For 20 years, Marlene Jacobs worked as a bartender at Cesar's Palace in Las Vegas. In 2001, Cesar's Palace implemented new grooming standards. Among the requirements, women were told to wear makeup. She refused saying that it interfered with doing her job. She quit and sued alleging that the makeup policy discriminated against women. Cesar's Palace argued that the grooming policy applied to men as well since it required short hair and no beards for male employees.