Justice Brennan

announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which Justice Marshall, Justice Blackmun, and Justice Stevens join.

Ann Hopkins was a senior manager in an office of Price Waterhouse when she was proposed for partnership in 1982. She was neither offered nor denied admission to the partnership; instead, her candidacy was held for reconsideration the following year. When the partners in her office later re*232fused to repropose her for partnership, she sued Price Waterhouse under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 253, as amended, 42 U. S. C. §2000e et seq., charging that the firm had discriminated against her on the basis of sex in its decisions regarding partnership. Judge Gesell in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in her favor on the question of liability, 618 F. Supp. 1109 (1985), and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed. 263 U. S. App. D. C. 321, 825 F. 2d 458 (1987). We granted certiorari to resolve a conflict among the Courts of Appeals concerning the respective burdens of proof of a defendant and plaintiff in a suit under Title VII when it has been shown that an employment decision resulted from a mixture of legitimate and illegitimate motives. 485 U. S. 933 (1988).

I

At Price Waterhouse, a nationwide professional accounting partnership, a senior manager becomes a candidate for partnership when the partners in her local office submit her name as a candidate. All of the other partners in the firm are then invited to submit written comments on each candidate— either on a “long” or a “short” form, depending on the partner’s degree of exposure to the candidate. Not every partner in the firm submits comments on every candidate. After reviewing the comments and interviewing the partners who submitted them, the firm’s Admissions Committee makes a recommendation to the Policy Board. This recommendation will be either that the firm accept the candidate for partnership, put her application on “hold,” or deny her the promotion outright. The Policy Board then decides whether to submit the candidate’s name to the entire partnership for a vote, to “hold” her candidacy, or to reject her. The recommendation of the Admissions Committee, and the decision of the Policy Board, are not controlled by fixed guidelines: a certain number of positive comments from partners will not guarantee a candidate’s admission to the partnership, nor will a specific *233quantity of negative comments necessarily defeat her application. Price Waterhouse places no limit on the number of persons whom it will admit to the partnership in any given year.

Ann Hopkins had worked at Price Waterhouse’s Office of Government Services in Washington, D. C., for five years when the partners in that office proposed her as a candidate for partnership. Of the 662 partners at the firm at that time, 7 were women. Of the 88 persons proposed for partnership that year, only 1 — Hopkins—was a woman. Forty-seven of these candidates were admitted to the partnership, 21 were rejected, and 20 — including Hopkins — were “held” for reconsideration the following year.1 Thirteen of the 32 partners who had submitted comments on Hopkins supported her bid for partnership. Three partners recommended that her candidacy be placed on hold, eight stated that they did not have an informed opinion about her, and eight recommended that she be denied partnership.

In a jointly prepared statement supporting her candidacy, the partners in Hopkins’ office showcased her successful 2-year effort to secure a $25 million contract with the Department of State, labeling it “an outstanding performance” and one that Hopkins carried out “virtually at the partner level.” Plaintiff’s Exh. 15. Despite Price Waterhouse’s attempt at trial to minimize her contribution to this project, Judge Ge-*234sell specifically found that Hopkins had “played a key role in Price Waterhouse’s successful effort to win a multi-million dollar contract with the Department of State.” 618 F. Supp., at 1112. Indeed, he went on, “[n]one of the other partnership candidates at Price Waterhouse that year had a comparable record in terms of successfully securing major contracts for the partnership.” Ibid.

The partners in Hopkins’ office praised her character as well as her accomplishments, describing her in their joint statement as “an outstanding professional” who had a “deft touch,” a “strong character, independence and integrity.” Plaintiff’s Exh. 15. Clients appear to have agreed with these assessments. At trial, one official from the State Department described her as “extremely competent, intelligent,” “strong and forthright, very productive, energetic and creative.” Tr. 150. Another high-ranking official praised Hopkins’ decisiveness, broadmindedness, and “intellectual clarity”; she was, in his words, “a stimulating conversationalist.” Id., at 156-157. Evaluations such as these led Judge Gesell to conclude that Hopkins “had no difficulty dealing with clients and her clients appear to have been very pleased with her work” and that she “was generally viewed as a highly competent project leader who worked long hours, pushed vigorously to meet deadlines and demanded much from the multidisciplinary staffs with which she worked.” 618 F. Supp., at 1112-1113.

On too many occasions, however, Hopkins’ aggressiveness apparently spilled over into abrasiveness. Staff members seem to have borne the brunt of Hopkins’ brusqueness. Long before her bid for partnership, partners evaluating her work had counseled her to improve her relations with staff members. Although later evaluations indicate an improvement, Hopkins’ perceived shortcomings in this important area eventually doomed her bid for partnership. Virtually all of the partners’ negative remarks about Hopkins — even those of partners supporting her — had to do with her “inter*235personal skills.” Both “[s]upporters and opponents of her candidacy,” stressed Judge Gesell, “indicated that she was sometimes overly aggressive, unduly harsh, difficult to work with and impatient with staff.” Id., at 1113.

There were clear signs, though, that some of the partners reacted negatively to Hopkins’ personality because she was a woman. One partner described her as “macho” (Defendant’s Exh. 30); another suggested that she “overcompensated for being a woman” (Defendant’s Exh. 31); a third advised her to take “a course at charm school” (Defendant’s Exh. 27). Several partners criticized her use of profanity; in response, one partner suggested that those partners objected to her swearing only “because it’s a lady using foul language.” Tr. 321. Another supporter explained that Hopkins “ha[d] matured from a tough-talking somewhat masculine hard-nosed mgr to an authoritative, formidable, but much more appealing lady ptr candidate.” Defendant’s Exh. 27. But it was the man who, as Judge Gesell found, bore responsibility for explaining to Hopkins the reasons for the Policy Board’s decision to place her candidacy on hold who delivered the coup de grace: in order to improve her chances for partnership, Thomas Beyer advised, Hopkins should “walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely, wear make-up, have her hair styled, and wear jewelry.” 618 F. Supp., at 1117.

Dr. Susan Fiske, a social psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at Carnegie-Mellon University, testified at trial that the partnership selection process at Price Waterhouse was likely influenced by sex stereotyping. Her testimony focused not only on the overtly sex-based comments of partners but also on gender-neutral remarks, made by partners who knew Hopkins only slightly, that were intensely critical of her. One partner, for example, baldly stated that Hopkins was “universally disliked” by staff (Defendant’s Exh. 27), and another described her as “consistently annoying and irritating” (ibid.); yet these were people who had had very little contact with Hopkins. According to *236Fiske, Hopkins’ uniqueness (as the only woman in the pool of candidates) and the subjectivity of the evaluations made it likely that sharply critical remarks such as these were the product of sex stereotyping — although Fiske admitted that she could not say with certainty whether any particular comment was the result of stereotyping. Fiske based her opinion on a review of the submitted comments, explaining that it was commonly accepted practice for social psychologists to reach this kind of conclusion without having met any of the people involved in the decisionmaking process.

In previous years, other female candidates for partnership also had been evaluated in sex-based terms. As a general matter, Judge Gesell concluded, “[candidates were viewed favorably if partners believed they maintained their femin[injity while becoming effective professional managers”; in this environment, “[t]o be identified as a ‘women’s lib[b]er’ was regarded as [a] negative comment.” 618 F. Supp., at 1117. In fact, the judge found that in previous years “[o]ne partner repeatedly commented that he could not consider any woman seriously as a partnership candidate and believed that women were not even capable of functioning as senior managers —yet the firm took no action to discourage his comments and recorded his vote in the overall summary of the evaluations.” Ibid.

Judge Gesell found that Price Waterhouse legitimately emphasized interpersonal skills in its partnership decisions, and also found that the firm had not fabricated its complaints about Hopkins’ interpersonal skills as a pretext for discrimination. Moreover, he concluded, the firm did not give decisive emphasis to such traits only because Hopkins was a woman; although there were male candidates who lacked these skills but who were admitted to partnership, the judge found that these candidates possessed other, positive traits that Hopkins lacked.

The judge went on to decide, however, that some of the partners’ remarks about Hopkins stemmed from an imper*237missibly cabined view of the proper behavior of women, and that Price Waterhouse had done nothing to disavow reliance on such comments. He held that Price Waterhouse had unlawfully discriminated against Hopkins on the basis of sex by consciously giving credence and effect to partners’ comments that resulted from sex stereotyping. Noting that Price Waterhouse could avoid equitable relief by proving by clear and convincing evidence that it would have placed Hopkins’ candidacy on hold even absent this discrimination, the judge decided that the firm had not carried this heavy burden.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s ultimate conclusion, but departed from its analysis in one particular: it held that even if a plaintiff proves that discrimination played a role in an employment decision, the defendant will not be found liable if it proves, by clear and convincing evidence, that it would have made the same decision in the absence of discrimination. 263 U. S. App. D. C., at 333-334, 825 F. 2d, at 470-471. Under this approach, an employer is not deemed to have violated Title VII if it proves that it would have made the same decision in the absence of an impermissible motive, whereas under the District Court’s approach, the employer’s proof in that respect only avoids equitable relief. We decide today that the Court of Appeals had the better approach, but that both courts erred in requiring the employer to make its proof by clear and convincing evidence.

II

The specification of the standard of causation under Title VII is a decision about the kind of conduct that violates that statute. According to Price Waterhouse, an employer violates Title VII only if it gives decisive consideration to an employee’s gender, race, national origin, or religion in making a decision that affects that employee. On Price Waterhouse’s theory, even if a plaintiff shows that her gender played a part in an employment decision, it is still her burden to show that the decision would have been different if the employer had *238not discriminated. In Hopkins’ view, on the other hand, an employer violates the statute whenever it allows one of these attributes to play any part in an employment decision. Once a plaintiff shows that this occurred, according to Hopkins, the employer’s proof that it would have made the same decision in the absence of discrimination can serve to limit equitable relief but not to avoid a finding of liability.2 We conclude that, as often happens, the truth lies somewhere in between.

*239A

In passing Title VII, Congress made the simple but momentous announcement that sex, race, religion, and national origin are not relevant to the selection, evaluation, or compensation of employees.3 Yet, the statute does not purport to limit the other qualities and characteristics that employers may take into account in making employment decisions. The converse, therefore, of “for cause” legislation,4 Title VII eliminates certain bases for distinguishing among employees while otherwise preserving employers’ freedom of choice. This balance between employee rights and employer prerogatives turns out to be decisive in the case before us.

Congress’ intent to forbid employers to take gender into account in making employment decisions appears on the face of the statute. In now-familiar language, the statute forbids *240an employer to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment,” or to “limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual’s . . . sex.” 42 U. S. C. §§2000e-2(a)(l), (2) (emphasis added).5 We take these words to mean that gender must be irrelevant to employment decisions. To construe the words “because of” as colloquial shorthand for “but-for causation,” as does Price Waterhouse, is to misunderstand them.6

But-for causation is a hypothetical construct. In determining whether a particular factor was a but-for cause of a given event, we begin by assuming that that factor was present at the time of the event, and then ask whether, even if that factor had been absent, the event nevertheless would have transpired in the same way. The present, active tense of the operative verbs of § 703(a)(1) (“to fail or refuse”), in contrast, turns our attention to the actual moment of the *241event in question, the adverse employment decision. The critical inquiry, the one commanded by the words of § 703(a)(1), is whether gender was a factor in the employment decision at the moment it was made. Moreover, since we know that the words “because of” do not mean “solely because of,”7 we also know that Title YII meant to condemn even those decisions based on a mixture of legitimate and illegitimate considerations. When, therefore; an employer considers both gender and legitimate factors at the time of making a decision, that decision was “because of” sex and the other, legitimate considerations — even if we may say later, in the context of litigation, that the decision would have been the same if gender had not been taken into account.

To attribute this meaning to the words “because of” does not, as the dissent asserts, post, at 282, divest them of causal significance. A simple example illustrates the point. Suppose two physical forces act upon and move an object, and suppose that either force acting alone would have moved the object. As the dissent would have it, neither physical force was a “cause” of the motion unless we can show that but for one or both of them, the object would not have moved; apparently both forces were simply “in the air” unless we can identify at least one of them as a but-for cause of the object’s movement. Ibid. Events that are causally overdetermined, in other words, may not have any “cause” at all. This cannot be so.

We need not leave our common sense at the doorstep when we interpret a statute. It is difficult for us to imagine that, in the simple words “because of,” Congress meant to obligate a plaintiff to identify the precise causal role played by legitimate and illegitimate motivations in the employment decision she challenges. We conclude, instead, that Congress meant *242to obligate her to prove that the employer relied upon sex-based considerations in coming to its decision.

Our interpretation of the words “because of” also is supported by the fact that Title VII does identify one circumstance in which an employer may take gender into account in making an employment decision, namely, when gender is a “bona fide occupational' qualification [(BFOQ)] reasonably necessary to the normal operation of th[e] particular business or enterprise.” 42 U. S. C. §2000e-2(e). The only plausible inference to draw from this provision is that, in all other circumstances, a person’s gender may not be considered in making decisions that affect her. Indeed, Title VII even forbids employers to make gender an indirect stumbling block to employment opportunities. An employer may not, we have held, condition employment opportunities on the satisfaction of facially neutral tests or qualifications that have a disproportionate, adverse impact on members of protected groups when those tests or qualifications are not required for performance of the job. See Watson v. Fort Worth Bank & Trust, 487 U. S. 977 (1988); Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424 (1971).

To say that an employer may not take gender into account is not, however, the end of the matter, for that describes only one aspect of Title VII. The other important aspect of the statute is its preservation of an employer’s remaining freedom of choice. We conclude that the preservation of this freedom means that an employer shall not be liable if it can prove that, even if it had not taken gender into account, it would have come to the same decision regarding a particular person. The statute’s maintenance of employer prerogatives is evident from the statute itself and from its history, both in Congress and in this Court.

To begin with, the existence of the BFOQ exception shows Congress’ unwillingness to require employers to change the very nature of their operations in response to the statute. And our emphasis on “business necessity” in disparate-*243impact cases, see Watson and Griggs, and on “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason[s]” in disparate-treatment cases, see McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S. 792, 802 (1973); Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U. S. 248 (1981), results from our awareness of Title VII’s balance between employee rights and employer prerogatives. In McDonnell Douglas, we described as follows Title VII’s goal to eradicate discrimination while preserving workplace efficiency: “The broad, overriding interest, shared by employer, employee, and consumer, is efficient and trustworthy workmanship assured through fair and racially neutral employment and personnel decisions. In the implementation of such decisions, it is abundantly clear that Title VII tolerates no racial discrimination, subtle or otherwise.” 411 U. S., at 801.

When an employer ignored the attributes enumerated in the statute, Congress hoped, it naturally would focus on the qualifications of the applicant or employee. The intent to drive employers to focus on qualifications rather than on race, religion, sex, or national origin is the theme of a good deal of the statute’s legislative history. An interpretive memorandum entered into the Congressional Record by Senators Case and Clark, comanagers of the bill in the Senate, is representative of this general theme8 According to their memorandum, Title VII “‘expressly protects the employer’s right to insist that any prospective applicant, Negro or white, must meet the applicable job qualifications. Indeed, the very purpose of title VII is to promote hiring on the basis of job qualifications, rather than on the basis of race or color.’”9 110 Cong. Rec. 7247 (1964), quoted in Griggs v. *244Duke Power Co., supra, at 434. The memorandum went on: “To discriminate is to make a distinction, to make a difference in treatment or favor, and those distinctions or differences in treatment or favor which are prohibited by section 704 are those which are based on any five of the forbidden criteria: race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Any other criterion or qualification for employment is not affected by this title.” 110 Cong. Rec. 7213 (1964).

Many other legislators made statements to a similar effect; we see no need to set out each remark in full here. The' central point is this: while an employer may not take gender into account in making an employment decision (except in those very narrow circumstances in which gender is a BFOQ), it is free to decide against a woman for other reasons. We think these principles require that, once a plaintiff in a Title VII case shows that gender played a motivating part in an employment decision, the defendant may avoid a finding of liability 10 only by proving that it would have made the same *245decision even if it had not allowed gender to play such a role. This balance of burdens is the direct result of Title VII’s balance of rights.

Our holding casts no shadow on Burdine, in which we decided that, even after a plaintiff has made out a prima facie case of discrimination under Title VII, the burden of persuasion does not shift to the employer to show that its stated legitimate reason for the employment decision was the true reason. 450 U. S., at 256-258. We stress, first, that nei*246ther court below shifted the burden of persuasion to Price Waterhouse on this question, and in fact, the District Court found that Hopkins had not shown that the firm’s stated reason for its decision was pretextual. 618 F. Supp., at 1114-1115. Moreover, since we hold that the plaintiff retains the burden of persuasion on the issue whether gender played a part in the employment decision, the situation before us is not the one of “shifting burdens” that we addressed in Burdine. Instead, the employer’s burden is most appropriately deemed an affirmative defense: the plaintiff must persuade the factfinder on one point, and then the employer, if it wishes to prevail, must persuade it on another. See NLRB v. Transportation Management Corp., 462 U. S. 393, 400 (1983).11

Price Waterhouse’s claim that the employer does not bear any burden of proof (if it bears one at all) until the plaintiff has shown “substantial evidence that Price Waterhouse’s explanation for failing to promote Hopkins was not the ‘true .reason’ for its action” (Brief for Petitioner 20) merely restates its argument that the plaintiff in a mixed-motives case *247must squeeze her proof into Burdine’s framework. Where a decision was the product of a mixture of legitimate and illegitimate motives, however, it simply makes no sense to ask whether the legitimate reason was “the ‘true reason’ ” (Brief for Petitioner 20 (emphasis added)) for the decision — which is the question asked by Burdine. See Transportation Management, supra, at 400, n. 5.12 Oblivious to this last point, the dissent would insist that Burdine’s framework perform work that it was never intended to perform. It would require a plaintiff who challenges an adverse employment decision in which both legitimate and illegitimate considerations played a part to pretend that the decision, in fact, stemmed from a single source — for the premise of Burdine is that either a legitimate or an illegitimate set of considerations led to the challenged decision. To say that Burdine’s evidentiary scheme will not help us decide a case admittedly involving both kinds of considerations is not to cast aspersions on the utility of that scheme in the circumstances for which it was designed.

*248B

In deciding as we do today, we do not traverse new ground. We have in the past confronted Title VII cases in which an employer has used an illegitimate criterion to distinguish among employees, and have held that it is the employer’s burden to justify decisions resulting from that practice. When an employer has asserted that gender is a BFOQ within the meaning of § 703(e), for example, we have assumed that it is the employer who must show why it must use gender as a criterion in employment. See Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U. S. 321, 332-337 (1977). In a related context, although the Equal Pay Act expressly permits employers to pay different wages to women where disparate pay is the result of a “factor other than sex,” see 29 U. S. C. § 206(d)(1), we have decided that it is the employer, not the employee, who must prove that the actual disparity is not sex linked. See Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, 417 U. S. 188, 196 (1974). Finally, some courts have held that, under Title VII as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, it is the employer who has the burden of showing that its limitations on the work that it allows a pregnant woman to perform are necessary in light of her pregnancy. See, e. g., Hayes v. Shelby Memorial Hospital, 726 F. 2d 1543, 1548 (CA11 1984); Wright v. Olin Corp., 697 F. 2d 1172, 1187 (CA4 1982). As these examples demonstrate, our assumption always has been that if an employer allows gender to affect its decision-making process, then it must carry the burden of justifying its ultimate decision. We have not in the past required women whose gender has proved relevant to an employment decision to establish the negative proposition that they would not have been subject to that decision had they been men, and we do not do so today.

We have reached a similar conclusion in other contexts where the law announces that a certain characteristic is irrelevant to the allocation of burdens and benefits. In Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274 (1977), the *249plaintiff claimed that he had been discharged as a public school teacher for exercising his free-speech rights under the First Amendment. Because we did not wish to “place an employee in a better position as a result of the exercise of constitutionally protected conduct than he would have occupied had he done nothing,” id., at 285, we concluded that such an employee “ought not to be able, by engaging in such conduct, to prevent his employer from assessing his performance record and reaching a decision not to rehire on the basis of that record.” Id., at 286. We therefore held that once the plaintiff had shown that his constitutionally protected speech was a “substantial” or “motivating factor” in the adverse treatment of him by his employer, the employer was obligated to prove “by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have reached the same decision as to [the plaintiff] even in the absence of the protected conduct.” Id., at 287. A court that finds for a plaintiff under this standard has effectively concluded that an illegitimate motive was a “but-for” cause of the employment decision. See Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School Dist., 439 U. S. 410, 417 (1979). See also Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., 429 U. S. 252, 270-271, n. 21 (1977) (applying Mt. Healthy standard where plaintiff alleged that unconstitutional motive had contributed to enactment of legislation); Hunter v. Underwood, 471 U. S. 222, 228 (1985) (same).

In Transportation Management, we upheld the NLRB’s interpretation of § 10(c) of the National Labor Relations Act, which forbids a court to order affirmative relief for discriminatory conduct against a union member “if such individual was suspended or discharged for cause.” 29 U. S. C. § 160(c). The Board had decided that this provision meant that once an employee had shown that his suspension or discharge was based in part on hostility to unions, it was up to the employer to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have made the same decision in the absence of this impermissible motive. In such a situation, we empha*250sized, “[t]he employer is a wrongdoer; he has acted out of a motive that is declared illegitimate by the statute. It is fair that he bear the risk that the influence of legal and illegal motives cannot be separated, because he knowingly created the risk and because the risk was created not by innocent activity but by his own wrongdoing.” 462 U. S., at 403.

We have, in short, been here before. Each time, we have concluded that the plaintiff who shows that an impermissible motive played a motivating part in an adverse employment decision has thereby placed upon the defendant the burden to show that it would have made the same decision in the absence of the unlawful motive. Our decision today treads this well-worn path.

C

In saying that gender played a motivating part in an employment decision, we mean that, if we asked the employer at the moment of the decision what its reasons were and if we received a truthful response, one of those reasons would be that the applicant or employee was a woman.13 In the specific context of sex stereotyping, an employer who acts on the basis of a belief that a woman cannot be aggressive, or that she must not be, has acted on the basis of gender.

Although the parties do not overtly dispute this last proposition, the placement by Price Waterhouse of “sex stereotyping” in quotation marks throughout its brief seems to us an insinuation either that such stereotyping was not present in this case or that it lacks legal relevance. We reject both pos*251sibilities. As to the existence of sex stereotyping in this case, we are not inclined to quarrel with the District Court’s conclusion that a number of the partners’ comments showed sex stereotyping at work. See infra, at 255-256. As for the legal relevance of sex stereotyping, we are beyond the day when an employer could evaluate employees by assuming or insisting that they matched the stereotype associated with their group, for “‘[i]n forbidding employers to discriminate against individuals because of their sex, Congress intended to strike at the entire spectrum of disparate treatment of men and women resulting from sex stereotypes.’” Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power v. Manhart, 435 U. S. 702, 707, n. 13 (1978), quoting Sprogis v. United Air Lines, Inc., 444 F. 2d 1194, 1198 (CA7 1971). An employer who objects to aggressiveness in women but whose positions require this trait places women in an intolerable and impermissible catch 22: out of a job if they behave aggressively and out of a job if they do not. Title VII lifts women out of this bind.

Remarks at work that are based on sex stereotypes do not inevitably prove that gender played a part in a particular employment decision. The plaintiff must show that the employer actually relied on her gender in making its decision. In making this showing, stereotyped remarks can certainly be evidence that gender played a part. In any event, the stereotyping in this case did not simply consist of stray remarks. On the contrary, Hopkins proved that Price Water-house invited partners to submit comments; that some of the comments stemmed from sex stereotypes; that an important part of the Policy Board’s decision on Hopkins was an assessment of the submitted comments; and that Price Waterhouse in no way disclaimed reliance on the sex-linked evaluations. This is not, as Price Waterhouse suggests, “discrimination in the air”; rather, it is, as Hopkins puts it, “discrimination brought to ground and visited upon” an employee. Brief for Respondent 30. By focusing on Hopkins’ specific proof, however, we do not suggest a limitation on the possible ways *252of proving that stereotyping played a motivating role in an employment decision, and we refrain from deciding here which specific facts, “standing alone,” would or would not establish a plaintiff’s case, since such a decision is unnecessary in this case. But see post, at 277 (O’Connor, J., concurring in judgment).

As to the employer’s proof, in most cases, the employer should be able to present some objective evidence as to its probable decision in the absence of an impermissible motive.14 Moreover, proving “ ‘that the same decision would have been justified ... is not the same as proving that the same decision would have been made.’” Givhan, 439 U. S., at 416, quoting Ayers v. Western Line Consolidated School District, 555 F. 2d 1309, 1315 (CA5 1977). An employer may not, in other words, prevail in a mixed-motives case by offering a legitimate and sufficient reason for its decision if that reason did not motivate it at the time of the decision. Finally, an employer may not meet its burden in such a case by merely showing that at the time of the decision it was motivated only in part by a legitimate reason. The very premise of a mixed-motives case is that a legitimate reason was present, and indeed, in this case, Price Waterhouse already has made this showing by convincing Judge Gesell that Hopkins’ interpersonal problems were a legitimate concern. The employer instead must show that its legitimate reason, standing alone, would have induced it to make the same decision.

I — I I — I h-<

The courts below held that an employer who has allowed a discriminatory impulse to play a motivating part in an employment decision must prove by clear and convincing evidence that it would have made the same decision in the ab*253sence of discrimination. We are persuaded that the better rule is that the employer must make this showing by a preponderance of the evidence.

Conventional rules of civil litigation generally apply in Title VII cases, see, e. g., United States Postal Service Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U. S. 711, 716 (1983) (discrimination not to be “treat[ed]. . . differently from other ultimate questions of fact”), and one of these rules is that parties to civil litigation need only prove their case by a preponderance of the evidence. See, e. g., Herman & MacLean v. Huddleston, 459 U. S. 375, 390 (1983). Exceptions to this standard are uncommon, and in fact are ordinarily recognized only when the government seeks to take unusual coercive action— action more dramatic than entering an award of money damages or other conventional relief — against an individual. See Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U. S. 745, 756 (1982) (termination of parental rights); Addington v. Texas, 441 U. S. 418, 427 (1979) (involuntary commitment); Woodby v. INS, 385 U. S. 276 (1966) (deportation); Schneiderman v. United States, 320 U. S. 118, 122, 125 (1943) (denaturalization). Only rarely have we required clear and convincing proof where the action defended against seeks only conventional relief, see, e. g., Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U. S. 323, 342 (1974) (defamation), and we find it significant that in such cases it was the defendant rather than the plaintiff who sought the elevated standard of proof — suggesting that this standard ordinarily serves as a shield rather than, as Hopkins seeks to use it, as a sword.

It is true, as Hopkins emphasizes, that we have noted the “clear distinction between the measure of proof necessary to establish the fact that petitioner had sustained some damage and the measure of proof necessary to enable the jury to fix the amount.” Story Parchment Co. v. Paterson Parchment Paper Co., 282 U. S. 555, 562 (1931). Likewise, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regulation does require federal agencies proved to have violated *254Title VII to show by clear and convincing evidence that an individual employee is not entitled to relief. See 29 CFR § 1613.271(c)(2) (1988). And finally, it is true that we have emphasized the importance of make-whole relief for victims of discrimination. See Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S. 405 (1975). Yet each of these sources deals with the proper determination of relief rather than with the initial finding of liability. This is seen most easily in the EEOC’s regulation, which operates only after an agency or the EEOC has found that “an employee of the agency was discriminated against.” See 29 CFR § 1613.271(c) (1988). Because we have held that, by proving that it would have made the same decision in the absence of discrimination, the employer may avoid a finding of liability altogether and not simply avoid certain equitable relief, these authorities do not help Hopkins to show why we should elevate the standard of proof for an employer in this position.

Significantly, the cases from this Court that most resemble this one, Mt. Healthy and Transportation Management, did not require clear and convincing proof. Mt. Healthy, 429 U. S., at 287; Transportation Management, 462 U. S., at 400, 403. We are not inclined to say that the public policy against firing employees because they spoke out on issues of public concern or because they affiliated with a union is less important than the policy against discharging employees on the basis of their gender. Each of these policies is vitally important, and each is adequately served by requiring proof by a preponderance of the evidence.

Although Price Waterhouse does not concretely tell us how its proof was preponderant even if it was not clear and convincing, this general claim is implicit in its request for the less stringent standard. Since the lower courts required Price Waterhouse to make its proof by clear and convincing evidence, they did not determine whether Price Waterhouse had proved by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have placed Hopkins’ candidacy on hold even if it had not per*255mitted sex-linked evaluations to play a part in the decision-making process. Thus, we shall remand this case so that that determination can be made.

i>

The District Court found that sex stereotyping was permitted to play a part” in the evaluation of Hopkins as a candidate for partnership. 618 F. Supp., at 1120. Price Water-house disputes both that stereotyping occurred and that it played any part in the decision to place Hopkins’ candidacy on hold. In the firm’s view, in other words, the District Court’s factual conclusions are clearly erroneous. We do not agree.

In finding that some of the partners’ comments reflected sex stereotyping, the District Court relied in part on Dr. Fiske’s expert testimony. Without directly impugning Dr. Fiske’s credentials or qualifications, Price Waterhouse insinuates that a social psychologist is unable to identify sex stereotyping in evaluations without investigating whether those evaluations have a basis in reality. This argument comes too late. At trial, counsel for Price Waterhouse twice assured the court that he did not question Dr. Fiske’s expertise (App. 25) and failed to challenge the legitimacy of her discipline. Without contradiction from Price Waterhouse, Fiske testified that she discerned sex stereotyping in the partners’ evaluations of Hopkins, and she further explained that it was part of her business to identify stereotyping in written documents. Id., at 64. We are not inclined to accept petitioner’s belated and unsubstantiated characterization of Dr. Fiske’s testimony as “gossamer evidence” (Brief for Petitioner 20) based only on “intuitive hunches” (id., at 44) and of her detection of sex stereotyping as “intuitively divined” (id., at 43). Nor are we disposed to adopt the dissent’s dismissive attitude toward Dr. Fiske’s field of study and toward her own professional integrity, see post, at 293-294, n. 5.

*256Indeed, we are tempted to say that Dr. Fiske’s expert testimony was merely icing on Hopkins’ cake. It takes no special training to discern sex stereotyping in a description of an aggressive female employee as requiring “a course at charm school.” Nor, turning to Thomas Beyer’s memorable advice to Hopkins, does it require expertise in psychology to know that, if an employee’s flawed “interpersonal skills” can be corrected by a soft-hued suit or a new shade of lipstick, perhaps it is the employee’s sex and not her interpersonal skills that has drawn the criticism.15

Price Waterhouse also charges that Hopkins produced no evidence that sex stereotyping played a role in the decision to place her candidacy on hold. As we have stressed, however, Hopkins showed that the partnership solicited evaluations from all of the firm’s partners; that it generally relied very heavily on such evaluations in making its decision; that some of the partners’ comments were the product of stereotyping; and that the firm in no way disclaimed reliance on those particular comments, either in Hopkins’ case or in the past. Certainly a plausible — and, one might say, inevitable — conclusion to draw from this set of circumstances is that the Policy Board in making its decision did in fact take into account all of the partners’ comments, including the comments that were motivated by stereotypical notions about women’s proper deportment.16

*257Price Waterhouse concedes that the proof in Transportation Management adequately showed that the employer there had relied on an impermissible motivation in firing the plaintiff. Brief for Petitioner 45. But the only evidence in that case that a discriminatory motive contributed to the plaintiff’s discharge was that the employer harbored a grudge toward the plaintiff on account of his union activity; there was, contrary to Price Waterhouse’s suggestion, no direct evidence that that grudge had played a role in the decision, and, in fact, the employer had given other reasons in explaining the plaintiff’s discharge. See 462 U. S., at 396. If the partnership considers that proof sufficient, we do not know why it takes such vehement issue with Hopkins’ proof.

Nor is the finding that sex stereotyping played a part in the Policy Board’s decision undermined by the fact that many of the suspect comments were made by supporters rather than detractors of Hopkins. A negative comment, even when made in the context of a generally favorable review, nevertheless may influence the decisionmaker to think less highly of the candidate; the Policy Board, in fact, did not simply tally the “yesses” and “noes” regarding a candidate, but carefully reviewed the content of the submitted comments. The additional suggestion that the comments were made by “persons outside the decisionmaking chain” (Brief for Petitioner 48) — and therefore could not have harmed Hopkins — simply ignores the critical role that partners’ comments played in the Policy Board’s partnership decisions.

Price Waterhouse appears to think that we cannot affirm the factual findings of the trial court without deciding that, instead of being overbearing and aggressive and curt, Hopkins is, in fact, kind and considerate and patient. If this is indeed its impression, petitioner misunderstands the theory *258on which Hopkins prevailed. The District Judge acknowledged that Hopkins’ conduct justified complaints about her behavior as a senior manager. But he also concluded that the reactions of at least some of the partners were reactions to her as a woman manager. Where an evaluation is based on a subjective assessment of a person’s strengths and weaknesses, it is simply not true that each evaluator will focus on, or even mention, the sáme weaknesses. Thus, even if we knew that Hopkins had “personality problems,” this would not tell us that the partners who cast their evaluations of Hopkins in sex-based terms would have criticized her as sharply (or criticized her at all) if she had been a man. It is not our job to review the evidence and decide that the negative reactions to Hopkins were based on reality; our perception of Hopkins’ character is irrelevant. We sit not to determine whether Ms. Hopkins is nice, but to decide whether the partners reacted negatively to her personality because she is a woman.

V

We hold that when a plaintiff in a Title VII case proves that her gender played a motivating part in an employment decision, the defendant may avoid a finding of liability only by proving by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have made the same decision even if it had not taken the plaintiff’s gender into account. Because the courts below erred by deciding that the defendant must make this proof by clear and convincing evidence, we reverse the Court of Appeals’ judgment against Price Waterhouse on liability and remand the case to that court for further proceedings.

It is so ordered.

Justice White,

concurring in the judgment.

In my view, to determine the proper approach to causation in this case, we need look only to the Court’s opinion in Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274 (1977). In Mt. Healthy, a public employee was not rehired, in part *259because of his exercise of First Amendment rights and in part because of permissible considerations. The Court rejected a rule of causation that focused “solely on whether protected conduct played a part, ‘substantial’ or otherwise, in a decision not to rehire,” on the grounds that such a rule could make the employee better off by exercising his constitutional rights than by doing nothing at all. Id., at 285. Instead, the Court outlined the following approach:

“Initially, in this case, the burden was properly placed upon respondent to show that his conduct was constitutionally protected, and that his conduct was a ‘substantial factor’ — or, to put it in other words, that it was a ‘motivating factor’ in the Board’s decision not to rehire him. Respondent having carried that burden, however, the District Court should have gone on to determine whether the Board had shown by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have reached the same decision as to respondent’s reemployment even in the absence of the protected conduct.” Id., at 287 (footnote omitted).

It is not necessary to get into semantic discussions on whether the Mt. Healthy approach is “but-for” causation in another guise or creates an affirmative defense on the part of the employer to see its clear application to the issues before us in this case. As in Mt. Healthy, the District Court found that the employer was motivated by both legitimate and illegitimate factors. And here, as in Mt. Healthy, and as the Court now holds, Hopkins was not required to prove that the illegitimate factor was the only, principal, or true reason for petitioner’s action. Rather, as Justice O’Connor states, her burden was to show that the unlawful motive was a substantial factor in the adverse employment action. The District Court, as its opinion was construed by the Court of Appeals, so found, 263 U. S. App. D. C. 321, 333, 334, 825 F. 2d 458, 470, 471 (1987), and I agree that the finding was supported by the record. The burden of persuasion then *260should have shifted to Price Waterhouse to prove “by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have reached the same decision ... in the absence of” the unlawful motive. Mt. Healthy, supra, at 287.

I agree with Justice Brennan that applying this approach to causation in Title VII cases is not a departure from, and does not require modification of, the Court’s holdings in Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U. S. 248 (1981), and McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S. 792 (1973). The Court has made clear that “mixed-motives” cases, such as the present one, are different from pretext cases such as McDonnell Douglas and Burdine. In pretext cases, “the issue is whether either illegal or legal motives, but not both, were the ‘true’ motives behind the decision.” NLRB v. Transportation Management Corp., 462 U. S. 393, 400, n. 5 (1983). In mixed-motives cases, however, there is no one “true” motive behind the decision. Instead, the decision is a result of multiple factors, at least one of which is legitimate. It can hardly be said that our decision in this case is a departure from cases that are “inapposite.” Ibid. 1 also disagree with the dissent’s assertion that this approach to causation is inconsistent with our statement in Burdine that “[t]he ultimate burden of persuading the trier of fact that the defendant intentionally discriminated against the plaintiff remains at all times with the plaintiff.” 450 U. S., at 253. As we indicated in Transportation Management Corp., the showing required by Mt. Healthy does not improperly shift from the plaintiff the ultimate burden of persuasion on whether the defendant intentionally discriminated against him or her. See 462 U. S., at 400, n. 5.

Because the Court of Appeals required Price Waterhouse to prove by clear and convincing evidence that it would have reached the same employment decision in the absence of the improper motive, rather than merely requiring proof by a preponderance of the evidence as in Mt. Healthy, I concur in the judgment reversing this case in part and remanding. *261With respect to the employer’s burden, however, the plurality seems to require, at least in most cases, that the employer submit objective evidence that the same result would have occurred absent the unlawful motivation. Ante, at 252. In my view, however, there is no special requirement that the employer carry its burden by objective evidence. In a mixed-motives case, where the legitimate motive found would have been ample grounds for the action taken, and the employer credibly testifies that the action would have been taken for the legitimate reasons alone, this should be ample proof. This would even more plainly be the case where the employer denies any illegitimate motive in the first place but the court finds that illegitimate, as well as legitimate, factors motivated the adverse action.*

Justice O’Connor,

concurring in the judgment.

I agree with the plurality that, on the facts presented in this ease, the burden of persuasion should shift to the employer to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that it would have reached the same decision concerning Ann Hopkins’ candidacy absent consideration of her gender. I further agree that this burden shift is properly part of the liability phase of the litigation. I thus concur in the judgment of the Court. My disagreement stems from the plurality’s conclusions concerning the substantive requirement of causation under the statute and its broad statements regarding the applicability of the allocation of the burden of proof applied in this case. The evidentiary rule the Court adopts today should be viewed as a supplement to the careful framework established by our unanimous decisions in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S. 792 (1973), and Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U. S. 248 (1981), for use in cases such as this one where the employer has created uncertainty as to causation by knowingly giving *262substantial weight to an impermissible criterion. I write separately to explain why I believe such a departure from the McDonnell Douglas standard is justified in the circumstances presented by this and like cases, and to express my views as to when and how the strong medicine of requiring the employer to bear the burden of persuasion on the issue of causation should be administered.

I

Title VII provides in pertinent part: “It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer ... to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” 42 U. S. C. §2000e-2(a) (emphasis added). The legislative history of Title VII bears out what its plain language suggests: a substantive violation of the statute only occurs when consideration of an illegitimate criterion is the “but-for” cause of an adverse employment action. The legislative history makes it clear that Congress was attempting to' eradicate discriminatory actions in the employment setting, not mere discriminatory thoughts. Critics of the bill that became Title VII labeled it a “thought control bill,” and argued that it created a “punishable crime that does not require an illegal external act as a basis for judgment.” 100 Cong. Rec. 7254 (1964) (remarks of Sen. Ervin). Senator Case, whose views the plurality finds so persuasive elsewhere, responded:

“The man must do or fail to do something in regard to employment. There must be some specific external act, more than a mental act. Only if he does the act because of the grounds stated in the bill would there be any legal consequences.” Ibid.

Thus, I disagree with the plurality’s dictum that the words “because of” do not mean “but-for” causation; manifestly they *263do. See Sheet Metal Workers v. EEOC, 478 U. S. 421, 499 (1986) (White, J., dissenting) (“[T]he general policy under Title VII is to limit relief for racial discrimination in employment practices to actual victims of the discrimination”). We should not, and need not, deviate from that policy today. The question for decision in this case is what allocation of the burden of persuasion on the issue of causation best conforms with the intent of Congress and the purposes behind Title VII.

The evidence of congressional intent as to which party should bear the burden of proof on the issue of causation is considerably less clear. No doubt, as a general matter, Congress assumed that the plaintiff in a Title VII action would bear the burden of proof on the elements critical to his or her case. As the dissent points out, post, at 287, n. 3, the interpretative memorandum submitted by sponsors of Title VII indicates that “the plaintiff, as in any civil case, would have the burden of proving that discrimination had occurred.” 110 Cong. Rec. 7214 (1964) (emphasis added). But in the area of tort liability, from whence the dissent’s “but-for” standard of causation is derived, see post, at 282, the law has long recognized that in certain “civil cases” leaving the burden of persuasion on the plaintiff to prove “but-for” causation would be both unfair and destructive of the deterrent purposes embodied in the concept of duty of care. Thus, in multiple causation cases, where a breach of duty has been established, the common law of torts has long shifted the burden of proof to multiple defendants to prove that their negligent actions were not the “but-for” cause of the plaintiff’s injury. See e. g., Summers v. Tice, 33 Cal. 2d 80, 84-87, 199 P. 2d 1, 3-4 (1948). The same rule has been applied where the effect of a defendant’s tortious conduct combines with a force of unknown or innocent origin to produce the harm to the plaintiff. See Kingston v. Chicago & N. W. R. Co., 191 Wis. 610, 616, 211 N. W. 913, 915 (1927) (“Granting that the union of that fire [caused by defendant’s *264negligence] with another of natural origin, or with another of much greater proportions, is available as a defense, the burden is on the defendant to show that. . . the fire set by him was not the proximate cause of the damage”). See also 2 J. Wigmore, Select Cases on the Law of Torts § 153, p. 865 (1912) (“When two or more persons by their acts are possibly the sole cause of a harm, or when two or more acts of the same person are possibly the sole cause, and the plaintiff has introduced evidence that one of the two persons, or one of the same person’s two acts, is culpable, then the defendant has the burden of proving that the other person, or his other act, was the sole cause of the harm”).

While requiring that the plaintiff in a tort suit or a Title VII action prove that the defendant’s “breach of duty” was the “but-for” cause of an injury does not generally hamper effective enforcement of the policies behind those causes of action,

“at other times the [but-for] test demands the impossible. It challenges the imagination of the trier to probe into a purely fanciful and unknowable state of affairs. He is invited-to make an estimate concerning facts that concededly never existed. The very uncertainty as to what might have happened opens the door wide for conjecture. But when conjecture is demanded it can be given a direction that is consistent with the policy considerations that underlie the controversy.” Malone, Ruminations on Cause-In-Fact, 9 Stan. L. Rev. 60, 67 (1956).

Like the common law of torts, the statutory employment “tort” created by Title VII has two basic purposes. The first is to deter conduct which has been identified as contrary to public policy and harmful to society as a whole. As we have noted in the past, the award of backpay to a Title VII plaintiff provides “the spur or catalyst which causes employers and unions to self-examine and to self-evaluate their employment practices and to endeavor to eliminate, so far as *265possible, the last vestiges” of discrimination in employment. Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S. 405, 417-418 (1975) (citation omitted). The second goal of Title VII is “to make persons whole for injuries suffered on account of unlawful employment discrimination.” Id., at 418.

Both these goals are reflected in the elements of a disparate treatment action. There is no doubt that Congress considered reliance on gender or race in making employment decisions an evil in itself. As Senator Clark put it, “[t]he bill simply eliminates consideration of color [or other forbidden criteria] from the decision to hire or promote.” 110 Cong. Rec. 7218 (1964). See also id., at 13088 (remarks of Sen. Humphrey) (“What the bill does ... is simply to make it an illegal practice to use race as a factor in denying employment”). Reliance on such factors is exactly what the threat of Title VII liability was meant to deter. While the main concern of the statute was with employment opportunity, Congress was certainly not blind to the stigmatic harm which comes from being evaluated by a process which treats one as an inferior by reason of one’s race or sex. This Court’s decisions under the Equal Protection Clause have long recognized that whatever the final outcome of a decisional process, the inclusion of race or sex as a consideration within it harms both society and the individual. See Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., 488 U. S. 469 (1989). At the same time, Congress clearly conditioned legal liability on a determination that the consideration of an illegitimate factor caused a tangible employment injury of some kind.

Where an individual disparate treatment plaintiff has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that an illegitimate criterion was a substantial factor in an adverse employment decision, the deterrent purpose of the statute has clearly been triggered. More importantly, as an evidentiary matter, a reasonable factfinder could conclude that absent further explanation, the employer’s discriminatory motivation “caused” the employment decision. The employer has *266not yet been shown to be a violator, but neither is it entitled to the same presumption of good faith concerning its employment decisions which is accorded employers facing only circumstantial evidence of discrimination. Both the policies behind the statute, and the evidentiary principles developed in the analogous area of causation in the law of torts, suggest that at this point the employer may be required to convince the factfinder that, despite the smoke, there is no fire.

We have given recognition to these principles in our cases which have discussed the “remedial phase” of class action disparate treatment cases. Once the class has established that discrimination against a protected group was essentially the employer’s “standard practice,” there has been harm to the group and injunctive relief is appropriate. But as to the individual members of the class, the liability phase of the litigation is not complete. See Dillon v. Coles, 746 F. 2d 998, 1004 (CA3 1984) (“It is misleading to speak of the additional proof required by an individual class member for relief as being a part of the damage phase, that evidence is actually an element of the liability portion of the case”) (footnote omitted). Because the class has already demonstrated that, as a rule, illegitimate factors were considered in the employer’s decisions, the burden shifts to the employer “to demonstrate that the individual applicant was denied an employment opportunity for legitimate reasons.” Teamsters v. United States, 431 U. S. 324, 362 (1977). See also Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 424 U. S. 747, 772 (1976).

The individual members of a class action disparate treatment case stand in much the same position as Ann Hopkins here. There has been a strong showing that the employer has done exactly what Title VII forbids, but the connection between the employer’s illegitimate motivation and any injury to the individual plaintiff is unclear. At this point calling upon the employer to show that despite consideration of illegitimate factors the individual plaintiff would not have been hired or promoted in any event hardly seems “unfair” or *267contrary to the substantive command of the statute. In fact, an individual plaintiff who has shown that an illegitimate factor played a substantial role in the decision in his or her case has proved more than the class member in a Teamsters type action. The latter receives the benefit of a burden shift to the defendant based on the likelihood that an illegitimate criterion was a factor in the individual employment decision.

There is a tension between the Franks and Teamsters line of decisions and the individual disparate treatment cases cited by the dissent. See post, at 286-289. Logically, under the dissent’s view, each member of a disparate treatment class action would have to show “but-for” causation as to his or her individual employment decision, since it is not an element of the pattern or practice proof of the entire class and it is statutorily mandated that the plaintiff bear the burden of proof on this issue throughout the litigation. While the Court has properly drawn a distinction between the elements of a class action claim and an individual disparate treatment claim, see Cooper v. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 467 U. S. 867, 873-878 (1984), and I do not suggest the wholesale transposition of rules from one setting to the other, our decisions in Teamsters and Franks do indicate a recognition that presumptions shifting the burden of persuasion based on evidentiary probabilities and the policies behind the statute are not alien to our Title VII jurisprudence.

Moreover, placing the burden on the defendant in this case to prove that the same decision would have been justified by legitimate reasons is consistent with our interpretation of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. Like a disparate treatment plaintiff, one who asserts that governmental action violates the Equal Protection Clause must show that he or she is “the victim of intentional discrimination.” Burdine, 450 U. S., at 256. Compare post, at 286, 289 (Kennedy, J., dissenting), with Washington v. Davis, 426 U. S. 229, 240 (1976). In Alexander v. Louisiana, 405 U. S. 625 (1972), we dealt with a criminal defendant’s allegation that *268members of his race had been invidiously excluded from the grand jury which indicted him in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. In addition to the statistical evidence presented by petitioner in that case, we noted that the State’s “selection procedures themselves were not racially neutral.” Id., at 630. Once the consideration of race in the decisional process had been established, we held that “the burden of proof shifts to the State to rebut the presumption of unconstitutional action by showing that permissible racially neutral selection criteria and procedures have produced the monochromatic result.” Id., at 632.

We adhered to similar principles in Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., 429 U. S. 252 (1977), a case which, like this one, presented the problems of motivation and causation in the context of a multimember decisionmaking body authorized to consider a wide range of factors in arriving at its decisions. In Arlington Heights a group of minority plaintiffs claimed that a municipal governing body’s refusal to rezone a plot of land to allow for the construction of low-income integrated housing was racially motivated. On the issue of causation, we indicated that the plaintiff was not required

“to prove that the challenged action rested solely on racially discriminatory purposes. Rarely can it be said that a legislature or administrative body operating under a broad mandate made a decision motivated solely by a single concern, or even that a particular purpose was the ‘dominant’ or ‘primary’ one. In fact, it is because legislators and administrators are properly concerned with balancing numerous competing considerations that courts refrain from reviewing the merits of their decisions, absent a showing of arbitrariness or irrationality. But racial discrimination is not just another competing consideration. When there is a proof that a discriminatory purpose has been a motivating factor in the deci*269sion, this judicial deference is no longer justified.” Id., at 265-266 (citation omitted).

If the strong presumption of regularity and rationality of legislative decisionmaking must give way in the face of evidence that race has played a significant part in a legislative decision, I simply cannot believe that Congress intended Title VII to accord more deference to a private employer in the face of evidence that its decisional process has been substantially infected by discrimination. Indeed, where a public employee brings a “disparate treatment” claim under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 and the Equal Protection Clause the employee is entitled to the favorable evidentiary framework of Arlington Heights. See, e. g., Hervey v. Little Rock, 787 F. 2d 1223, 1233-1234 (CA8 1986) (applying Arlington Heights to public employee’s claim of sex discrimination in promotion decision); Lee v. Russell County Bd. of Education, 684 F. 2d 769, 773-774 (CA11 1982) (applying Arlington Heights to public employees’ claims óf race discrimination in discharge case). Under the dissent’s reading of Title VII, Congress’ extension of the coverage of the statute to public employers in 1972 has placed these employees under a less favorable evidentiary regime. In my view, nothing in the language, history, or purpose of Title VII prohibits adoption of an evidentiary rule which places the burden of persuasion on the defendant to demonstrate that legitimate concerns would have justified an adverse employment action where the plaintiff has convinced the factfinder that a forbidden factor played a substantial role in the employment decision. Even the dissenting judge below “[had] no quarrel with [the] principle” that “a party with one permissible motive and one unlawful one may prevail only by affirmatively proving that it would have acted as it did even if the forbidden motive were absent.” 263 U. S. App. D. C. 321, 341, 825 F. 2d 458, 478 (1987) (Williams, J. dissenting).

*270II

The dissent’s summary of our individual disparate treatment cases to date is fair and accurate, and amply demonstrates that the rule we adopt today is at least a change in direction from some of our prior precedents. See post, at 286-289. We have indeed emphasized in the past that in an individual disparate treatment action the plaintiff bears the burden of persuasion throughout the litigation. Nor have we confined the word “pretext” to the narrow definition which the plurality attempts to pin on it today. See ante, at 244-247. McDonnell Douglas and Burdine clearly contemplated that a disparate treatment plaintiff could show that the employer’s proffered explanation for an event was not “the true reason” either because it never motivated the employer in its employment decisions or because it did not do so in a particular case. McDonnell Douglas and Burdine assumed that the plaintiff would bear the burden of persuasion as to both these attacks, and we clearly depart from that framework today. Such a departure requires justification, and its outlines should be carefully drawn.

First, McDonnell Douglas itself dealt with a situation where the plaintiff presented no direct evidence that the employer had relied on a forbidden factor under Title VII in making an employment decision. The prima facie case established there was not difficult to prove, and was based only on the statistical probability that when a number of potential causes for an employment decision are eliminated an inference arises that an illegitimate factor was in fact the motivation behind the decision. See Teamsters, 431 U. S., at 358, n. 44 (“[T]he McDonnell Douglas formula does not require direct proof of discrimination”). In the face of this inferential proof, the employer’s burden was deemed to be only one of production; the employer must articulate a legitimate reason for the adverse employment action. See Furnco Construction Corp. v. Waters, 438 U. S. 567, 577 (1978). The plaintiff must then be given an “opportunity to demonstrate *271by competent evidence that the presumptively valid reasons for his rejection were in fact a coverup for a racially discriminatory decision.” McDonnell Douglas, 411 U. S., at 805. Our decision in Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U. S. 248 (1981), also involved the “narrow question” whether, after a plaintiff had carried the “not onerous” burden of establishing the prima facie case under McDonnell Douglas, the burden of persuasion should be shifted to the employer to prove that a legitimate reason for the adverse employment action existed. 450 U. S., at 250. As the discussion of Teamsters and Arlington Heights indicates, I do not think that the employer is entitled to the same presumption of good faith where there is direct evidence that it has placed substantial reliance on factors whose consideration is forbidden by Title VII.

The only individual disparate treatment case cited by the dissent which involved the kind of direct evidence of discriminatory animus with which we are confronted here is United States Postal Service Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U. S. 711, 713-714, n. 2 (1983). The question presented to the Court in that case involved only a challenge to the elements of the prima facie case under McDonnell Douglas and Burdine, see Pet. for Cert. in United States Postal Service Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, O. T. 1981, No. 81-1044, and the question we confront today was neither briefed nor argued to the Court. As should be apparent, the entire purpose of the McDonnell Douglas prima facie case is to compensate for the fact that direct evidence of intentional discrimination is hard to come by. That the employer’s burden in rebutting such an inferential case of discrimination is only one of production does not mean that the scales should be weighted in the same manner where there is direct evidence of intentional discrimination. Indeed, in one Age Discrimination in Employment Act case, the Court seemed to indicate that “the McDonnell Douglas test is inapplicable where the plaintiff presents direct evidence of discrimination.” Trans World *272Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U. S. 111, 121 (1985). See also East Texas Motor Freight System, Inc. v. Rodriguez, 431 U. S. 395, 403-404, n. 9 (1977).

Second, the facts of this case, and a growing number like it decided by the Courts of Appeals, convince me that the evidentiary standard I propose is necessary to make real the promise of McDonnell Douglas that “[i]n the implementation of [employment] decisions, it is abundantly clear that Title VII tolerates no . . . discrimination, subtle or otherwise.” 411 U. S., at 801. In this case, the District Court found that a number of the evaluations of Ann Hopkins submitted by partners in the firm overtly referred to her failure to conform to certain gender stereotypes as a factor militating against her election to the partnership. 618 F. Supp. 1109, 1116— 1117 (DC 1985). The District Court further found that these evaluations were given “great weight” by the decisionmakers at Price Waterhouse. Id., at 1118. In addition, the District Court found that the partner responsible for informing Hopkins of the factors which caused her candidacy to be placed on hold, indicated that her “professional” problems would be solved if she would “walk more femininely, talk more femininely, wear make-up, have her hair styled, and wear jewelry.” Id., at 1117 (footnote omitted). As the Court of Appeals characterized it, Ann Hopkins proved that Price Waterhouse “permitted] stereotypical attitudes towards women to play a significant, though unquantifiable, role in its decision not to invite her to become a partner.” 263 U. S. App. D. C., at 324, 825 F. 2d, at 461.

At this point Ann Hopkins had taken her proof as far as it could go. She had proved discriminatory input into the decisional process, and had proved that participants in the process considered her failure to conform to the stereotypes credited by a number of the decisionmakers had been a substantial factor in the decision. It is as if Ann Hopkins were sitting in the hall outside the room where partnership decisions were being made. As the partners filed in to consider *273her candidacy, she heard several of them make sexist remarks in discussing her suitability for partnership. As the decisionmakers exited the room, she was told by one of those privy to the decisionmaking process that her gender was a major reason for the rejection of her partnership bid. If, as we noted in Teamsters, “[presumptions shifting the burden of proof are often created to reflect judicial evaluations of probabilities and to conform with a party’s superior access to the proof,” 431 U. S., at 359, n. 45, one would be hard pressed to think of a situation where it would be more appropriate to require the defendant to show that its decision would have been justified by wholly legitimate concerns.

Moreover, there is mounting evidence in the decisions of the lower courts that respondent here is not alone in her inability to pinpoint discrimination as the precise cause of her injury, despite having shown that it played a significant role in the decisional process. Many of these courts, which deal with the evidentiary issues in Title VII cases on a regular basis, have concluded that placing the risk of nonpersuasion on the defendant in a situation where uncertainty as to causation has been created by its consideration of an illegitimate criterion makes.sense as a rule of evidence and furthers the substantive command of Title VII. See, e. g., Bell v. Birmingham Linen Service, 715 F. 2d 1552, 1556 (CA11 1983) (Tjoflat, J.) (“It would be illogical, indeed ironic, to hold a Title VII plaintiff presenting direct evidence of a defendant’s intent to discriminate to a more stringent burden of proof, or to allow a defendant to meet that direct proof by merely articulating, but not proving, legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for its action”). Particularly in the context of the professional world, where decisions are often made by collegial bodies on the basis of largely subjective criteria, requiring the plaintiff to prove that any one factor was the definitive cause of the decisionmakers’ action may be tantamount to declaring Title VII inapplicable to such decisions. See, e. g., Fields v. Clark University, 817 F. 2d 931, 935-937 *274(CA1 1987) (where plaintiff produced “strong evidence” that sexist attitudes infected faculty tenure decision, burden properly shifted to defendant to show that it would have reached the same decision absent discrimination); Thompkins v. Morris Brown College, 752 F. 2d 558, 563 (CA11 1985) (direct evidence of discriminatory animus in decision to discharge college professor shifted burden of persuasion to defendant).

Finally, I am convinced that a rule shifting the burden to the defendant where the plaintiff has shown that an illegitimate criterion was a “substantial factor” in the employment decision will not conflict with other congressional policies embodied in Title VII. Title VII expressly provides that an employer need not give preferential treatment to employees or applicants of any race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in order to maintain a work force in balance with the general population. See 42 U. S. C. §2000e-2(j). The interpretive memorandum, whose authoritative force is noted by the plurality, see ante, at 243, n. 8, specifically provides: “There is no requirement in title VII that an employer maintain a racial balance in his work force. On the contrary, any deliberate attempt to maintain a racial balance, whatever such a balance may be, would involve a violation of title VII because maintaining such a balance would require an employer to hire or refuse to hire on the basis of race.” 110 Cong. Rec. 7213 (1964).

Last Term, in Watson v. Fort Worth Bank & Trust, 487 U. S. 977 (1988), the Court unanimously concluded that the disparate impact analysis first enunciated in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424 (1971), should be extended to subjective or discretionary selection processes. At the same time a plurality of the Court indicated concern that the focus on bare statistics in the disparate impact setting could force employers to adopt “inappropriate prophylactic measures” in violation of § 2000e-2(j). The plurality went on to emphasize that in a disparate impact case, the plaintiff may not simply *275point to a statistical disparity in the employer’s work force. Instead, the plaintiff must identify a particular employment practice and “must offer statistical evidence of a kind and degree sufficient to show that the practice in question has caused the exclusion of applicants for jobs or promotions because of their membership in a protected group.” 487 U. S., at 994. The plurality indicated that “the ultimate burden of proving that discrimination against a protected group has been caused by a specific employment practice remains with the plaintiff at all times.” Id., at 997.

I believe there are significant differences between shifting the burden of persuasion to the employer in a case resting purely on statistical proof as in the disparate impact setting and shifting the burden of persuasion in a case like this one, where an employee has demonstrated by direct evidence that an illegitimate factor played a substantial role in a particular employment decision. First, the explicit consideration of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in making employment decisions “was the most obvious evil Congress had in mind when it enacted Title VII.” Teamsters, 431 U. S., at 335, n. 15. While the prima facie case under McDonnell Douglas and the statistical showing of imbalance involved in a disparate impact case may both be indicators of discrimination or its “functional equivalent,” they are not, in and of themselves, the evils Congress sought to eradicate from the employment setting. Second, shifting the burden of persuasion to the employer in a situation like this one creates no incentive to preferential treatment in violation of §2000e-(2)(j). To avoid bearing the burden of justifying its decision, the employer need not seek racial or sexual balance in its work force; rather, all it need do is avoid substantial reliance on forbidden criteria in making its employment decisions.

While the danger of forcing employers to engage in unwarranted preferential treatment is thus less dramatic in this setting than in the situation the Court faced in Watson, it is far from wholly illusory. Based on its misreading of *276the words “because of” in the statute, see ante, at 240-242, the plurality appears to conclude that if a decisional process is “tainted” by awareness of sex or race in any way, the employer has violated the statute, and Title VII thus commands that the burden shift to the employer to justify its decision. Ante, at 250-252. The plurality thus effectively reads the causation requirement out of the statute, and then replaces it with an “affirmative defense.” Ante, at 244-247.

In my view, in order to justify shifting the burden on the issue of causation to the defendant, a disparate treatment plaintiff must show by direct evidence that an illegitimate criterion was a substantial factor in the decision. As the Court of Appeals noted below: “While most circuits have not confronted the question squarely, the consensus among those that have is that once a Title VII plaintiff has demonstrated by direct evidence that discriminatory animus played a significant or substantial role in the employment decision, the burden shifts to the employer to show that the decision would have been the same absent discrimination.” 263 U. S. App. D. C., at 333-344, 825 F. 2d, at'470-471. Requiring that the plaintiff demonstrate that an illegitimate factor played a substantial role in the employment decision identifies those employment situations where the deterrent purpose of Title VII is most clearly implicated. As an evidentiary matter, where a plaintiff has made this type of strong showing of illicit motivation, the factfinder is entitled to presume that the employer’s discriminatory animus made a difference to the outcome, absent proof to the contrary from the employer. Where a disparate treatment plaintiff has made such a showing, the burden then rests with the employer to convince the trier of fact that it is more likely than not that the decision would have been the same absent consideration of the illegitimate factor. The employer need not isolate the sole cause for the decision; rather it must demonstrate that with the illegitimate factor removed from the calculus, sufficient business reasons would have induced it to take the same employment *277action. This evidentiary scheme essentially requires the employer to place the employee in the same position he or she would have occupied absent discrimination. Cf. Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274, 286 (1977). If the employer fails to carry this burden, the factfinder is justified in concluding that the decision was made “because of” consideration of the illegitimate factor and the substantive standard for liability under the statute is satisfied.

Thus, stray remarks in the workplace, while perhaps probative of sexual harassment, see Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U. S. 57, 63-69 (1986), cannot justify requiring the employer to prove that its hiring or promotion decisions were based on legitimate criteria. Nor can statements by nondecisionmakers, or statements by decisionmakers unrelated to the decisional process itself, suffice to satisfy the plaintiff’s burden in this regard. In addition, in my view testimony such as Dr. Fiske’s in this case, standing alone, would not justify shifting the burden of persuasion to the employer. Race and gender always “play a role” in an employment decision in the benign sense that these are human characteristics of which decisionmakers are aware and about which they may comment in a perfectly neutral and nondiscriminatory fashion. For example, in the context of this case, a mere reference to “a lady candidate” might show that gender “played a role” in the decision, but by no means could support a rational factfinder’s inference that the decision was made “because of” sex. What is required is what Ann Hopkins showed here: direct evidence that decisionmakers placed substantial negative reliance on an illegitimate criterion in reaching their decision.

It should be obvious that the threshold standard I would adopt for shifting the burden of persuasion to the defendant differs substantially from that proposed by the plurality, the plurality’s suggestion to the contrary notwithstanding. See ante, at 250, n. 13. The plurality proceeds from the premise that the words “because of” in the statute do not embody any *278causal requirement at all. Under my approach, the plaintiff must produce evidence sufficient to show that an illegitimate criterion was a substantial factor in the particular employment decision such that a reasonable factfinder could draw an inference that the decision was made “because of” the plaintiff’s protected status. Only then would the burden of proof shift to the defendant to prove that the decision would have been justified by other, wholly legitimate considerations. See also ante, at 259-260 (White, J., concurring in judgment).

In sum, because of the concerns outlined above, and because I believe that the deterrent purpose of Title VII is disserved by a rule which places the burden of proof on plaintiffs on the issue of causation in all circumstances, I would retain but supplement the framework we established in McDonnell Douglas and subsequent cases. The structure of the presentation of evidence in an individual disparate treatment case should conform to the general outlines we established in McDonnell Douglas and Burdine. First, the plaintiff must establish the McDonnell Douglas prima facie case by showing membership in a protected group, qualification for the job, rejection for the position, and that after rejection the employer continued to seek applicants of complainant’s general qualifications. McDonnell Douglas, 411 U. S., at 802. The plaintiff should also present any direct evidence of discriminatory animus in the decisional process. The defendant should then present its case, including its evidence as to legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for the employment decision. As the dissent notes, under this framework, the employer “has every incentive to convince the trier of fact that the decision was lawful.” Post, at 292, citing Burdine, 450 U. S., at 258. Once all the evidence has been received, the court should determine whether the McDonnell Douglas or Price Waterhouse framework properly applies to the evidence before it. If the plaintiff has failed to satisfy the Price Waterhouse threshold, the case should be decided under the principles enunciated in McDonnell Douglas and Burdine, *279with the plaintiff bearing the burden of persuasion on the ultimate issue whether the employment action was taken because of discrimination. In my view, such a system is both fair and workable, and it calibrates the evidentiary requirements demanded of the parties to the goals behind the statute itself.

I agree with the dissent, see post, at 293, n. 4, that the evidentiary framework I propose should be available to all disparate treatment plaintiffs where an illegitimate consideration played a substantial role in an adverse employment decision. The Court’s allocation of the burden of proof in Johnson v. Transportation Agency, Santa Clara County, 480 U. S. 616, 626-627 (1987), rested squarely on “the analytical framework set forth in McDonnell Douglas,” id., at 626, which we alter today. It would be odd to say the least if the evidentiary rules applicable to Title VII actions were themselves dependent on the gender or the skin color of the litigants. But see ante, at 239, n. 3.

In this case, I agree with the plurality that petitioner should be called upon to show that the outcome would have been the same if respondent’s professional merit had been its only concern. On remand, the District Court should determine whether Price Waterhouse has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that if gender had not been part of the process, its employment decision concerning Ann Hopkins would nonetheless have been the same.

Justice Kennedy,

with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Scalia join,

dissenting.

Today the Court manipulates existing and complex rules for employment discrimination cases in a way certain to result in confusion. Continued adherence to the evidentiary scheme established in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S. 792 (1973), and Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U. S. 248 (1981), is a wiser course than creation of more disarray in an area of the law already difficult for the bench and bar, and so I must dissent.

*280Before turning to my reasons for disagreement with the Court’s disposition of the case, it is important to review the actual holding of today’s decision. I read the opinions as establishing that in a limited number of cases Title VII plaintiffs, by presenting direct and substantial evidence of discriminatory animus, may shift the burden of persuasion to the defendant to show that an adverse employment decision would have been supported by legitimate reasons. The shift in the burden of persuasion occurs only where a plaintiff proves by direct evidence that an unlawful motive was a substantial factor actually relied upon in making the decision. Ante, at 276-277 (opinion of O’Connor, J.); ante, at 259-260 (opinion of White, J.). As the opinions make plain, the evidentiary scheme created today is not for every case in which a plaintiff produces evidence of stray remarks in the workplace. Ante, at 251 (opinion of Brennan, J.); ante, at 277 (opinion of O’Connor, J.).

Where the plaintiff makes the requisite showing, the burden that shifts to the employer is to show that legitimate employment considerations would have justified the decision without reference to any impermissible motive. Ante, at 260-261 (opinion of White, J.); ante, at 278 (opinion of O’Connor, J.). The employer’s proof on the point is to be presented and reviewed just as with any other evidentiary question: the Court does not accept the plurality’s suggestion that an employer’s evidence need be “objective” or otherwise out of the ordinary. Ante, at 261 (opinion of White, J.).

In sum, the Court alters the evidentiary framework of McDonnell Douglas and Burdine for a closely defined set of cases. Although Justice O’Connor advances some thoughtful arguments for this change, I remain convinced that it is unnecessary and unwise. More troubling is the plurality’s rationale for today’s decision, which includes a number of unfortunate pronouncements on both causation and methods of proof in employment discrimination cases. To demonstrate the defects in the plurality’s reasoning, it is nec*281essary to discuss, first, the standard of causation in Title VII cases, and, second, the burden of proof.

I

The plurality describes this as a case about the standard of causation under Title VII, ante, at 237, but I respectfully suggest that the description is misleading. Much of the plurality’s rhetoric is spent denouncing a “but-for” standard of causation. The theory of Title VII liability the plurality adopts, however, essentially incorporates the but-for standard. The importance of today’s decision is not the standard of causation it employs, but its shift to the defendant of the burden of proof. The plurality’s causation analysis is misdirected, for it is clear that, whoever bears the burden of proof on the issue, Title VII liability requires a finding of but-for causation. See also ante, at 261, and n. (opinion of White, J.); ante, at 262-263 (opinion of O’Connor, J.).

The words of Title VII are not obscure. The part of the statute relevant to this case provides:

“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer—

“(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) (emphasis added).

By any normal understanding, the phrase “because of” conveys the idea that the motive in question made a difference to the outcome. We use the words this way in everyday speech. And assuming, as the plurality does, that we ought to consider the interpretive memorandum prepared by the statute’s drafters, we find that this is what the words meant to them as well. “To discriminate is to make a distinction, to make a difference in treatment or favor.” 110 Cong. Rec. 7213 (1964). Congress could not have chosen a clearer way *282to indicate that proof of liability under Title VII requires a showing that race, color, religion, sex, or national origin caused the decision at issue.

Our decisions confirm that Title VII is not concerned with the mere presence of impermissible motives; it is directed to employment decisions that result from those motives. The verbal formulae we have used in our precedents are synonymous with but-for causation. Thus we have said that providing different insurance coverage to male and female employees violates the statute by treating the employee “ ‘in a manner which but-for that person’s sex would be different.’” Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. v. EEOC, 462 U. S. 669, 683 (1983), quoting Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power v. Manhart, 435 U. S. 702, 711 (1978). We have described the relevant question as whether the employment decision was “based on” a discriminatory criterion, Teamsters v. United States, 431 U. S. 324, 358 (1977), or whether the particular employment decision at issue was “made on the basis of” an impermissible factor, Cooper v. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, 467 U. S. 867, 875 (1984).

What we term “but-for” cause is the least rigorous standard that is consistent with the approach to causation our precedents describe. If a motive is not a but-for cause of an event, then by definition it did not make a difference to the outcome. The event would have occurred just the same without it. Common-law approaches to causation often require proof of but-for cause as a starting point toward proof of legal cause. The law may require more than but-for cause, for instance proximate cause, before imposing liability. Any standard less than but-for, however, simply represents a decision to impose liability without causation. As Dean Prosser puts it, “[a]n act or omission is not regarded as a cause of an event if the particular event would have occurred without it.” W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on Law of Torts 265 (5th ed. 1984).

*283One of the principal reasons the plurality decision may sow confusion is that it claims Title VII liability is unrelated to but-for causation, yet it adopts a but-for standard once it has placed the burden of proof as to causation upon the employer. This approach conflates the question whether causation must be shown with the question of how it is to be shown. Because the plurality’s theory of Title VII causation is ultimately consistent with a but-for standard, it might be said that my disagreement with the plurality’s comments on but-for cause is simply academic. See ante, at 259 (opinion of White, J.). But since those comments seem to influence the decision, I turn now to that part of the plurality’s analysis.

The plurality begins by noting the quite unremarkable fact that Title VII is written in the present tense. Ante, at 240-241. It is unlawful “to fail” or “to refuse” to provide employment benefits on the basis of sex, not “to have failed” or “to have refused” to have done so. The plurality claims that the present tense excludes a but-for inquiry as the relevant standard because but-for causation is necessarily concerned with a hypothetical inquiry into how a past event would have occurred absent the contested motivation. This observation, however, tells us nothing of particular relevance to Title VII or the cause of action it creates. I am unaware of any federal prohibitory statute that is written in the past tense. Every liability determination, including the novel one constructed by the plurality, necessarily is concerned with the examination of a past event.1 The plurality’s analysis of verb tense serves only to divert attention from the causation requirement that is made part of the statute by the “because *284of” phrase. That phrase, I respectfully submit, embodies a rather simple concept that the plurality labors to ignore.2

We are told next that but-for cause is not required, since the words “because of” do not mean “solely because of.” Ante, at 241. No one contends, however, that sex must be the sole cause of a decision before there is a Title VII violation. This is a separate question from whether consideration of sex must be a cause of the decision. Under the accepted approach to causation that I have discussed, sex is a cause for the employment decision whenever, either by itself or in combination with other factors, it made a difference to the decision. Discrimination need not be the sole cause in order for liability to arise, but merely a necessary element of the set of factors that caused the decision, i. e., a but-for cause. See McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co., 427 U. S. 273, 282, n. 10 (1976). The plurality seems to say that since we know the words “because of” do not mean “solely because of,” they must not mean “because of” at all. This does not follow, as a matter of either semantics or logic.

The plurality’s reliance on the “bona fide occupational qualification” (BFOQ) provisions of Title VII, 42 U. S. C. §2000e-2(e), is particularly inapt. The BFOQ provisions allow an employer, in certain cases, to make an employment decision of which it is conceded that sex is the cause. That sex may be the legitimate cause of an employment decision where gender is a BFOQ is consistent with the opposite com*285mand that a decision caused by sex in any other case justifies the imposition of Title VII liability. This principle does not support, however, the novel assertion that a violation has occurred where sex made no difference to the outcome.

The most confusing aspect of the plurality’s analysis of causation and liability is its internal inconsistency. The plurality begins by saying: “When ... an employer considers both gender and legitimate factors at the time of making a decision, that decision was ‘because of’ sex and the other, legitimate considerations — even if we may say later, in the context of litigation, that the decision would have been the same if gender had not been taken into account.” Ante, at 241. Yet it goes on to state that “an employer shall not be liable if it can prove that, even if it had not taken gender into account, it would have come to the same decision.” Ante, at 242.

Given the language of the statute, these statements cannot both be true. Title VII unambiguously states that an employer who makes decisions “because of” sex has violated the statute. The plurality’s first statement therefore appears to indicate that an employer who considers illegitimate reasons when making a decision is a violator. But the opinion then tells us that the employer who shows that the same decision would have been made absent consideration of sex is not a violator. If the second statement is to be reconciled with the language of Title VII, it must be that a decision that would have been the same absent consideration of sex was not made “because of” sex. In other words, there is no violation of the statute absent but-for causation. The plurality’s description of the “same decision” test it adopts supports this view. The opinion states that “[a] court that finds for a plaintiff under this standard has effectively concluded that an illegitimate motive was a ‘but-for’ cause of the employment decision,” ante, at 249, and that this “is not an imposition of liability ‘where sex made no difference to the outcome,”’ ante, at 246, n. 11.

*286The plurality attempts to reconcile its internal inconsistency on the causation issue by describing the employer’s showing as an “affirmative defense.” This is nothing more than a label, and one not found in the language or legislative history of Title VII. Section 703(a)(1) is the statutory basis of the cause of action, and the Court is obligated to explain how its disparate-treatment decisions are consistent with the terms of § 703(a)(1), not with general themes of legislative history or with other parts of the statute that are plainly in-apposite. While the test ultimately adopted by the plurality may not be inconsistent with the terms of § 703(a)(1), see infra, at 292, the same cannot be said of the plurality’s reasoning with respect to causation. As Justice O’Connor describes it, the plurality “reads the causation requirement out of the statute, and then replaces it with an ‘affirmative defense.’” Ante, at 276. Labels aside, the import of today’s decision is not that Title VII liability can arise without but-for causation, but that in certain cases it is not the plaintiff who must prove the presence of causation, but the defendant who must prove its absence.

II

We established the order of proof for individual Title VII disparate-treatment cases in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 J. S. 792 (1973), and reaffirmed this allocation in Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U. S. 248 (1981). Under Burdine, once the plaintiff presents a prima facie case, an inference of discrimination arises. The employer must rebut the inference by articulating a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for its action. The final burden of persuasion, however, belongs to the plaintiff. Burdine makes clear that the “ultimate burden of persuading the trier of fact that the defendant intentionally discriminated against the plaintiff remains at all times with the plaintiff.” Id., at 253. See also Board of Trustees of Keene State College v. *287Sweeney, 439 U. S. 24, 29 (1978) (Stevens, J., dissenting).3 I would adhere to this established evidentiary framework, which provides the appropriate standard for this and other individual disparate-treatment cases. Today’s creation of a new set of rules for “mixed-motives” cases is not mandated by the statute itself. The Court’s attempt at refinement provides limited practical benefits at the cost of confusion and complexity, with the attendant risk that the trier of fact will misapprehend the controlling legal principles and reach an incorrect decision.

In view of the plurality’s treatment of Burdine and our other disparate-treatment cases, it is important first to state why those cases are dispositive here. The plurality tries to reconcile its approach with Burdine by announcing that it applies only to a “pretext” case, which it defines as a case in which the plaintiff attempts to prove that the employer’s proffered explanation is itself false. Ante, at 245-247, and n. 11. This ignores the language of Burdine, which states that a plaintiff may succeed in meeting her ultimate burden of persuasion “either directly by persuading the court that a discriminatory reason more likely motivated the employer or indirectly by showing that the employer’s proffered explanation is unworthy of credence.” 450 U. S., at 256 (emphasis added). Under the first of these two alternative methods, a plaintiff meets her burden if she can “persuade the court that the employment decision more likely than not was motivated by a discriminatory reason.” United States Postal Service Bd. of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U. S. 711, 717-718 (1983) *288(Blackmun, J., concurring). The plurality makes no attempt to address this aspect of our cases.

Our opinions make plain that Burdine applies to all individual disparate-treatment cases, whether the plaintiff offers direct proof that discrimination motivated the employer’s actions or chooses the indirect method of showing that the employer’s proffered justification is false, that is to say, a pretext. See Aikens, supra, at 714, n. 3 (“As in any lawsuit, the plaintiff may prove his case by direct or circumstantial evidence”). The plurality is mistaken in suggesting that the plaintiff in a so-called “mixed-motives” case will be disadvantaged by having to “squeeze her proof into Burdine’& framework.” Ante, at 247. As we acknowledged in McDonnell Douglas, “[t]he facts necessarily will vary in Title VII cases,” and the specification of the prima facie case set forth there “is not necessarily applicable in every respect to differing factual situations.” 411 U. S., at 802, n. 13. The framework was “never intended to be rigid, mechanized, or ritualistic.” Aikens, supra, at 715. Burdine compels the employer to come forward with its explanation of the decision and permits the plaintiff to offer evidence under either of the logical methods for proof of discrimination. This is hardly a framework that confines the plaintiff; still less is it a justification for saying that the ultimate burden of proof must be on the employer in a mixed-motives case. Burdine provides an orderly and adequate way to place both inferential and direct proof before the factfinder for a determination whether intentional discrimination has caused the employment decision. Regardless of the character of the evidence presented, we have consistently held that the ultimate burden “remains at all times with the plaintiff.” Burdine, supra, at 253.

Aikens illustrates the point. There, the evidence showed that the plaintiff, a black man, was far more qualified than any of the white applicants promoted ahead of him. More important, the testimony showed that “the person responsible for the promotion decisions at issue had made numerous *289derogatory comments about blacks in general and Aikens in particular.” 460 U. S., at 713-714, n. 2. Yet the Court in Aikens reiterated that the case was to be tried under the proof scheme of Burdine. Justice Brennan and Justice Blackmun concurred to stress that the plaintiff could prevail under the Burdine scheme in either of two ways, one of which was directly to persuade the court that the employment decision was motivated by discrimination. 460 U. S., at 718. Aikens leaves no doubt that the so-called “pretext” framework of Burdine has been considered to provide a flexible means of addressing all individual disparate-treatment claims.

Downplaying the novelty of its opinion, the plurality claims to have followed a “well-worn path” from our prior cases. The path may be well worn, but it is in the wrong forest. The plurality again relies on Title VH’s BFOQ provisions, under which an employer bears the burden of justifying the use of a sex-based employment qualification. See Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U. S. 321, 332-337 (1977). In the BFOQ context this is a sensible, indeed necessary, allocation of the burden, for there by definition sex is the but-for cause of the employment decision and the only question remaining is how the employer can justify it. The same is true of the plurality’s citations to Pregnancy Discrimination Act cases, ante, at 248. In such cases there is no question that pregnancy was the cause of the disputed action. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act and BFOQ cases tell us nothing about the case where the employer claims not that a sex-based decision was justified, but that the decision was not sex-based at all.

Closer analogies to the plurality’s new approach are found in Mt. Healthy City Bd. of Ed. v. Doyle, 429 U. S. 274 (1977), and NRLB v. Transportation Management Corp., 462 U. S. 393 (1983), but these cases were decided in different contexts. Mt. Healthy was a First Amendment case involving the firing of a teacher, and Transportation Management involved review of the NLRB’s interpretation of the National Labor Re*290lations Act. The Transportation Management decision was based on the deference that the Court traditionally accords NLRB interpretations of the statutes it administers. See 462 U. S., at 402-403. Neither case therefore tells us why the established Burdine framework should not continue to govern the order of proof under Title VII.

In contrast to the plurality, Justice O’Connor acknowledges that the approach adopted today is a “departure from the McDonnell Douglas standard.” Ante, at 262. Although her reasons for supporting this departure are not without force, they are not dispositive. As Justice O’Connor states, the most that can be said with respect to the Title VII itself is that “nothing in the language, history, or purpose of Title VII prohibits adoption” of the new approach. Ante, at 269 (emphasis added). Justice O’Connor also relies on analogies from the common law of torts, other types of Title VII litigation, and our equal protection cases. These analogies demonstrate that shifts in the burden of proof are not unprecedented in the law of torts or employment discrimination. Nonetheless, I believe continued adherence to the Burdine framework is more consistent with the statutory mandate. Congress’ manifest concern with preventing imposition of liability in cases where discriminatory animus did not actually cause an adverse action, see ante, at 262 (opinion of O’Connor, J.), suggests to me that an affirmative showing of causation should be required. And the most relevant portion of the legislative history supports just this view. See n. 3, supra. The limited benefits that are likely to be produced by today’s innovation come at the sacrifice of clarity and practical application.

The potential benefits of the new approach, in my view, are overstated. First, the Court makes clear that the Price Waterhouse scheme is applicable only in those cases where the plaintiff has produced direct and substantial proof that an impermissible motive was relied upon in making the decision at issue. The burden shift properly will be found to apply in *291only a limited number of employment discrimination cases. The application of the new scheme, furthermore, will make a difference only in a smaller subset of cases. The practical importance of the burden of proof is the “risk of nonpersuasion,” and the new system will make a difference only where the evidence is so evenly balanced that the factfinder cannot say that either side’s explanation of the case is “more likely” true. This category will not include cases in which the allocation of the' burden of proof will be dispositive because of a complete lack of evidence on the causation issue. Cf. Summers v. Tice, 33 Cal. 2d 80, 199 P. 2d 1 (1948) (allocation of burden dispositive because no evidence of which of two negligently fired shots hit plaintiff). Rather, Price Water-house will apply only to cases in which there is substantial evidence of reliance on an impermissible motive, as well as evidence from the employer that legitimate reasons supported its action.

Although the Price Waterhouse system is not for every case, almost every plaintiff is certain to ask for a Price Waterhouse instruction, perhaps on the basis of “stray remarks” or other evidence of discriminatory animus. Trial and appellate courts will therefore be saddled with the task of developing standards for determining when to apply the burden shift. One of their new tasks will be the generation of a jurisprudence of the meaning of “substantial factor.” Courts will also be required to make the often subtle and difficult distinction between “direct” and “indirect” or “circumstantial” evidence. Lower courts long have had difficulty applying McDonnell Douglas and Burdine. Addition of a second burden-shifting mechanism, the application of which itself depends on assessment of credibility and a determination whether evidence is sufficiently direct and substantial, is not likely to lend clarity to the process. The presence of an existing burden-shifting mechanism distinguishes the individual disparate-treatment case from the tort, class-action discrimination, and equal protection cases on which *292Justice O’Connor relies. The distinction makes Justice White’s assertions that one “need look only to” Mt. Healthy and Transportation Management to resolve this case, and that our Title VII cases in this area are “inapposite,” ante, at 258-260, at best hard to understand.

Confusion in the application of dual burden-shifting mechanisms will be most acute in cases brought under 42 U. S. C. § 1981 or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), where courts borrow the Title VII order of proof for the conduct of jury trials. See, e. g., Note, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and Trial by Jury: Proposals for Change, 73 Va. L. Rev. 601 (1987) (noting high reversal rate caused by use of Title VII burden shifting in a jury setting). Perhaps such cases in the future will require a bifurcated trial, with the jury retiring first to make the credibility findings necessary to determine whether the plaintiff has proved that an impermissible factor played a substantial part in the decision, and later hearing evidence on the “same decision” or “pretext” issues. Alternatively, perhaps the trial judge will have the unenviable task of formulating a single instruction for the jury on all of the various burdens potentially involved in the cáse.

I do not believe the minor refinement in Title VII procedures accomplished by today’s holding can justify the difficulties that will accompany it. Rather, I “remain confident that the McDonnell Douglas framework permits the plaintiff meriting relief to demonstrate intentional discrimination.” Bur-dine, 450 U. S., at 258. Although the employer does not bear the burden of persuasion under Burdine, it must offer clear and reasonably specific reasons for the contested decision, and has every incentive to persuade the trier of fact that the decision was lawful. Ibid. Further, the suggestion that the employer should bear the burden of persuasion due to superior access to evidence has little force in the Title VII context, where the liberal discovery rules available to all litigants are supplemented by EEOC investigatory files. Ibid. *293In sum, the Burdine framework provides a “sensible, orderly-way to evaluate the evidence in light of common experience as it bears on the critical question of discrimination,” Aikens, 460 U. S., at 715, and it should continue to govern the order of proof in Title VII disparate-treatment cases.4

Ill

The ultimate question in every individual disparate-treatment case is whether discrimination caused the particular decision at issue. Some of the plurality’s comments with respect to the District Court’s findings in this case, however, are potentially misleading. As the plurality notes, the District Court based its liability determination on expert evidence that some evaluations of respondent Hopkins were based on unconscious sex stereotypes,5 and on the fact that *294Price Waterhouse failed to disclaim reliance on these comments when it conducted the partnership review. The District Court also based liability on Price Waterhouse’s failure to “make partners sensitive to the dangers [of stereotyping], to discourage comments tainted by sexism, or to investigate comments to determine whether they were influenced by stereotypes.” 618 F. Supp. 1109, 1119 (DC 1985).

Although the District Court’s version of Title VII liability is improper under any of today’s opinions, I think it important to stress that Title VII creates no independent cause of action for sex stereotyping. Evidence of use by decision-makers of sex stereotypes is, of course, quite relevant to the question of discriminatory intent. The ultimate question, however, is whether discrimination caused the plaintiff’s harm. Our cases do not support the suggestion that failure to “disclaim reliance” on stereotypical comments itself violates Title VII. Neither do they support creation of a “duty to sensitize.” As the dissenting judge in the Court of Appeals observed, acceptance of such theories would turn Title VII “from a prohibition of discriminatory conduct into an engine for rooting out sexist thoughts.” 263 U. S. App. D. C. 321, 340, 825 F. 2d 458, 477 (1987) (Williams, J., dissenting).

Employment discrimination claims require factfinders to make difficult and sensitive decisions. Sometimes this may mean that no finding of discrimination is justified even though a qualified employee is passed over by a less than admirable employer. In other cases, Title VII’s protections properly extend to plaintiffs who are by no means model employees. As Justice Brennan notes, ante, at 258, courts do not sit to determine whether litigants are nice. In this *295case, Hopkins plainly presented a strong case both other own professional qualifications and of the presence of discrimination in Price Waterhouse’s partnership process. Had the District Court found on this record that sex discrimination caused the adverse decision, I doubt it would have been reversible error. Cf. Aikens, supra, at 714, n. 2. That decision was for the finder of fact, however, and the District Court made plain that sex discrimination was not a but-for cause of the decision to place Hopkins’ partnership candidacy on hold. Attempts to evade tough decisions by erecting novel theories of liability or multitiered systems of shifting burdens are misguided.

IV

The language of Title VII and our well-considered precedents require this plaintiff to establish that the decision to place her candidacy on hold was made “because of” sex. Here the District Court found that the “comments of the individual partners and the expert evidence of Dr. Fiske do not prove an intentional discriminatory motive or purpose,” 618 F. Supp., at 1118, and that “[b]ecause plaintiff has considerable problems dealing with staff and peers, the Court cannot say that she would have been elected to partnership if the Policy Board’s decision had not been tainted by sexually based evaluations,” id., at 1120. Hopkins thus failed to meet the requisite standard of proof after a full trial. I would remand the case for entry of judgment in favor of Price Waterhouse.

BERZON, Circuit Judge:

The Nevada Department of Corrections (NDOC) hires only female correctional lieutenants at a women’s prison. The district court granted summary judgment upholding NDOC’s discriminatory employment policy, concluding that the policy imposed only a “de minimis” restriction on male prison employees’ promotional opportunities and, alternatively, that the policy falls within Title VII’s exception permitting sex discrimination in jobs for which sex is a bona fide occupational qualification, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e)(l). We reverse as to both holdings.

Factual & Procedural Background

In September 2003, NDOC’s Inspector General learned that a female inmate at the Southern Nevada Women’s Correctional Facility (SNWCF) had been impregnated by a male guard. At the time, SNWCF was operated by a private company, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The pregnant inmate alleged that her relationship with the guard stemmed from CCA’s refusal to provide the psychotropic medications she had long been prescribed to treat her schizophrenia. NDOC Director Jackie Crawford acknowledged that her office had received a number of complaints concerning medical issues at SNWCF. At Crawford’s direction, the Inspector General interviewed approximately 200 inmates about “their personal experiences with the medical function at [SNWCF].” Nearly all the inmates reported receiving substandard medical treatment.

In the course of the investigation, the Inspector General also discovered that SNWCF had become “an uninhibited sexual environment.” He noted “frequent instances of inappropriate staff/inmate interaction,” “flirtatious activities between staff and inmates,” and “widespread knowl*1205edge” of “long-term inmate/inmate sexual relationships.” In exchange for sex, prison staff “routinely introduce[d] ... contraband into the institution, including alcohol, narcotics, cosmetics, [and] jewelry.” The inmates’ sexual behavior — which they freely admitted was designed to “compromise staff and enhance inmate privileges” — was, in the Inspector General’s view, “predictable.” The Inspector General attributed the guards’ misconduct to “a lack of effective supervisory management oversight and control.... There is no evidence that supervisors or managers recognize this risky behavior or do anything to stop it.” To address this “leadership void,” the Inspector General recommended that “line supervisors undergo leadership training” and that “subordinate staff undergo retraining with emphasis on inmate con games and ethical behavior.”

In the wake of the Inspector General’s report, which ignited “very high profile” media coverage, CCA announced that it was terminating its contract to operate SNWCF. NDOC resumed control of the facility and, according to Crawford, faced intense political pressure to “mitigate the number of newspaper articles” and to “assure the State of Nevada that we would not be embarrassed like this again.” To achieve this goal, Crawford decided to restaff the facility so that seventy percent of the front line staff at SNWCF would be women.

Crawford also decided to hire only women in SNWCF’s three correctional lieutenant positions. The correctional lieutenants are shift supervisors and are the senior employees on duty seventy-five percent of the time. Correctional lieutenants report to wardens or deputy wardens and are responsible for supervising the prison’s day-to-day operations, including directing the work of subordinate staff, inspecting the facility and reporting infractions, and monitoring inmates’ activities and movement through the facility. There is one correctional lieutenant assigned to SNWCF per shift. Although the correctional lieutenant posting specified that “only female applicants will be accepted for these positions,” several males applied for the positions, which were eventually filled by three women.

Edward Breiner, Loren Chapulín, Jimmie McNeal and Randy Stout, the present plaintiffs, all male Nevada correctional officers, were not among the men who applied for the SNWCF correctional lieutenant positions. They nonetheless filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, received notice of their right to sue, and filed suit alleging that the state’s decision to limit the correctional lieutenant positions to women violated Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination in employment.1

The district court granted NDOC’s motion for summary judgment, holding that the gender restriction on the three correctional lieutenant positions at SNWCF had a “de minimis” impact on the plaintiffs’ overall promotional opportunities within NDOC, and that it was therefore unnecessary to decide whether the positions fell within Title VII’s exception for jobs in which sex is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e)(1). Alternatively, the district court concluded that NDOC had carried its burden of proving that “gender constitutes a BFOQ for the three correctional lieutenant posts at SNWCF,” because the restriction was designed to meet “NDOC’s goal of *1206reversing the very real and documented problems at SNWCF.”2 This timely appeal followed.

Standing

NDOC argues for the first time on appeal that because the plaintiffs did not apply for the NDOC positions and would not have been selected anyway for reasons other than their sex, they lack standing to pursue their Title VII claim. As standing is a jurisdictional requirement, we must consider NDOC’s argument before reaching the merits of the plaintiffs’ Title VII claim. See Pritikin v. Dep’t of Energy, 254 F.3d 791, 796 (9th Cir.2001). We review the plaintiffs’ standing de novo, Mayfield v. United States, 599 F.3d 964, 970 (9th Cir.2010), and conclude that Stout, at least, has standing, as we now explain.

To have standing in this case, a plaintiff must demonstrate a “concrete and particularized” injury, “fairly traceable” to NDOC’s discriminatory policy, and “likely” to be “redressed by a favorable decision” of this court. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992) (internal quotation marks, brackets and ellipses omitted). That the plaintiffs did not apply for the correctional lieutenant positions does not preclude them from establishing such an injury. A nonapplicant suffers “an invasion of a legally protected interest,” id. at 560, 112 S.Ct. 2130, under Title VII if “he would have applied for the job had it not been for [the employer’s discriminatory] practices.” Int’l Bhd. of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 368, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977). To prevail on the merits as nonapplicants, the plaintiffs must show that they were “discouraged from applying” rather than that they “simply failed to do so.” Yartzoff v. Thomas, 809 F.2d 1371, 1374 (9th Cir.1987); see also Reed v. Lockheed Aircraft Corp., 613 F.2d 757, 761-62 (9th Cir.1980).

Stout had previously applied for correctional lieutenant positions. He declared under oath that he was deterred from applying for the SNWCF positions “by [his] knowledge that [his] application would be futile because of the defendant’s discriminatory policy.” This evidence is sufficient on summary judgment to establish Stout’s standing under the case law applicable to nonapplicants.

NDOC contends that, whether or not the gender restrictions discouraged the plaintiffs from applying, none of them would have qualified for the SNWCF positions even if they had been open to applicants of both sexes. Applicants for the SNWCF correctional lieutenant positions were required to possess one year of experience as a correctional sergeant (the rank below correctional lieutenant) in the state of Nevada, or “an equivalent combination of education and experience.” Stout had been a correctional sergeant since 1998. NDOC’s own personnel analyst affirmed that Stout “would have qualified for a correctional lieutenant position with NDOC in 2004.”

NDOC’s assertion that Stout was ineligible for the SNWCF positions because “he had expired from the Correctional Lieutenant certification list” is not supported by the record. The posting for the correctional lieutenant positions specified that applicants must possess a driver’s license, pass a drug test, and satisfy Nevada’s “P.O.S.T. requirements” (police officer *1207standard training),3 but contained no reference to a “certification list.” Indeed, Crawford stated that “people who had applied [for the correctional lieutenant positions] had to go back up through personnel to make sure they met those qualifications ... for the lieutenant. And, then, I get a certified list ... that means State Personnel has screened and has certified a list that we, then, have to work from.” This statement makes clear that a list was created of all qualified applicants; inclusion on the list was not a preapplication job requirement. Moreover, even if such a preapplication list existed, there is no basis for concluding that Stout could not have renewed his eligibility in time to apply for the positions had he not been dissuaded from doing so by the female-only restriction.

In sum, we conclude that besides the female-only restriction, “there was no other qualification standard that prevented [Stout] from applying for the job. He accordingly satisfies the injury, causation, and redressability prongs of Lujan, and therefore has standing.” Bates v. UPS, Inc., 511 F.3d 974, 988 (9th Cir.2007) (en banc). As Stout, at least, has standing to pursue this appeal, we need not determine whether Chapulín and McNeal have standing to seek relief under Title VII. See id. at 985.

Title VII Claim

It is unlawful, with narrow exceptions, “to fail or refuse to hire ... any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s ... sex.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). Failure to promote is actionable under Title VII. See, e.g., McGinest v. GTE Serv. Corp., 360 F.3d 1103, 1121-22 (9th Cir.2004). NDOC concedes that its refusal to consider men for the correctional lieutenant positions at SNWCF is facially discriminatory.

The district court granted summary judgment to NDOC on two alternative grounds. First, the district court concluded that NDOC’s refusal to hire male correctional lieutenants at SNWCF had a negligible impact on the plaintiffs’ promotional opportunities in light of the correctional lieutenant positions available statewide to employees of both sexes. The district court held that this “de minimis” discrimination was not actionable under Title VII. Second, the district court held that, even if actionable, the gender restriction on correctional lieutenant positions at SNWCF fell within Title VII’s BFOQ exception for “those certain instances where ... sex ... is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of [a] particular business or enterprise.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e)(l). We review the grant of summary judgment de novo, McDonald v. Sun Oil Co., 548 F.3d 774, 778 (9th Cir.2008), and reverse as to both grounds.

A. The “De Minimis” Theory

NDOC asserts that the three SNWCF positions were the only correctional lieutenant promotions in the NDOC system as a whole restricted to women applicants and that twenty-nine out of thirty-seven correctional lieutenant positions filled over a four year period went to men. Relying on these statistics, NDOC maintains that the concededly discriminatory policy of excluding men from the SNWCF eorrection*1208al lieutenant positions had only a “de minimis” impact on the plaintiffs and so did not violate Title VII with regard to them. This conclusion reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the basic precepts of Title VII and is not supported by our case law.

It is beyond dispute that the denial of a single promotion opportunity such as the one here at issue is actionable under Title VII. See Ricci v. DeStefano, — U.S. -, 129 S.Ct. 2658, 2671, 174 L.Ed.2d 490 (2009) (finding for plaintiffs who “were denied a chance at promotions”); Alvarado v. Tex. Rangers, 492 F.3d 605, 612 (5th Cir.2007) (“It is ... well established ... that the denial of a promotion is an actionable adverse employment action.”) (emphasis omitted); McGinest, 360 F.3d at 1121-22. Whether there will be other promotional opportunities for which the person may become eligible has never been a consideration.

Here, for example, the correctional lieutenant position pays more than the correctional sergeant job. It is also a prerequisite for the more senior, more responsible, and higher paying position of associate warden. That another opportunity may later arise for which the applicant is eligible does not negate the injury of being denied an earlier position on the basis of one’s sex, with the resulting loss of pay for a period and delayed eligibility for another promotion.

Stout, for instance, was later promoted to correctional lieutenant, but had he been promoted to a SNWCF position, he would have earned more during the period before his eventual promotion and would have become eligible for promotion to an associate warden position two years earlier than he did. Moreover, correctional lieutenant jobs in Nevada prisons are not fungible from the point of view of employees, as illustrated by Stout’s declaration that the SNWCF positions were desirable to him because the facility’s location “would not have required selling my house and causing my wife to quit her job to relocate.” As Stout’s example demonstrates, an employee who is denied a promotion on the basis of sex but later promoted has not been “restor[ed] to the position in which [he] would have been absent the discrimination.” EEOC v. Hacienda Hotel, 881 F.2d 1504, 1518 (9th Cir.1989), overruled on other grounds by Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633 (1988).

Further, Title VII is offended when an individual suffers discrimination with respect to a particular adverse employment decision, even if others of the same protected group are not similarly disadvantaged. See Furnco Constr. Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 579, 98 S.Ct. 2943, 57 L.Ed.2d 957 (1978) (“A racially balanced work force cannot immunize an employer from liability for specific acts of discrimination.”). The fact that on average men are more likely than women to be hired into correctional lieutenant positions might have some relevance if NDOC disputed the discriminatory nature of the policy. See Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., 530 U.S. 133, 153, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000) (holding that the existence of many similarly situated employees over age 50 was “relevant, [but] certainly not dispositive” of the employer’s lack of intent to discriminate against the plaintiff on the basis of age). It has no bearing, however, on the question whether a man denied a specific promotional opportunity expressly on the basis of his sex can establish a Title VII violation. “[T]he obligation imposed by Title VII is to provide an equal opportunity for each applicant regardless of [sex], without regard to whether members of the applicant’s [sex] are already proportionately represented in the work force.” *1209 Furnco, 438 U.S. at 579, 98 S.Ct. 2943. Put another way, Title VII protects the ability to pursue one’s own career goals without being discriminated against on the basis of race or sex, even if others of the same race or sex were not subject to disadvantage.

In holding otherwise, the district court relied on Robino v. Iranon, 145 F.3d 1109 (9th Cir.1998) (per curiam). Robino, however, is inapposite. The policy at issue in Robino restricted job responsibilities, not employment or promotional opportunities. Id. at 1110. Robino does not suggest— nor could it, for the reasons we have discussed — that a refusal to hire an individual because of sex can be considered “de minimis” because others of the same sex were hired.

Specifically, Robino concerned prison officials’ decision to assign only female guards to six “posts” in a women’s prison — those from which the guard could observe inmates in the shower — to “accommodate the privacy interests of the female inmates and reduce the risk of sexual conduct between [guards] and inmates.”4 Id. The plaintiffs in Robino were current male guards complaining that female guards— individuals holding the same position— were to a limited degree given different job assignments within the same job category. It was in this context that Robino held that the post-restriction policy “limits eligibility for such a small number of positions (six out of forty-one) that it imposes such a de minim[i]s restriction on the male [guards’] employment opportunities.” Id.

Thus, the restriction in Robino was “de minimis” not, as the district court thought, because a small proportion of positions were affected, but because “male [guards had] not suffered any tangible job detriment beyond a reduced ability to select their preferred watches.” Id.) see also Jordan v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1521, 1527 (9th Cir.1993) (“The conflict between the right of [male guards] not to be discriminated against in job opportunities and [female inmates] to maintain some level of privacy has normally been resolved ... through adjustments in scheduling and job responsibilities for the guards.” (quotations and citation omitted)); Tharp v. Iowa Dep’t of Corr., 68 F.3d 223, 226 (8th Cir. 1995) (approving a policy that restricted four out of sixteen shifts to women); Hardin v. Stynchcomb, 691 F.2d 1364, 1373 (11th Cir.1982) (“Since the majority of ... positions in the male section of the jail do not require ... observation of inmates’ use of shower or toilet facilities, ... modification of the system of rotating ... assignments will avoid the clash between privacy rights and equal employment opportunities.”).

Robino’s premise, then, was necessarily that a minor impact on job assignments was too minimal to be actionable. This very limited concept has no application to NDOC’s policy. An employer’s “failure] or refus[al] to hire” on the basis of sex is, without limitation, actionable under Title VII. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(l). NDOC’s refusal to hire men in the correctional lieutenant positions therefore violates Title VII unless NDOC can demonstrate that gender is a BFOQ for the positions. NDOC cannot meet that burden, as we now explain.

*1210B. Gender as a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification

Title VIPs BFOQ exception provides:

[I]t shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to hire and employ employees ... on the basis of [ ] religion, sex, or national origin in those certain instances where religion, sex, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise.

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e)(l). As its language indicates, see Int’l Union, UAW v. Johnson Controls, 499 U.S. 187, 201, 111 S.Ct. 1196, 113 L.Ed.2d 158 (1991), the BFOQ is an “extremely narrow exception to the general prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex” that may be invoked “only when the essence of the business operation would be undermined” by hiring individuals of both sexes. Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321, 333-34, 97 S.Ct. 2720, 53 L.Ed.2d 786 (1977) (citing Diaz v. Pan Am. World Airways, Inc., 442 F.2d 385, 388 (5th Cir.1971)). To justify discrimination under the BFOQ exception, an employer must

prove by a preponderance of the evidence: 1) that the job qualification justifying the discrimination is reasonably necessary to the essence of its business; and 2) that [sex] is a legitimate proxy for the qualification because (a) it has a substantial basis for believing that all or nearly all [men] lack the qualification, or ... (b) it is impossible or highly impractical ... to insure by individual testing that its employees will have the necessary qualifications for the job.

EEOC v. Boeing Co., 843 F.2d 1213, 1214 (9th Cir.1988) (quotations omitted).

NDOC has not explicitly articulated the “job qualification” for correctional lieutenants for which it claims sex is a legitimate proxy. We are left to try to adduce what that “qualification” might be from the declarations by NDOC officials on which the defendants rely in their briefs as justification for the facially discriminatory policy.

NDOC Director Crawford offered the following explanation for the decision to exclude men from the correctional lieutenant positions:

• [T]he number of officers who were supervisors [when CCA operated the facility] were males ... They were the individuals who alleged that they did not know anything about the drugs, alcohol, and sex.

• [Correctional lieutenants] are the individuals that can monitor and best, you know, gauge if there is something going on.

• We wanted upper management to be able to monitor, to understand, and notice anything that went on. We had so many people telling us during the private sector that nothing was going on.... We just felt comfortable with doing this.

Glen Whorton, the director of NDOC from 2005 to 2007, declared that

the employment of male correctional lieutenants at SNWCF would create a real risk ... if female inmates were sexually assaulted abused by male correctional lieutenants and/or male ... subordinates and such abuse was kept silent by the male correctional lieutenants ... because they were protecting themselves and/or their ... subordinates (“code of silence”).

Whorton described the risks entirely in terms of the opportunities for misconduct inherent in the correctional lieutenant role:

[M]ale correctional lieutenants would have the opportunity to place male correctional subordinates in situations lend*1211ing themselves to sexual misconduct with female inmates.... Male correctional lieutenants would have the opportunity not to take action against male correctional subordinates that sexually abused female inmates .... male correctional lieutenants would have the opportunity to allow contraband to enter SNWCF ... in exchange for sexual favors.

Female correctional lieutenants, according to Whorton,

are more inclined to monitor and discipline the wrongful conduct of correctional subordinates and to take steps of prevention with respect to female inmates as their very nature, womanhood, is more conducive to dealing with the complexities and differences of female inmates.

Crawford also testified that she wanted correctional lieutenants who

understand[ ] management of women. I think that women do have an innate ability to manage women. ... To understand[] some of the emotional outbreaks .... With women — I don’t believe that they can be manipulated ... I just believe [women] are more patient. They’re probably more maternal.... they have an instinct and an innate ability to discern what is real and what isn’t .... the female officers were able to better discern, you know, what’s really happening here.

From this panoply of explanations, it appears that NDOC administrators sought to “reduce the number of male correctional employees being compromised by female inmates,” and that they believed the gender restriction on shift supervisors would accomplish this because (1) male correctional lieutenants are likely to condone sexual abuse by their male subordinates; (2) male correctional lieutenants are themselves likely to sexually abuse female inmates; and (3) female correctional lieutenants possess an “instinct” that renders them less susceptible to manipulation by inmates and therefore better equipped to fill the correctional lieutenant role.5

The first theory fails because NDOC has not shown that “all or nearly all” men would tolerate sexual abuse by male guards, or that it is “impossible or highly impractical” to assess applicants individually for this qualification. Boeing, 843 F.2d at 1214. As to the second theory, there is no “basis in fact,” Dothard, 433 U.S. at 335, 97 S.Ct. 2720, for believing that individuals in the correctional lieutenant role are particularly likely to sexually abuse inmates. The third theory — and, to a significant degree, the first two — relies on the kind of unproven and invidious stereotype that Congress sought to eliminate from employment decisions when it enacted Title VII.

We begin our analysis by surveying the decisions applying the BFOQ exception in the prison context. Dothard, the only Supreme Court case on the subject, concerned a “peculiarly inhospitable” maximum security prison for men where *1212conditions were so atrocious as to be “constitutionally intolerable,” and “a substantial portion of the inmate population [was] composed of sex offenders mixed at random with other prisoners.” 433 U.S. at 334, 336, 97 S.Ct. 2720. In the context of this extreme environment, the Supreme Court upheld a regulation prohibiting women from working in “positions requiring continual close physical proximity to inmates,” id. at 325, 97 S.Ct. 2720, finding “[m]ore [ ] at stake ... than an individual woman’s decision to weigh and accept the risks” of working in “a prison system where violence is the order of the day.” Id. at 335-36, 97 S.Ct. 2720. The Court found “a basis in fact for expecting that sex offenders who have criminally assaulted women in the past would ... do so again if access to women were established within the prison.” Id. at 335, 97 S.Ct. 2720. “The likelihood that inmates would assault a woman because she was a woman would pose a real threat to ... the basic control of the penitentiary.” Id. at 336, 97 S.Ct. 2720.

As the Court later noted, “[s]ex discrimination was tolerated [in Dothard ] because sex was related to the guard’s ability to do the job-maintaining prison security.” Johnson Controls, 499 U.S. at 202, 111 5. Ct. 1196. In other words, Dothard’s finding of a BFOQ was premised on a level of violence among inmates atypical even among maximum security facilities. See Gunther v. Iowa State Men’s Reformatory, 612 F.2d 1079, 1085 (8th Cir.1980) (distinguishing Dothard’s finding of a BFOQ, which was premised on the prison’s “rampant violence and inhuman conditions,” as inapplicable to a medium security institution) (quotation omitted), overruled on other grounds by Kremer v. Chem. Constr. Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 102 S.Ct. 1883, 72 L.Ed.2d 262 (1982).

Appellate courts, including this court, have followed Dothard in requiring prison administrators to identify a concrete, logical basis for concluding that gender restrictions are “reasonably necessary.”6 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e)(l). In Everson v. Michigan Department of Corrections, 391 F.3d 737 (6th Cir.2004), the Sixth Circuit upheld a gender restriction imposed by the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) to eradicate “rampant sexual abuse of female prisoners.” Id. at 739. MDOC had “pledged ... to minimize access to secluded areas and one-on-one contact between male staff and female inmates” pursuant to settlement of two lawsuits, one brought by the United States Department of Justice, alleging that the failure to protect female inmates from ongoing sexual abuse violated their constitutional rights. Id. at 743. To effectuate the settlement agreements, MDOC employed only female guards in the housing units of women’s prisons. MDOC data showed that most allegations of sexual abuse, and all of the sustained allegations, involved male employees, and that sexual abuse occurred most frequently in the housing units. This data, the court held, “established that the exclusion of male [guards] will decrease the likelihood of sexual abuse.” Id. at 755.

In Henry v. Milwaukee County, 539 F.3d 573 (7th Cir.2008), a juvenile detention center decided to staff each housing “pod” with at least one guard of the same sex as the juveniles housed on that pod, to achieve a “direct role model/mentoring form of supervision.” 539 F.3d at 583. *1213During the day, one of the two guards on each male “pod” could be female, but the sole night shift slot on each pod had to be staffed by a man. The Seventh Circuit accepted the administrator’s “professional judgment” that same-gender mentoring was “necessary to achieve the [facility’s] mission of rehabilitation.” Id. Yet, the court found no factual support for the administrator’s conclusion that the program’s effectiveness required same-sex staff at all times, including on the night shift, when the juvenile inmates were sleeping. Id.

In Robino, we held that even had the gender-based restriction on assignments been actionable under Title VII, it fell within the BFOQ exception. The prison, based on “a study conducted by a specially appointed task force in compliance with an EEOC settlement agreement,” designated as female-only those posts that “require[d] the [guard] on duty to observe the inmates in the showers and toilet areas ... or provide[d] unsupervised access to the inmates.” 145 F.3d at 1110-11. Because “a person’s interest in not being viewed unclothed by members of the opposite sex survives incarceration,” we held that protecting inmate privacy and preventing sexual misconduct warranted the restriction. Id. at 1111.

These cases illustrate that, even in the unique context of prison employment, administrators seeking to justify a BFOQ must show “a high correlation between sex and ability to perform job functions.” Johnson Controls, 499 U.S. at 202, 111 S.Ct. 1196. Moreover, the particular staffing restriction at issue must match those “job functions” with a high degree of specificity to be found reasonably necessary. See id. (noting that in Dothard the Court “refused to allow employers to use sex as a proxy for strength although it might be a fairly accurate one”); Robino, 145 F.3d at 1111 (concluding that guard’s gender directly affected female inmates’ privacy concerns). In Henry, for example, the application of the gender restriction on the night shift would not address privacy concerns, as “the vast majority of the time that the juveniles were unclothed occurred during [] daytime shifts” when women were permitted to staff the pods, 539 F.3d at 582, and was not justified by the mentoring objective because “the opportunity ... to interact with the juveniles on the [night] shift [wa]s very minimal.” Id. at 585.

Applying this “high correlation” requirement, NDOC’s first rationale for restricting the supervisory correctional lieutenant positions to women cannot suffice. Crawford’s testimony suggests that because the supervisors employed by CCA were male and had failed to prevent sexual abuse, NDOC was entitled to conclude that men as a class were incapable of adequately supervising front line staff in female prisons. While we must defer to the reasoned judgment of prison administrators, see Robino, 145 F.3d at 1110, CCA’s acknowledged leadership failure falls far short of providing “a factual basis for believing that all or substantially all [men] would be unable to safely and effectively perform the duties of the job,” or that it would be “impossible or highly impracticable to determine job fitness” — here, the ability to enforce workplace rules prohibiting sexual misconduct — “on an individualized basis.” Williams v. Hughes Helicopters, Inc., 806 F.2d 1387, 1391 (9th Cir.1986).7 The fundamental switch in operational responsibility to NDOC, moreover, made any inference from the experience under CCA’s *1214extremely poor management all the weaker.

NDOC’s second rationale fares no better. There is no evidence indicating that any correctional lieutenant at SNWCF had sexual relationships with an inmate.8 In contrast, in Everson, copious data about the actual incidence of sexual abuse in Michigan’s women’s prisons supported the conclusion that the gender restriction on guards in the housing units would be effective. 391 F.3d at 755. In Robino, prison administrators used “a study by a specially appointed task force” and “an extensive inventory of post duties” to limit the gender restriction to those posts that “provide[d] unsupervised access to the inmates.” 145 F.3d at 1111. NDOC, however, offers neither data nor logical inferences about the opportunities for abuse inherent in the correctional lieutenant position to support the restriction.

In fact, the one substantiated case of sexual abuse Crawford mentioned was the front line guard who impregnated an inmate, yet NDOC continues to employ men in thirty percent of these positions. See Everson, 391 F.3d at 761 (“[n]either the district court nor the plaintiffs have explained how redeployment of female supervisors to the housing unitsfthe alternative advocated by the plaintiffs,] would cure problems stemming from the very presence of male [guards] in the housing units.”). When asked why the complete prohibition on the hiring of men was limited to correctional lieutenants, Crawford stated, “We did not want to go globally on this. We wanted to be specifically, what can we do to bring this thing under control ... ? And it was the recommendation that we just look at ... not the line level, but the supervisor level.” This explanation falls short of the “reasoned decision-making process, based on available information and experience,” Robino, 145 F.3d at 1110, that can support a BFOQ.9

Even if there were a factual basis to believe that any correctional lieutenant sexually abused any inmate, there is no basis to presume that sexual abuse, by correctional lieutenants or by guards with their supervisors’ tacit permission, would continue after the state resumed control over the prison. CCA’s lax oversight provided male correctional lieutenants “the opportunity not to take action against male correctional subordinates that sexually abused female inmates.” That opportunity *1215cannot be presumed to exist after the wholesale change of SNWCF’s leadership, designed precisely to cure wholesale management defects going well beyond the sexual abuse issue.

To hold otherwise would be to absolve NDOC from their fundamental responsibility to supervise their staff, from wardens to front-line guards. In Dothard, the inmates’ violent behavior, which prison administrators could not directly control, rendered the gender restriction reasonably necessary. Neither Dothard nor any of the cases on which NDOC relies support finding a BFOQ based on the bald assertion that it would be “impossible ... to ensure that any given male correctional lieutenant will take action to prevent and stop sexual misconduct.” Where, as here, the problem is employee behavior, prison administrators have multiple resources, including background checks, prompt investigation of suspected misconduct, and severe discipline for infractions, to ensure compliance with institutional rules.

NDOC has not demonstrated that these alternative approaches — including the Inspector General’s suggestion of enhanced training for both supervisors and front-line guards — are not viable. See Henry, 539 F.3d at 581 (“Milwaukee County offered no reasons why the numerous alternatives to same-sex staffing ... would not have mitigated any concern.”); Forts v. Ward, 621 F.2d 1210, 1216 (2d Cir.1980) (upholding a district court order “prohibit[ing] the stationing of male guards at locations where inmates could be viewed ... unclothed” but reversing a ban on male guards during the night shift because inmate privacy could be protected by means that did not infringe on employment rights); Gunther, 612 F.2d at 1087 (holding that gender was not a BFOQ where administrative changes in job functions and procedures would adequately protect inmate privacy). Whorton’s conclusory assertion that “more training is not a cure for this serious issue” is, without more, wholly inadequate. Even the NIC report, on which NDOC purportedly relied, recommends “improving training programs to heighten staff awareness of [sexual abuse] and its consequences.”

Disturbingly, in suggesting that all men are inherently apt to sexually abuse, or condone sexual abuse of, female inmates, NDOC relies on entirely specious gender stereotypes that have no place in a workplace governed by Title VII. NDOC’s third theory, that women are “maternal,” “patient,” and understand other women, fails for the same reason. To credit NDOC’s unsupported generalization that women “have an instinct and an innate ability to discern ... what’s real and what isn’t” and so are immune to manipulation by female inmates would violate “the Congressional purpose to eliminate subjective assumptions and traditional stereotyped conceptions regarding the ... ability of women to do particular work.” Rosenfeld v. S. Pac. Co., 444 F.2d 1219, 1225 (9th Cir.1971); see also Diaz, 442 F.2d at 386 (rejecting an airline’s contention that “the special psychological needs of its passengers ... are better attended to by females”). “The harmful effects of occupational cliches,” Gerdom v. Continental Airlines, 692 F.2d 602, 607 (9th Cir.1982), are felt no less strongly when invoked as a basis for one gender’s unique suitability for a particular job than when relied on to exclude members of that sex from employment. Simply put, “we are beyond the day when an employer could ... insist[ ] that [employees], matched the stereotype associated with their group.” Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 251, 109 S.Ct. 1775, 104 L.Ed.2d 268 (1989).

A BFOQ can be established only by “objective, verifiable requirements [that] concern job-related skills and aptitudes.” *1216 Johnson Controls, 499 U.S. at 201, 111 S.Ct. 1196. Though the professional judgment of prison administrators is entitled to deference, see Robino, 145 F.3d at 1110, “[t]he refusal to hire a[man] because of [his] sex based on assumptions of the comparative employment characteristics of [men] in general” will not support a BFOQ. 29 C.F.R. § 1604.2(a)(1); see also Miss. Univ. for Women v. Hogan, 458 U.S. 718, 724-25, 102 S.Ct. 3331, 73 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1982) (“[A] gender-based classification ... must be applied free of fixed notions concerning the roles and abilities of males and females.”); Dothard, 433 U.S. at 333, 97 S.Ct. 2720 (“[I]t is impermissible under Title VII to refuse to hire an individual woman or man on the basis of stereotyped characterizations of the sexes.”); Torres, 859 F.2d at 1527 (“Myths and purely habitual assumptions about a woman’s or a man’s inability to perform certain kinds of work are no longer acceptable reasons for refusing to employ qualified individuals.”) (quoting City of L.A. Dep’t of Water & Power v. Manhart, 435 U.S. 702, 707, 98 S.Ct. 1370, 55 L.Ed.2d 657 (1978) (brackets omitted)); Fernandez v. Wynn Oil Co., 653 F.2d 1273, 1276 (9th Cir.1981) (“[S]tereotypic impressions of male and female roles do not qualify gender as a BFOQ.”).

In sum, NDOC has not met its burden of showing “a basis in fact,” Dothard, 433 U.S. at 335, 97 S.Ct. 2720, for concluding that all male correctional lieutenants would tolerate sexual abuse by their subordinates; that all men in the correctional lieutenant role would themselves sexually abuse inmates; or that women, by virtue of their gender, can better understand the behavior of female inmates. Nor has it refuted the viability of alternatives that would achieve that goal without impeding male employees’ promotional opportunities.

Conclusion

Restricting employment opportunity on the basis of gender can be justified by the need to counter uncontrollably violent inmate behavior, as in Dothard. But this case concerns the behavior of employees, not inmates. Precluding men from serving in supervisory positions in women’s prisons is not a substitute for effective leadership and enforcement of work-place rules. As NDOC’s correctional lieutenant restriction denied promotional opportunities on the basis of sex and was neither “de minimis” nor “reasonably necessary to the normal operation” of SNWFC, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e)(l), it violated Title VII. The district court’s order granting summary judgment to the defendants is REVERSED, and this case is REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

OPINION AND MEMORANDUM

MAUGHMER, Chief United States Magistrate Judge.

This is an action pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,. as amended, 42 U.S.C. Section 2000e, et seq., where plaintiff Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleges that defendants Hi 40 Corporation d/b/a Physicians Weight Loss Centers (Physicians Weight Loss) and William R. Pickett (Pickett) violated the Act by refusing to hire male applicants as counselors at defendants’ weight loss centers because of their sex. The EEOC also alleges that defendants destroyed applications of male applicants in violation of the Act.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Defendants admit that men were not considered for the position of counselor at Physicians Weight Loss centers and contend that being a woman is a bona file occupational qualification for being a counselor with Physicians Weight Loss. The proceedings in this case were bifurcated so that all issues of liability could be resolved prior to any further proceedings, if necessary, concerning remedy.

The EEOC is an agency of the United States charged with the administration and enforcement of Title VII and is expressly authorized to bring this action by Section 706(f)(1) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. Section 2000e-5(f)(l). Physicians Weight Loss is a Missouri corporation which owns and operates several weight loss centers in the Kansas City area that are engaged in the business of selling diet programs to customers to help them lose weight. These centers operate under a franchise agreement with Physicians Weight Loss Centers of America, Inc. Pickett is the owner and president of Physicians Weight Loss, the local franchisee.

Each center has its own customer base and staff. The customers of Physicians Weight Loss are approximately 95% women. Customers receive their counseling at the particular center of their choosing. Employees are generally hired for a particular center and do not rotate among the several centers. Each center is typically staffed by a manager, *303nurse and counselor, although some variation of this combination may occur due to staffing levels. Since at least January 1, 1989, all of the employees of these centers have been female and of the 85 counselors Physicians Weight Loss has hired during this period, all have been women.

The manager of each center has overall supervisory and administrative responsibility. The primary function of the nurse is to perform some medical monitoring of customers, including the drawing of blood, the administration of shots and the updating of medical records. Although it may not be their primary function, both managers and nurses spend time counseling customers as the work load requires. This means that in the absence of a counselor or if a customer is not comfortable with a particular counselor, the nurse or manager may step in and perform the counseling function.

It is the primary function of counselors to perform the initial enroEment of customers and provide counseling services to them. The counseling duties include greeting existing and prospective customers, selling the weight loss program, providing instruction on the diet programs, counseling customers about weight, monitoring the progress of the customer, taking the measurements and weights of cHents, and general office duties. The measurements of customers are taken in two ways. The first is by tape measure and the second is by cahper measurement.

Customers of Physicians Weight Loss typieaEy go to their center every day for the first two weeks of the program. After that, the customer typieaEy visits the center at least three times per week. At each of these visits, the customers are weighed and counseled. Body fat measurements with caEpers are taken once every six weeks and this task takes about two minutes to perform. Tape measurements are taken once every two weeks and this task takes about five minutes to perform. CaEpers are used to measure skin folds and thereby determine the customer’s percentage of body fat. These measurements are taken at the back of the arm, on the back, and at the waist. Depending on the circumstances, including the counselor’s practice and the customer’s preference, the eaEper measurements are sometimes taken on bare skin and sometimes through clothing. Tape measurements involve a physical touching of the customer and measurements at the neck, shoulders, bust, ribs, waist, hips, thigh, knee, calf and ankle are taken. If there is any objection or expression of discomfort by a customer concerning the taking of measurements by a counselor, it is the practice of the counselors to aEow the customers to take the measurements themselves or simply fore-go the measurements.

The counseling sessions involve one-on-one counseling of customers where a wide range of issues and problems regarding the customer’s weight loss are discussed. These include appropriate foods on a customer’s food list, the abiEty of the customer to foEow the food Est, progress since the last visit, relationship and emotional problems which may affect weight loss, and physical problems which may affect weight loss. Both the measurement and counseling of customers takes place in smaE rooms with doors which are sometimes open and sometimes closed. Only the customer and counselor are present during these sessions.

The customers who attend Physicians Weight Loss centers are seeking help and guidance to lose weight. Often weight loss is a difficult endeavor for them and they need help and guidance to succeed. The customers may have failed in losing weight on their own and may suffer from low self-esteem. Embarrassment about their bodies and a reluctance to let others know their weight and measurements may also be experienced by the customers. Counselors at Physicians Weight Loss may serve as role models and motivators for customers. Often counselors have had their own personal weight loss experience and have faced the same ehaEenges the customers face.

Some female customers of Physicians Weight Loss object to having their measurements, whether by tape or eaEper, taken by a man and would not feel comfortable discussing emotional and physiological issues associated with weight loss with a man. These emotional and physiological issues may involve sexual relationships and physical issues uniquely related to women.

*304In the past, Physicians Weight Loss has had limited experience with two male weight loss counselors. The first was Pickett, the owner of Physicians Weight Loss, who has performed counselor services from time to time during the existence of Physicians Weight Loss. The second was a man who served as a counselor in 1988. This male counselor was terminated after only a few weeks of work. In the opinion of Pickett, both of these experiences proved unsuccessful because women customers would not accept counseling services from him or the other male counselor. Over the last several years, Physicians Weight Loss has received employment applications from several men seeking to be counselors. Some of the applications have been destroyed, thrown away or, in the very least, not maintained in the business records of Physicians Weight Loss for one year after they were received.

Other commercial weight loss programs which compete with Physicians Weight Loss centers, such as Weight Watchers Personal and Jenny Craig, do not have policies which prohibit the hiring of male counselors.. Similarly, many physical fitness centers, such as Gold’s Gym and Bally’s, do not have policies which prohibit the hiring of male counselors and trainers.

DISCUSSION

BONA FIDE OCCUPATIONAL QUALIFICATION

The Court begins its analysis by assuming that customers of Physicians Weight Loss have a constitutional right to privacy. This case presents two issues critical to its resolution. The first is whether hiring male counselors unduly infringes upon the privacy rights of customers at Physicians Weight Loss. The second is whether gender is a bona fide occupational qualification for counselors at Physicians Weight Loss.

In addressing the first issue, the Court must balance the restriction on employment against the impact on individual privacy. If the employment practice “visits minimal intrusion on legitimate expectations of other employees,” then the issue of bona fide occupational qualification need not be reached. Tharp v. Iowa Department of Corrections, 68 F.3d 223 (8th Cir.1995); See also, Johnson v. Transportation Agency, 480 U.S. 616, 107 S.Ct. 1442, 94 L.Ed.2d 615 (1987); Turner v. Safley, 482 U.S. 78, 88-91, 107 S.Ct. 2254, 2261-63, 96 L.Ed.2d 64 (1987), Timm v. Gunter, 917 F.2d 1093 (8th Cir.1990) (Application of balancing test). A minimal intrusion on the privacy of customers must be tolerated if the elimination of that intrusion “tramples” the employment opportunities of male weight loss counselors. Tharp v. Iowa Department of Corrections, 68 F.3d 223, 1995 WL 600883 at *2. In this case, the Court finds that the intrusion on the privacy interests of customers of Physicians Weight Loss that is occasioned by the presence of male counselors is minimal. The real privacy interests of the customers only extend to the intrusions created by the physical measurements which the counselors take. The Court does not accept the proposition that Physicians Weight Loss customers have a privacy interest that extends to the counseling function. The intrusion on customer privacy caused by the taking of measurements is minimal. The measurements, even when taken by female counselors, are often taken through clothing. Additionally, even when female counselors are taking the measurements, if they are to be taken in an area or in a way that makes the customer uncomfortable, the female counselors either allow the customer to take her own measurements or simply forego the measurement. The taking of measurements by male counselors under these circumstances constitutes only minimal intrusion on any privacy interests of customers.

On the other hand, the employment restriction utilized by Physicians Weight Loss, namely the refusal to hire male counselors, has a dramatic impact on the employment opportunity of male applicants. This policy completely eliminates an employment opportunity for male applicants. Applying a balancing analysis under these circumstances, the Court concludes that the impact of male counselors on the privacy interests of customers is minimal, while the impact of a policy that prohibits the hiring of male counselors has a substantial impact on the em*305ployment opportunities of male applicants. As a result, the privacy interests of customers cannot be used to justify a policy of not hiring male counselors because the minimal impact of male counselors on the privacy interests of customers is outweighed by the substantial impact on the employment opportunities of male applicants.

Next is the issue of whether being female is a bona fide occupational qualification for being employed as a counselor for Physicians Weight Loss. The Court concludes it is not. The concept of bona fide occupational qualification is a statutory defense provided by Title VII. 42 U.S.C. Section 2000e-2(e). It provides, in relevant part:

Notwithstanding any other provision of this subehapter, (1) it shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to hire and employ employees, ... on the basis of his religion, sex, or national origin in those certain instances where religion, sex or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise.

The bona fide occupational qualification exception is “ ‘an extremely narrow exception to the general prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex.’” Gunther v. Iowa State Men’s Reformatory, 612 F.2d 1079, 1085 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 966, 100 S.Ct. 2942, 64 L.Ed.2d 825 (1980) (quoting Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321, 334, 97 S.Ct. 2720, 2729, 53 L.Ed.2d 786 (1977).) Like any other defense, the burden is on Physicians Weight Loss to establish that being female is a bona fide occupational qualification for its counselors.

In order to show that a particular employment practice is a bona fide occupational qualification the employment practice must be reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business. In making this determination, courts have looked to a variety of factors. Included among these factors are whether the essence of the business operation would be undermined without the challenged employment practice, Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. at 333, 97 S.Ct. at 2728-29, whether safe and efficient performance of the job would be possible without the challenged employment practice, id., and whether the challenged employment practice has a “ ‘manifest relationship to the employment in question,’” Gunther v. Iowa State Men’s Reformatory, 612 F.2d at 1086.

In this case, there are two arguments that Physicians Weight Loss advances in support of its argument that being female is a bona fide occupational qualification for its counselors. The first is that the privacy interests of its customers require that they be seen by female counselors. This is because the physical measurements that are taken by the counselors and the topics that are discussed during the counseling sessions are so inherently intrusive that these functions can only be performed by female counselors. The Court has already determined that the impact of employing male counselors on the privacy interests of the customers is minimal. Further, Physicians Weight Loss has not shown that employing male counselors would undermine the essence of the business, which is helping people lose weight. There has been no showing that the ability to accurately take measurements of customers and counsel them on the best ways to lose weight are talents uniquely possessed by women. Likewise, it has not been demonstrated that employing male counselors would pose any safety risk to customers or make the taking of measurements and counseling of customers unduly inefficient. Physicians Weight Loss has also failed to show that being female has a manifest relationship to the accurate taking of measurements or the proper counseling of customers interested in weight loss. To the extent Physicians Weight Loss offered any evidence in this area, it is simply unpersuasive.

The second reason Physicians Weight Loss asserts that makes being female a bona fidé occupational qualification of its counselors is the preference of its customers, most of whom are women, for women counselors. First, preferences by customers have little, if any, legitimate role in making determinations of the legitimacy of discrimination under Title VII. Bradley v. Pizzaco of Nebraska, Inc., 7 F.3d 795, 799 (8th Cir.1993). For example, *306it is doubtful that the preference of male airline travelers would justify a requirement by airlines that all of its flight attendants be female. Second, even if customer preference was a legitimate factor to consider, the evidence of customer preferences presented by Physicians Weight Loss was neither scientifically tested nor sound. The customer preference evidence was based on a survey that was biased in its presentation and, as a result, did not yield reliable information.

RECORD KEEPING ■

Regulations promulgated pursuant to Title VII impose certain record keeping requirements on employers. See 42 U.S.C. Section 2000e-8(e). Specifically, 29 C.F.R. Section 1602.14 requires:

Any personnel or employment record made or kept by an employer (including but not necessarily limited to ... application forms submitted by applicants ... ) shall be preserved by-the employer for a period of one year from the date of the making of the record or the personnel action involved, whichever occurs later....

The evidence presented at trial, largely uncontested by Physicians Weight Loss, establishes that the employment applications of some male applicants were either destroyed or discarded within one year after being received by Physicians Weight Loss. Under either circumstance, the evidence establishes that employment applications of some male applicants were not maintained as required by 29 C.F.R. Section 1602.14.

For these reasons, it is

ORDERED that judgment be entered on the issue of liability in favor of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and against Hi 40 Corporation- d b a Physicians Weight Loss Centers and William R. Pickett.