would have a successful claim of indirect sexual discrimination') because the organisation would be able to justify the apparently discriminatory conditions on non-discriminatory (job-relevant) grounds.

　　Pitfalls: You need to get to grips with the basics of how this works, and recognise examples when you see them.