Still Outside the Good Ol' Boys Club

The data showed that during the past decade, the number of sex-discrimination charges filed with the EEOC increased by 10.5 percent. White women file more claims than women of color do, but white women's claims, while going up and down from year to year, declined 11.5 percent from 1992 to 2003.

Meanwhile, black women filed 3,898 sex discrimination charges in 1992, and 4,686 in 2003, a 20 percent increase. Hispanic women filed 1,052 charges in 1992 and 1,763 charges in 2003, a 68 percent increase.

"A significant portion of the increase in sex-discrimination claims over the last decade can be traced to the growing number of women of color filing complaints," the report says.

The report found that sexual harassment claims have increased 22 percent during the past decade. And it was not only women who filed: Men filed 14.7 percent of sexual harassment charges in 2003, up from 9 percent a decade ago.

Meanwhile, complaints filed by women who face discrimination because they are or may become pregnant have increased by 39 percent during the decade, even as the nation has seen a 9 percent drop in its birth rate, according to the report.

The increase can be at least partially attributed to the fact that there are more women in the workforce today, but that instances of discrimination still occur is disappointing and frustrating, Frye said. Although the partnership timed the report to be released near the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, it was by accident that it also was released as the Wal-Mart and Morgan Stanley sex-discrimination cases became more public. Those cases, Frye said, although not surprising, are still "a little shocking."

"It sort of gives you great pause, and you think, 'How can this still be happening?' But on other hand, if you look closely at the data, this is not a new story," she said. "Discrimination is still out there."

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