• She is a member of a protected class.
• She suffered an adverse employment decision as a result of a performance evaluation (i.e., was skipped over for promotion)
• She should not have been skipped over for promotion because her performance level deserved the promotion.
• The promotion was not given to anyone, or it was given to an employee who is not a member of the same protected class (i.e., another woman).
If an employee provides this kind of evidence, the employer must articulate a legitimate and nondiscriminatory reason for not having given the promotion to this female employee. Usually this involves a reason that is clearly performance related. This is the point at which employers benefit from having designed and implemented a system that is used consistently with all employees. Such a system is legally decisions, and any decisions that resulted from the system, such as promotion decisions, are also defensible.