delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioner, General Electric Co.,1 provides for all of its employees a disability plan which pays weekly nonoccupational sickness and accident benefits. Excluded from the plan’s coverage, however, are disabilities arising from pregnancy. Respondents, on behalf of a class of women employees, brought this action seeking, inter alia2 a declara*128tion that this exclusion constitutes sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 253, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e et seq. The District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, following a trial on the merits, held that the exclusion of such pregnancy-related disability benefits from General Electric’s employee disability plan violated Title VII, 375 F. Supp. 367. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 519 F. 2d 661, and we granted certiorari, 423 U. S. 822. We now reverse.

I

As part of its total compensation package, General Electric provides nonoccupational sickness and accident benefits to all employees under its Weekly Sickness and Accident Insurance Plan (Plan) in an amount equal to 60% of an employee’s normal straight-time weekly earnings. These payments are paid to employees who become totally disabled as a result of a nonoccupational sickness or accident. Benefit payments normally start with the eighth day of an employee’s total disability (although if an employee is earlier confined to a hospital as a bed patient, benefit payments will start immediately), and continue up to a maximum of 26 weeks for any one continuous period of disability or successive periods of disability due to the same or related causes.3

The individual named respondents are present or former hourly paid production employees at General Electric’s plant in Salem, Va. Each of these employees was pregnant during *1291971 or 1972, while employed by General Electric and each presented a claim to the company for disability benefits under the Plan to cover the period while absent from work as a result of the pregnancy. These claims were routinely denied on the ground that the Plan did not provide disability-benefit payments for any absence due to pregnancy.4 Each of the respondents thereafter filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that the refusal of General Electric to pay disability benefits under the Plan for time lost due to pregnancy and childbirth discriminated against her because of sex. Upon waiting the requisite number of days, the instant action was commenced in the District Court.5 The complaint asserted a violation of Title VII. Damages were sought as well as an injunction directing General Electric to include pregnancy disabilities within the Plan on the same terms and conditions as other nonoccupational disabilities.

*130Following trial, the District Court made findings of fact and conclusions of law, and entered an order in which it determined that General Electric, by excluding pregnancy disabilities from the coverage of the Plan, had engaged in sex discrimination in violation of § 703 (a)(1) of Title VII, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2 (a)(1). The District Court found that normal pregnancy, while not necessarily either a “disease” or an “accident,” was disabling for a period of six to eight weeks;6 that approximately “[t]en per cent of pregnancies are terminated by miscarriage, which is disabling”;7 and that approximately 10% of pregnancies are complicated by diseases which may lead to additional disability.8 The District Court noted the evidence introduced during the trial, a good deal of it stipulated, concerning the relative cost to General Electric of providing benefits under the Plan to male and female employees,9 all of which indicated that, with pregnancy-related disabilities excluded, the cost of the Plan to General Electric per female employee was at least as high as, if not substantially higher than, the cost per male employee.10

*131The District Court found that the inclusion of pregnancy-related disabilities within the scope of the Plan would “increase G. E.’s [disability benefits plan] costs by an amount which, though large, is at this time undeterminable.” 375 F. Supp., at 378.. The District Court declined to find that the present actuarial value of the coverage was equal as between men and women,11 but went on to decide that even *132had it found economic equivalence, such a finding would not in any case have justified the exclusion of pregnancy-related disabilities from an otherwise comprehensive nonoccupational sickness and accident disability plan. Regardless of whether the cost of including such benefits might make the Plan more costly for women than for men, the District Court determined that “[i]f Title VII intends to sexually equalize employment opportunity, there must be this one exception to the cost differential defense.” Id., at 383.

The ultimate conclusion of the District Court was that petitioner had discriminated on the basis of sex in the operation of its disability program in violation of Title VII, id., at 385-386. An order was entered enjoining petitioner ,from continuing to exclude pregnancy-related disabilities from the coverage of the Plan, and providing for the future award of monetary relief to individual members of the class affected. Petitioner appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and that court by a divided vote affirmed the judgment of the District Court.

Between the date on which the District Court’s judgment was rendered and the time this case was decided by the Court of Appeals, we decided Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U. S. 484 (1974), where we rejected a claim that a very similar disability program established under California law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because that plan’s exclusion of pregnancy disabilities represented sex discrimination. The majority of the Court of Appeals felt that Geduldig was not controlling because it *133arose under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and not under Title VII, 519 F. 2d, at 666-667. The dissenting opinion disagreed with the majority as to the impact of Geduldig, 519 F. 2d, at 668-669. We granted certiorari to consider this important issue in the construction of Title VII.12

II

Section 703 (a)(1) provides in relevant part that it shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer

“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).

While there is no necessary inference that Congress, in choosing this language, intended to incorporate into Title VII the concepts of discrimination which have evolved from court decisions construing the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the similarities between the congressional language and some of those decisions surely indicate that the latter are a useful starting point in interpreting the former. /Particularly in the case of defining the term “discrimination, which Congress has nowhere in Title VII defined, those cases afford an existing body of law analyzing and discussing that term in a legal context not wholly dissimilar to the concerns which Congress manifested in enacting Title VII. \We think, therefore, that our decision in Geduldig v. Aiello, supra, dealing with a strikingly similar disability plan, is quite relevant in determining whether or not the pregnancy exclusion did discriminate on the basis of sex. In Geduldig, the disability insurance system was *134funded entirely from contributions deducted from the wages of participating employees, at a rate of 1% of the employee’s salary up to an annual maximum of $85. In other relevant respects, the operation of the program was similar to General Electric’s disability benefits plan, see 417 U. S., at 487-489.

We rejected appellee’s equal protection challenge to this statutory scheme. We first noted:

“We cannot agree that the exclusion of this disability from coverage amounts to invidious discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause. California does not discriminate with respect to the persons or groups which are eligible for disability insurance protection under the program. The classification challenged in this case relates to the asserted underinclusiveness of the set of risks that the State has selected to insure.” Id., at 494.

This point was emphasized again, when later in the opinion we noted:

“[T]his case is thus a far cry from cases like Reed v. Reed, 404 U. S. 71 (1971), and Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U. S. 677 (1973), involving discrimination based upon gender as such. The California insurance program does not exclude anyone from benefit eligibility because of gender but merely removes one physical condition— pregnancy — from the list of compensable disabilities. While it is true that only women can become pregnant, it does not follow that every legislative classification concerning pregnancy is a sex-based classification like those considered in Reed, supra, and Frontiero, supra. Normal pregnancy is an objectively identifiable physical condition with unique characteristics. Absent a showing that distinctions involving pregnancy are mere pretexts designed to effect an invidious discrimination against the members of one sex or the other, lawmakers are constitutionally free to include or exclude pregnancy from the coverage of legislation such as this on any reason*135able basis, just as with respect to any other physical condition.

“The lack of identity between the excluded disability and gender as such under this insurance program becomes clear upon the most cursory analysis. The program divides potential recipients into two groups — pregnant women and nonpregnant persons. While the first group is exclusively female, the second includes members of both sexes.” Id., at 496-497, n. 20.

The quoted language from Geduldig leaves no doubt that our reason for rejecting appellee’s equal protection claim in that case was that the exclusion of pregnancy from coverage under California’s disability-benefits plan was not in itself discrimination based on sex.

We recognized in Geduldig, of course, that the fact that there was no sex-based discrimination as such was not the end of the analysis, should it be shown “that distinctions involving pregnancy are mere pretexts designed to effect an invidious discrimination against the members of one sex or the other,” ibid. But we noted that no semblance of such a showing had been made:

“There is no evidence in the record that the selection of the risks insured by the program worked to discriminate against any definable group or class in terms of the aggregate risk protection derived by that group or class from the program. There is no risk from which men are protected and women are not. Likewise, there is no risk from which women are protected and men are not.” Id., at 496-497.

Since gender-based discrimination had not been shown to exist either by the terms of the plan or by its effect, there was no need to reach the question of what sort of standard would govern our review had there been such a showing. See Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U. S. 677 (1973); Reed v. Reed, 404 U. S. 71 (1971).

*136The Court of Appeals was therefore wrong in concluding that the reasoning of Geduldig was not applicable to an action under Title VII. Since it is a finding of sex-based discrimination that must trigger, in a case such as this, the finding of an unlawful employment practice under § 703 (a)(1), Geduldig is precisely in point in its holding that an exclusion of pregnancy from a disability-benefits plan providing general coverage is not a gender-based discrimination at all.

There is no more showing in this case than there was in Geduldig that the exclusion of pregnancy benefits is a mere “pretext t] designed to effect an invidious discrimination against the members of one sex or the other.” The Court of Appeals expressed the view that the decision in Geduldig had actually turned on whether or not a conceded discrimination was “invidious” but we think that in so doing it misread the quoted language from our opinion. As we noted in that opinion, a distinction which on its face is not sex related might nonetheless violate the Equal Protection Clause if it were in fact a subterfuge to accomplish a forbidden discrimination. But we have here no question of excluding a disease or disability comparable in all other respects to covered diseases or disabilities and yet confined to the members of one race or sex. Pregnancy is, of course, confined to women, but it is in other ways significantly different from the typical covered disease or disability. The District Court found that it is not a “disease” at all, and is often a voluntarily undertaken and desired condition, 375 F. Supp., at 375, 377. We do not therefore infer that the exclusion of pregnancy disability benefits from petitioner’s plan is a simple pretext for discriminating against women. . The contrary arguments adopted by the lower courts and expounded by our dissenting Brethren were largely rejected in Geduldig.

The instant suit was grounded on Title VII rather than the Equal Protection Clause, and our cases recognize that *137a prima facie violation of Title VII can be established in some circumstances upon proof that the effect of an otherwise facially neutral plan or classification is to discriminate against members of one class or another. See Washington v. Davis, 426 U. S. 229, 246-248 (1976). For example, in the context of a challenge, under the provisions of § 703 (a) (2),13 to a facially neutral employment test, this Court held that a prima facie case of discrimination would be established if, even absent proof of intent, the consequences of the test were “invidiously to discriminate on the basis of racial or other impermissible classification,” Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424, 431 (1971). Even assuming that it is not necessary in this case to prove intent to establish a prima facie violation of § 703 (a)(1), but cf. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S. 792, 802-806 (1973), the respondents have not made the requisite showing of gender-based effects.14

As in Geduldig, respondents have not attempted to meet the burden of demonstrating a gender-based discriminatory effect resulting from the exclusion of pregnancy-related disabilities from coverage.15 Whatever the ultimate *138probative value of the evidence introduced before the District Court on this subject in the instant case, at the very-least it tended to illustrate that the selection of risks covvered by the Plan did not operate, in fact, to discriminate against women. As in Geduldig, we start from the indisputable baseline that “[t]he fiscal and actuarial benefits of the program . . . accrue to members of both sexes,” 417 U. S., at 497 n. 20. We need not disturb the findings of the District Court to note that neither is there a finding, nor was there any evidence which would support a finding, that the financial benefits of the Plan “worked to discriminate against any definable group or class in terms of the aggregate risk protection derived by that group or class from the program,” id., at 496. The Plan, in effect (and for all that appears), is nothing more than an insurance package, which covers some risks, but excludes others, see id., at 494, 496-497.16 The “package” going to relevant identifiable groups we are presently concerned with — General Electric’s male and female employees — covers exactly the same categories of risk, and is facially nondiscriminatory in the sense that “[t]here is no risk from which men are protected and women are not. Likewise, there is no risk from which women are protected and men are not.” Id., at 496-497. As there is no proof that the package is in fact worth more to men than to women,pit is- impossible to find any gender-based discriminatory effect in this scheme simply because women disabled as a result of pregnancy do not receive benefits; that is to say, gender-based discrimination does not result simply because an employer’s disability-benefits plan is less *139than all-inclusive.17 For all that appears, pregnancy-related disabilities constitute an additional risk, unique to women, and the failure to compensate them for this risk does not destroy the presumed parity of the benefits, accruing to men and women alike, which results from the facially evenhanded inclusion of risks. To hold otherwise would endanger the commonsense notion that an employer who has no disability benefits program at all does not violate Title VII even though the “underinclusion” of risks impacts, as a result *140of pregnancy-related disabilities, more heavily upon one gender than upon the other.18 Just as there is no facial gender-based discrimination in that case, so, too, there is none here.

Ill

We are told, however, that this analysis of the congressional purpose underlying Title VII is inconsistent with the guidelines of the EEOC, which, it is asserted, are entitled to “great deference” in the construction of the Act, Griggs, 401 U. S., at 433-434; Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., 400 U. S. 542, 545 (1971) (Marshall, J., concurring). The guideline upon which respondents rely most heavily was promulgated in 1972, and states in pertinent part:

“Disabilities caused or contributed to by pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, childbirth, and recovery therefrom are, for all job-related purposes, temporary disabilities and should be treated as such under any health or temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan available *141in connection with employment. . . . [Benefits] shall be applied to disability due to pregnancy or childbirth on the same terms and conditions as they are applied to other temporary disabilities.” 29 CFR § 1604.10 (b) (1975).19

In evaluating this contention it should first be noted that Congress, in enacting Title VII, did not confer upon the EEOC authority to promulgate rules or regulations pursuant to that Title. Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S. 405, 431 (1975).20 This does not mean that EEOC guidelines are not entitled to consideration in determining legislative intent, see Albemarle, supra; Griggs v. Duke Power Co., supra, at 433-434; Espinoza v. Farah Mfg. Co., 414 U. S. 86, 94 (1973). But it does mean that courts properly may accord less weight to such guidelines than to administrative regulations which Congress has declared shall have the force of law, see Standard Oil Co. v. Johnson, 316 U. S. 481, 484 (1942), or to regulations which under the enabling statute may themselves supply the basis for imposition of liability, see, e. g., § 23 (a), Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U. S. C. § 78w (a). The most comprehensive statement of the role of interpretative rulings such as the EEOC guidelines is found in Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U. S. 134, 140 (1944), where the Court said:

“We consider that the rulings, interpretations and opinions of the Administrator under this Act, while not *142controlling upon the courts by reason of their authority, do constitute a body of experience and informed judgment to which courts and litigants may properly resort for guidance. The weight of such a judgment in a particular case will depend upon the thoroughness evident in its consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give it power to persuade, if lacking power to control.”

The EEOC guideline in question does not fare well under these standards. It is not a contemporaneous interpretation of Title VII, since it was first promulgated eight years after the enactment of that Title. More importantly, the 1972 guideline flatly contradicts the position which the agency had enunciated at an earlier date, closer to the enactment of the governing statute. An opinion letter by the General Counsel of the EEOC, dated October 17, 1966, states:

“You have requested our opinion whether the above exclusion of pregnancy and childbirth as a disability under the long-term salary continuation plan would be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“In a recent opinion letter regarding pregnancy, we have stated, ‘The Commission policy in this area does not seek to compare an employer’s treatment of illness or injury with his treatment of maternity since maternity is a temporary disability unique to the female sex and more or less to be anticipated during the working life of most women employees.’ Therefore, it is our opinion that according to the facts stated above, a company’s group insurance program which covers hospital and medical expenses for the delivery of employees’ children, but excludes from its long-term salary continuation program those disabilities which result from pregnancy and childbirth would not be in violation of Title VII.” App. 721-722.

*143A few weeks later, in an opinion letter expressly issued pursuant to 29 CFR § 1601.30 (1975), the EEOC’s position was that “an insurance or other benefit plan may simply exclude maternity as a covered risk, and such an exclusion would not in our view be discriminatory,” App. 735.

We have declined to follow administrative guidelines in the past where they conflicted with earlier pronouncements of the agency. United Housing Foundation, Inc. v. Forman, 421 U. S. 837, 858-859, n. 25 (1975); Espinoza v. Farah Mfg. Co., supra, at 92-96. In short, while we do not wholly discount the weight to be given the 1972 guideline, it does not receive high marks when judged by the standards enunciated in Skidmore, supra.

There are also persuasive indications that the more recent EEOC guideline sharply conflicts with other indicia of the proper interpretation of the sex-discrimination provisions of Title VII. The legislative history of Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination is notable primarily for its brevity. Even so, however, Congress paid especial attention to the provisions of the Equal Pay Act, 29 U. S. C. § 206(d),21 when it amended § 703 (h) of Title VII by adding the following sentence:

“It shall not be an unlawful employment practice under *144this subchapter for any employer to differentiate upon the basis of sex in determining the amount of the wages or compensation paid or to be paid to employees of such employer if such differentiation is authorized by the provisions of section 206 (d) of Title 29.” 42 U. S. C. §2000^-2 (h).

This sentence was proposed as the Bennett Amendment to the Senate bill, 110 Cong. Rec. 13647 (1964), and Senator Humphrey, the floor manager of the bill, stated that the purpose of the amendment was to make it “unmistakably clear” that “differences of treatment in industrial benefit plans, including earlier retirement options for women, may continue in operation under this bill, if it becomes law,” id., at 13663-13664. Because of this amendment, interpretations of § 6 (d) of the Equal Pay Act are applicable to Title VII as well, and an interpretive regulation promulgated by the Wage and Hour Administrator under the Equal Pay Act explicitly states:

“If employer contributions to a plan providing insurance or similar benefits to employees are equal for both men and women, no wage differential prohibited by the equal pay provisions will result from such payments, even though the benefits which accrue to the employees in question are greater for one sex than for the other. The mere fact that the employer may make unequal contributions for employees of opposite sexes in such a situation will not, however, be considered to indicate that the employer’s payments are in violation of section 6 (d), if the resulting benefits are equal for such employees.” 29 CFR § 800.116 (d) (1975).

Thus, even if we were to depend for our construction of the critical language of Title YII solely on the basis of “deference” to interpretative regulations by the appro*145priate administrative agencies, we would find ourselves pointed in diametrically opposite directions by the conflicting regulations of the EEOC, on the one hand, and the Wage and Hour Administrator, on the other. Petitioner’s exclusion of benefits for pregnancy disability would be declared an unlawful employment practice under §703 (a)(1), but would be declared not to be an unlawful employment practice under § 703 (h).

We are not reduced to such total abdication in construing the statute. The EEOC guideline of 1972, conflicting as it does with earlier pronouncements of that agency, and containing no suggestion that some new source of legislative history had been discovered in the intervening eight years, stands virtually alone. Contrary to it are the consistent interpretation of the Wage and Hour Administrator, and the quoted language of Senator Humphrey, the floor manager of Title VII in the Senate. They support what seems to us to be the “plain meaning” of the language used by Congress when it enacted §703 (a)(1).

The concept of “discrimination,” of course, was well known at the time of the enactment of Title VII, having been associated with the Fourteenth Amendment for nearly a century, and carrying with it a long history of judicial construction. When Congress makes it unlawful for an employer to “discriminate . . . because of . . . sex . . . ,” without further explanation of its meaning, we should not readily infer that it meant something different from what the concept of discrimination has traditionally meant, cf. Morton v. Mancari, 417 U. S. 535, 549 (1974); Ozawa v. United States, 260 U. S. 178, 193 (1922). There is surely no reason for any such inference here, see Gemsco v. Walling, 324 U. S. 244, 260 (1945).

We therefore agree with petitioner that its disability-benefits plan does not violate Title VII because of its failure *146to cover pregnancy-related disabilities. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is

Reversed.

dissenting.

The Court holds today that without violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e et seq., a private employer may adopt a disability plan that compensates employees for all temporary disabilities except one affecting exclusively women, pregnancy. I respectfully dissent. Today’s holding not only repudiates the applicable administrative guideline promulgated by the agency charged by Con*147gress with implementation of the Act, but also rejects the unanimous conclusion of all six Courts of Appeals that have addressed this question. See Communications Workers v. American Tel. & Tel., 513 F. 2d 1024 (CA2 1975), cert. pending, No. 74-1601; Wetzel v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 511 F. 2d 199 (CA3 1975), vacated on jurisdictional grounds, 424 U. S. 737 (1976); Gilbert v. General Electric Co., 519 F. 2d 661 (CA4 1975) (this case); Tyler v. Vickery, 517 F. 2d 1089, 1097-1099 (CA5 1975); Satty v. Nashville Gas Co., 522 F. 2d 850 (CA6 1975), cert. pending, No. 75-536; Hutchison v. Lake Oswego School Dist. No. 7, 519 F. 2d 961 (CA9 1975), cert. pending, No. 75-1049.

I

This case is unusual in that it presents a question the resolution of which at first glance turns largely upon the conceptual framework chosen to identify and describe the operational features of the challenged disability program. By directing their focus upon the risks excluded from the otherwise comprehensive program, and upon the purported justifications for such exclusions, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the women plaintiffs, and the lower courts reason that the pregnancy exclusion constitutes a prima facie violation of Title VII. This violation is triggered, they argue, because the omission of pregnancy from the program has the intent and effect of providing that “only women [are subjected] to a substantial risk of total loss of income because of temporary medical disability.” Brief for EEOC as Amicus Curiae 12.

The Court’s framework is diametrically different. It views General Electric’s plan as representing a gender-free assignment of risks in accordance with normal actuarial techniques. From this perspective the lone exclusion of pregnancy is not a violation of Title VII insofar as all other disabilities are mutually covered for both sexes. This reasoning relies primarily upon the descriptive statement borrowed from *148Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U. S. 484, 496-497 (1974): “There is no risk from which men are protected and women are not. Likewise, there is no risk from which women are protected and men are not.” Ante, at 138. According to the Court, this assertedly neutral sorting process precludes the pregnancy omission from constituting a violation of Title VII.

Presumably, it is not self-evident that either conceptual framework is more appropriate than the other, which can only mean that further inquiry is necessary to select the more accurate and realistic analytical approach. At the outset, the soundness of the Court’s underlying assumption that the plan is the untainted product of a gender-neutral risk-assignment process can be examined against the historical backdrop of General Electric’s employment practices and the existence or nonexistence of gender-free policies governing the inclusion of compensable risks. Secondly, the resulting pattern of risks insured by General Electric can then be evaluated in terms of the broad social objectives promoted by Title VII. I believe that the first inquiry compels the conclusion that the Court’s assumption that General Electric engaged in a gender-neutral risk-assignment process is purely fanciful. The second demonstrates that the EEOC’s interpretation that the exclusion of pregnancy from a disability insurance plan is incompatible with the overall objectives of Title YII has been unjustifiably rejected.

II

Geduldig v. Aiello, supra, purports to be the starting point for the Court’s analysis. There a state-operated disability insurance system containing a pregnancy exclusion was held not to violate the Equal Protection Clause. Although it quotes primarily from one footnote of that opinion at some length, ante, at 134-135, the Court finally does not grapple with Geduldig on its own terms.

Considered most favorably to the Court’s view, Geduldig established the proposition that a pregnancy classification *149standing alone cannot be said to fall into the category of classifications that rest explicitly on “gender as such,” 417 U. S., at 496 n. 20. Beyond that, Geduldig offers little analysis helpful to decision of this case. Surely it offends common sense to suggest, ante, at 136, that a classification revolving around pregnancy is not, at the minimum, strongly “sex related.” See, e. g., Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur, 414 U. S. 632, 652 (1974) (Powell, J., concurring). Indeed, even in the insurance context where neutral actuarial principles were found to have provided a legitimate and independent input into the decisionmaking process, Geduldig’s outcome was qualified by the explicit reservation of a case where it could be demonstrated that a pregnancy-centered differentiation is used as a “mere pretext . . . designed to effect an invidious discrimination against the members of one sex. . . .” 417 U. S., at 496-497, n. 20.

Thus, Geduldig itself obliges the Court to determine whether the exclusion of a sex-linked disability from the universe of compensable disabilities was actually the product of neutral, persuasive actuarial considerations, or rather stemmed from a policy that purposefully downgraded women’s role in the labor force. In Geduldig, that inquiry coupled with the normal presumption favoring legislative action satisfied the Court that the pregnancy exclusion in fact was prompted by California’s legitimate fiscal concerns, and therefore that California did not deny equal protection in effectuating reforms “ ‘one step at a time.’ ” Id., at 495. But the record in this case makes such deference impossible here. Instead, in reaching its conclusion that a showing of purposeful discrimination has not been made, ante, at 136, the Court simply disregards a history of General Electric practices that have served to undercut the employment opportunities of women who become pregnant while employed.1 More*150over, the Court studiously ignores the undisturbed conclusion of the District Court that General Electric’s “discriminatory attitude” toward women was “a motivating factor in its policy,” 375 F. Supp. 367, 383 (ED Va. 1974), and that the pregnancy exclusion was “neutral [neither] on its face” nor “in its intent.” Id., at 382.2

Plainly then, the Court’s appraisal of General Electric’s policy as a neutral process of sorting risks and “not a gender-based discrimination at all,” ante, at 136, cannot easily be squared with the historical record in this case. The Court, *151therefore, proceeds to a discussion of purported neutral criteria that suffice to explain the lone exclusion of pregnancy from the program. The Court argues that pregnancy is not “comparable” to other disabilities since it is a “voluntary” condition rather than a “disease.” Ibid. The fallacy of this argument is that even if “non-voluntariness” and “disease” are to be construed as the operational criteria for inclusion of a disability in General Electric's program, application of these criteria is inconsistent with the Court's gender-neutral interpretation of the company's policy.

For example, the characterization of pregnancy as “voluntary” 3 is not a persuasive factor, for as the Court of Appeals correctly noted, “other than for childbirth disability, [General Electric] had never construed its plan as eliminating all so-called 'voluntary' disabilities,” including sport injuries, attempted suicides, venereal disease, disabilities incurred in the commission of a crime or during a fight, and elective cosmetic surgery. 519 F. 2d, at 665. Similarly, the label “disease” rather than “disability” cannot be deemed determinative since General Electric's pregnancy disqualification also excludes the 10% of pregnancies that end in debilitating miscarriages, 375 F. Supp., at 377, the 10% of cases where pregnancies are complicated by “diseases” in the intuitive sense of the word, ibid., and cases where women recovering from childbirth are stricken by severe diseases unrelated to pregnancy.4

*152Moreover, even the Court’s principal argument for the plan’s supposed, gender neutrality cannot withstand analysis. The central analytical framework relied upon to demonstrate the absence of discrimination is the principle described in Geduldig: “There is no risk from which men are protected and women are not . . . [and] no risk from which women are protected and men are not.” 417 U. S., at 496-497, quoted, ante, at 138. In fostering the impression that it is faced with a mere underinclusive assignment of risks in a gender-neutral fashion — that is, all other disabilities are insured irrespective of gender — the Court’s analysis proves to be simplistic and misleading. For although all mutually contractible risks are covered irrespective of gender, but see n. 4 supra, the plan also insures risks such as prostatectomies, vasectomies, and circumcisions that are specific to the reproductive system of men and for which there exist no female counterparts covered by the plan. Again, pregnancy affords the only disability, sex-specific or otherwise, that is excluded from coverage.5 Accordingly, the District Court appropriately re*153marked: “[T]he concern of defendants in reference to pregnancy risks, coupled with the apparent lack of concern regarding the balancing of other statistically sex-linked disabilities, buttresses the Court’s conclusion that the discriminatory attitude characterized elsewhere in the Court’s findings was in fact a motivating factor in its policy.” 375 F. Supp., at 383.

If decision of this case, therefore, turns upon acceptance of the Court’s view of General Electric’s disability plan as a sex-neutral assignment of risks, or plaintiffs’ perception of the plan as a sex-conscious process expressive of the secondary status of women in the company’s labor force, the history of General Electric’s employment practices and the absence of definable gender-neutral sorting criteria under the plan warrant rejection of the Court’s view in deference to the plaintiffs’. Indeed, the fact that the Court’s frame of reference lends itself to such intentional, sex-laden decisionmaking makes clear the wisdom and propriety of the EEOC’s contrary approach to employment disability programs.

Ill

Of course, the demonstration of purposeful discrimination is not the only ground for recovery under Title VII. Notwithstanding unexplained and inexplicable implications to the contrary in the majority opinion,6 this Court, see Washing*154ton v. Davis, 426 U. S. 229, 238-239 (1976); Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S. 405, 422 (1975); McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S. 792, 802 (1973); Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424, 432 (1971), and every Court of Appeals7 now have firmly settled that a *155prima facie violation of Title VII, whether under § 703 (a)(1) or §703 (a)(2), also is established by demonstrating that a facially neutral classification has the effect of discriminating against members of a defined class.

General Electric’s disability program has three divisible sets of effects. First, the plan covers all disabilities that mutually afflict both sexes. But see n. 4, supra. Second, the plan insures against all disabilities that are male-specific or have a predominant impact on males. Finally, all female-specific and female-impacted disabilities are covered, except for the most prevalent, pregnancy. The Court focuses on the first factor — the equal inclusion of mutual risks — and therefore understandably can identify no discriminatory effect arising from the plan. In contrast, the EEOC and plaintiffs rely upon the unequal exclusion manifested in effects two and three to pinpoint an adverse impact on women. However one defines the profile of risks protected by General Electric, the determinative question must be whether the social policies and aims to be furthered by Title VII and filtered through the phrase “to discriminate” contained in § 703 (a)(1) fairly forbid an ultimate pattern of coverage that insures all risks except a commonplace one that is applicable to women but not to men.

As a matter of law and policy, this is a paradigm example of the type of complex economic and social inquiry that Congress wisely left to resolution by the EEOC pursuant to its Title VII mandate. See H. R. Rep. No. 92-238, p. 8 (1972). And, accordingly, prior Title VII decisions have consistently acknowledged the unique persuasiveness of EEOC *156interpretations in this area. These prior decisions, rather than providing merely that Commission guidelines are “entitled to consideration,” as the Court allows, ante, at 141, hold that the EEOC’s interpretations should receive “great deference.” Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, supra, at 431; Griggs v. Duke Power Co., supra, at 433-434; Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., 400 U. S. 542, 545 (1971) (Marshall, J., concurring). Nonetheless, the Court today abandons this standard in order squarely to repudiate the 1972 Commission guideline providing that “[disabilities caused or contributed to by pregnancy . . . are, for all job-related purposes, temporary disabilities . . . [under] any health or temporary disability insurance or sick leave plan____” 29 CFR § 1604.10 (b) (1975). This rejection is attributed to two interrelated events: an 8-year delay between Title VII’s enactment and the promulgation of the Commission’s guideline, and. interim letters by the EEOC’s General Counsel expressing the view that pregnancy is not necessarily includable as a compensable disability. Neither event supports the Court’s refusal to accord “great deference” to the EEOC’s interpretation.

It is true, as noted, ante, at 143, that only brief mention of sex discrimination appears in the early legislative history of Title VII. It should not be surprising, therefore, that the EEOC, charged with a fresh and uncharted mandate, candidly acknowledged that further study was required before the contours of sex discrimination as proscribed by Congress could be defined. See 30 Fed. Reg. 14927 (1965). Although proceeding cautiously, the Commission from the outset acknowledged the relationship between sex discrimination and pregnancy, announcing that “policies would have to be devised which afforded female employees reasonable job protection during periods of pregnancy.” EEOC First Annual Report to Congress, Fiscal Year 1965-1966, p. 40 (1967). During the succeeding seven years, the EEOC worked to develop a coherent policy toward pregnancy-oriented employment practices *157both through the pursuit of its normal adjudicatory functions8 and by engaging in comprehensive studies with such organizations as the President’s Citizens’ Advisory Council on the Status of Women. See, e. g., Address of Jacqueline G. Gutwillig, Chairwoman, Citizens’ Advisory Council, cited in App. 1159. These investigations on the role of pregnancy in the labor market coupled with the Commission’s “review . . . [of] its case decisions on maternity preparatory to issuing formal guidelines,” id., at 1161, culminated in the 1972 guideline, the agency’s first formalized, systematic statement on “employment policies relating to pregnancy and childbirth.”

Therefore, while some eight years had elapsed prior to the issuance of the 1972 guideline, and earlier opinion letters had refused to impose liability on employers during this period of deliberation, no one can or does deny that the final EEOC determination followed thorough and well-informed consideration. Indeed, realistically viewed, this extended evaluation of an admittedly complex problem and an unwillingness to impose additional, potentially premature costs on employers during the decisionmaking stages ought to be perceived as a practice to be commended. It is bitter irony that the care that preceded promulgation of the 1972 guideline is today condemned by the Court as tardy indecisiveness, its unwillingness irresponsibly to challenge employers’ practices during the formative period is labeled as evidence of inconsistency, and this indecisiveness and inconsistency are bootstrapped into reasons for denying the Commission’s interpretation its due deference.

For me, the 1972 guideline represents a particularly conscientious and reasonable product of EEOC deliberations and, therefore, merits our “great deference.” Certainly, I can find *158no basis for concluding that the guideline is out of step with congressional intent. See Espinoza v. Farah Mfg. Co., 414 U. S. 86, 94 (1973). On the contrary, prior to 1972, Congress enacted just such a pregnancy-inclusive rule to govern the distribution of benefits for “sickness” under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, 45 U. S. C. § 351 (k) (2). Furthermore, shortly following the announcement of the EEOC’s rule, Congress approved and the President signed an essentially identical promulgation by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U. S. C. § 1681 (a) (1970 ed., Supp. V). See 45 CFR § 86.57 (c) (1976). Moreover, federal workers subject to the jurisdiction of the Civil Service Commission now are eligible for maternity and pregnancy coverage under their sick leave program. See Federal Personnel Manual, ch. 630, subch. 13, S13-2 (FPM Supp. 990-2, May 6, 1975).

These policy formulations are reasonable responses to the uniform testimony of governmental investigations which show that pregnancy exclusions built into disability programs both financially burden women workers and act to break down the continuity of the employment relationship, thereby exacerbating women’s comparatively transient role in the labor force. See, e. g., U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Consumer Income (Series P-60, No. 93, July 1974); Women’s Bureau, U. S. Dept. of Labor, Underutilization of Women Workers (rev. ed. 1971). In dictating pregnancy coverage under Title VII, the EEOC’s guideline merely settled upon a solution now accepted by every other Western industrial country. Dept, of Health, Education, and Welfare, Social Security Programs Throughout the World, 1971, pp. ix, xviii, xix (Research Report No. 40). I find it difficult to comprehend that such a construction can be anything but a “sufficiently reasonable” one to be “accepted by the reviewing courts.” Train v. Natural Resources Def. Council, 421 U. S. 60, 75 (1975).

*159The Court’s belief that the concept of discrimination cannot reach disability policies effecting “an additional risk, unique to women . . . ante, at 139, is plainly out of step with the decision three Terms ago in Lau v. Nichols, 414 U. S. 563 (1974), interpreting another provision of the Civil Rights Act. There a unanimous Court recognized that discrimination is a social phenomenon encased in a social context and, therefore, unavoidably takes its meaning from the desired end products of the relevant legislative enactment, end products that may demand due consideration to the uniqueness of “disadvantaged” individuals.9 A realistic understanding of conditions found in today’s labor environment warrants taking pregnancy into account in fashioning disability policies. Unlike the hypothetical situations conjectured by the Court, ante, at 139-140, and n. 17, contemporary disability *160programs are not creatures of a social or cultural vacuum devoid of stereotypes and signals concerning the pregnant woman employee. Indeed, no one seriously contends that General Electric or other companies actually conceptualized or developed their comprehensive insurance programs disability-by-disability in a strictly sex-neutral fashion.10 Instead, the company has devised a policy that, but for pregnancy, offers protection for all risks, even those that are “unique to” men or heavily male dominated. In light of this social expérience, the • history of General Electric's employment practices, the otherwise all-inclusive design of its disability program, and the burdened role of the contemporary working woman, the EEOC's construction of sex discrimination under § 703 (a)(1) is fully consonant with (the ultimate objective of Title VII, “to assure equality of employment opportunities and to eliminate those discriminatory practices and devices which have fostered [sexually] stratified job environments to the disadvantage of [women].” McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S., at 800.

I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

dissenting.

The word “discriminate” does not appear in the Equal Protection Clause.1 Since the plaintiffs' burden of proving a prima facie violation of that constitutional provision is significantly heavier than the burden of proving a prima facie violation of a statutory prohibition against discrimination,2 the constitutional holding in Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 *161U. S. 484 (1974), does not control the question of statutory-interpretation presented by this case. And, of course, when it enacted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress could not possibly have relied on language which this Court was to use a decade later in the Geduldig opinion.3 We are, therefore, presented with a fresh, and rather simple, question of statutory construction: Does a contract between a company and its employees which treats the risk of absenteeism caused by pregnancy differently from any other kind of absence discriminate against certain individuals because of their sex?

An affirmative answer to that question would not necessarily lead to a conclusion of illegality, because a statutory affirmative defense might justify the disparate treatment of pregnant women in certain situations. In this case, however, the company has not established any such justification. On the other hand, a negative answer to the threshold question would not necessarily defeat plaintiffs’ claim because facially neutral criteria may be illegal if they have a discriminatory effect.4 An analysis of the effect of a company’s rules relating to absenteeism would be appropriate if those rules referred only to neutral criteria, such as whether an absence was voluntary or involuntary, or perhaps particularly costly. This case, however, does not involve rules of that kind.

Rather, the rule at issue places the risk of. absence caused by pregnancy in a class by itself.5 By definition, such a *162rule discriminates on account of sex; for it is the capacity to become pregnant which primarily differentiates the female from the male. The analysis is the same whether the rule relates to hiring, promotion, the acceptability of an excuse for absence, or an exclusion from a disability insurance plan. Accordingly, without reaching the questions of motive, administrative expertise, and policy, which Mb. Justice Brennan so persuasively exposes, or the question of effect to which Mr. Justice Stewart and Mr. Justice Blackmun refer, I conclude that the language of the statute plainly requires the result which the Courts of Appeals have reached unanimously.

concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court holding that General Electric’s exclusion of benefits for disability during pregnancy is not a per se violation of § 703 (a)(1) of Title VII, and that the respondents have failed to prove a discriminatory effect. Unlike my Brother Blackmun, I do not understand the opinion to question either Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424, specifically, or the significance generally of proving a discriminatory effect in a Title VII case.

concurring in part.

I join the judgment of the Court and concur in its opinion insofar as it holds (a) that General Electric’s exclusion of disability due to pregnancy is not, per se, a violation of § 703 (a)(1) of Title VII; (b) that the plaintiffs in this case therefore had at least the burden of proving discriminatory effect; and (c) that they failed in that proof. I do not join any inference or suggestion in the Court’s opinion — if any such inference or suggestion is there — that effect may never be a controlling factor in a Title VII case, or that Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424 (1971), is no longer good law.