UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ ARIEL SCHLOSSER, │ Plaintiff-Appellee, │ > No. 23-6019 │ v. │ │ VRHABILIS, LLC, │ Defendant-Appellant. │ ┘ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. No. 3:20-cv-00190—Travis Randall McDonough, District Judge.

Argued: July 17, 2024

Decided and Filed: August 26, 2024

Before: BOGGS, CLAY, and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges.

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COUNSEL ARGUED: Bryce E. Fitzgerald, KRAMER RAYSON LLP, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellant. G. Brandon Hall, THE EMPLOYMENT & CONSUMER LAW GROUP, LLC, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Bryce E. Fitzgerald, George R. Arrants, Jr., KRAMER RAYSON LLP, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellant. G. Brandon Hall, Lauren Irwin, Emily Costanzo, THE EMPLOYMENT & CONSUMER LAW GROUP, LLC, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee. _________________

OPINION _________________

CLAY, Circuit Judge. After a four-day trial and multiple days of deliberations, a jury found that Plaintiff Ariel Schlosser proved by a preponderance of the evidence that her former No. 23-6019 Schlosser v. VRHabilis, LLC Page 2

employer, VRHabilis, LLC (“VRH”), subjected her to a hostile work environment on the basis of her sex or gender, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 et seq. Following the jury’s verdict, VRH filed a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, arguing that the evidence could not support the jury’s verdict in favor of Schlosser. The district court denied the motion, and VRH timely appealed. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment. I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

In May 2016, VRH hired Schlosser to perform unexploded ordnance (“UXO”) remediation at Cape Poge, an island adjacent to Martha’s Vineyard. This remediation project required certified divers with weighted suits to extract UXO, such as practice bombs, bullets, or grenades, from the bottom of the sea floor to protect the public around the area. Schlosser was hired as “UXO Technician I,” which meant that she could serve as a primary diver, a standby diver, and/or a dive tender. While the primary diver is actually in the water removing UXO, the standby diver and the dive tender perform supportive roles, working to ensure that the primary diver is safe. Each of these roles had a different pay rate; a primary diver would receive the highest amount of compensation, while a dive tender working on the surface would receive significantly less. VRH staffed this project with two teams, each composed of approximately three divers and one diving supervisor. Notably, Schlosser was the lone female diver employed by VRH.

Several key events occurred during Schlosser’s first week working for VRH. On or about May 25, 2016, the Diving Program Manager, Scott Alogna, observed Schlosser practicing her knot ty