Does the Gender Mix Among Employers Influence Who Gets Hired? A Labor Market Experiment (original) (raw)
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Managers in a large corporation evaluated application materials representing one of eigh t hypothetical fob candidates. In order to examine the effects of two types of information on sex bias, three factors were manipulated in a factorial design." (1) Applicants were either male or female engineers; (2) they appeared highly competent or moderately competent based on academic performance; (3) they were applying for an engineering fob that entailed either technical engineering tasks or managerial tasks in addition to the technical tasks. Greater discrimination against women occurred in evaluations for the technical-managerial fob, even with highly competent applicants. These results are explained in terms of ambiguity: Because it was not obvious that applicants wouM succeed on the additional managerial tasks, the evaluators resorted to stereotypes in order to make their predictions. Despite affirmative action programs, women remain underrepresented in professional and managerial positions (Cohen & Bunker, 1975). Although partially caused by sex differences in aspirations and qualifications, this underrepresentation also reflects the persistence of discrimination at the entry level (cf. Terborg, 1977). That is, women are less likely to be hired even when male and female job applicants have identical qualifications (e.g., Fidell, 1970; Rosen & Jerdee, 1974a, 1974b, 1974c). Many investigators have attributed sex bias in hiring to traditional stereotypes and have begun to consider factors other than overt hostility which may underlie stereotypical evaluations of women.
Gender bias remains a serious problem in the workplace. In order to begin addressing this complex issue, we must isolate the factors that influence these inequalities. Is one such factor political ideology? If so, how does it relate to these inequalities? Research methods used in previous and relevant studies were modified in order to explore this issue. The current research used fictional samples of applicant information and mock interview transcripts in order to simulate a hiring process (Hoyt, 2011 ). In order to show differences in attitudes, both the sex of the applicant and their prospective occupations were manipulated. More specifically, each participant was randomly assigned to read through one of the four possible applicant transcripts. Then, applicant hireability and participant political ideology were assessed. The hypothesis is that, when compared to liberals, conservatives would be less likely to hire men and women for gender atypical positions than gender stereotypical positions. Results were contrary to this hypothesis, however. Implications are discussed.
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Organizational practices have been suggested to have an impact on employees’ unequal career outcomes. Women’s career outcomes may be at a particular risk in highly male-dominated fields due to stereotypes and perceived “fit”. Decision-maker bias in the assessment of applicant’s suitability is studied at a university of technology in a personnel selection experiment. Treatments compare results under visibility of gender with a gender-blind control condition, and add (varied) information on homophilous ties within the team and on equal opportunity law. Results show women’s odds to be ranked for an interview decrease through visibility of gender alone. Women and men face gender-stereotypical ascriptions of personal and technical qualities once gender is revealed, putting women at a potential disadvantage for an advertised stereotypically masculine position. Homophily further lessens women’s chances; mere reference to the law cannot alter biased outcomes. Findings suggest gender stereot...
Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 1980
One hundred male and female MBA students evaluated a woman applicant for a managerial position when the proportion of women in the applicant pool was varied. Results indicated that personnel decisions of both males and females were significantly more unfavorable when women represented 25% or less of the total pool. Additional findings suggest that this effect was mediated by the degree to which sex stereotypes predominated in forming impressions of applicants. The results were interpreted as supportive of the thesis that situational factors can function to reduce the adverse effects of sex stereotypes in employment settings.
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We discuss the contribution of the experimental literature to the understanding of both traditional and previously unexplored dimensions of gender differences and discuss their bearings on labor market outcomes. Experiments have offered new findings on gender discrimination, and while they have identified a bias against hiring women in some labor market segments, the discrimination detected in field experiments is less pervasive than that implied by the regression approach. Experiments have also offered new insights into gender differences in preferences: women appear to gain less from negotiation, have lower preferences than men for risk and competition, and may be more sensitive to social cues. These gender differences in preferences also have implications in group settings, whereby the gender composition of a group affects team decisions and performance. Most of the evidence on gender traits comes from the lab, and key open questions remain as to the source of gender preferences-nature versus nurture, or their interaction-and their role, if any, in the workplace.
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The effects of gender and sex of applicants for gender-typed jobs were investigated in the context of a simulation of a post-interview decision. Student subjects (N=102) rated eight applicants for one of three gendertyped jobs. Results indicated that, in general, masculine applicants (of both sexes) were preferred over androgynous applicants who were preferred over feminine applicants. For the neutral job, androgynous applicants were preferred over masculine applicants who were preferred over feminine applicants. Male and female students did not differ in their ratings of the applicants. The results were interpreted as indicating raters' preference for rnasculine characteristics in any job applicant.
KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie
The present article investigates gender discrimination in recruitment for two male-dominated occupations (mechanics and IT professionals). We empirically test two different explanatory approaches to gender discrimination in hiring; namely, statistical discrimination and taste-based discrimination. Previous studies suggest that, besides job applicants’ characteristics, organisational features play a role in hiring decisions. Our article contributes to the literature on gender discrimination in the labour market by investigating its opportunity structures located at the recruiter, job and company level, and how gender discrimination varies across occupations and countries.The analysed data come from a factorial survey experiment conducted in four countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Norway and Switzerland). Real job advertisements were sampled, and the recruiters in charge of hiring for these positions (n = 1,920) rated up to ten hypothetical CVs (vignettes). We find gender discrimination in ...
Gender Discrimination in Hiring: Evidence from a Cross-National Harmonized Field Experiment
European Sociological Review, 2021
Gender discrimination is often regarded as an important driver of women's disadvantage in the labour market, yet earlier studies show mixed results. However, because different studies employ different research designs, the estimates of discrimination cannot be compared across countries. By utilizing data from the first harmonized comparative field experiment on gender discrimination in hiring in six countries, we can directly compare employers' callbacks to fictitious male and female applicants. The countries included vary in a number of key institutional, economic, and cultural dimensions, yet we found no sign of discrimination against women. This cross-national finding constitutes an important and robust piece of evidence. Second, we found discrimination against men in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK, and no discrimination against men in Norway and the United States. However, in the pooled data the gender gradient hardly differs across countries. Our findings suggest that although employers operate in quite different institutional contexts, they regard female applicants as more suitable for jobs in female-dominated occupations, ceteris paribus, while we find no evidence that they regard male applicants as more suitable anywhere.
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SN Business & Economics, 2022
The under-representation of females within the labour market, particularly in managerial roles, has sparked a local and global debate on whether women, mostly mothers, face negative discrimination. This study distinctly adopts a field experiment methodology to investigate the presence of gender discrimination and the motherhood penalty against higher education (Bachelor, Master's, and Doctoral degree) females seeking full-time employment in the labour market at the initial stage of the recruitment process, being the call-back to the interview. This study took place in Malta, which was characterised by a low unemployment figure, complemented by strong economic growth at the time, thus enabling a proper analysis of the possible presence of gender-based discrimination even when labour demand is high. Field experiments were chosen as the methodology. This involved sending pairs of fictitious job applications belonging to two fictional male and female candidates (identical to each other except for the demographic characteristics) in response to job vacancies. Then, the employers' behaviour was recorded to assess whether they engaged in discriminatory practices. The analysis of the replies through the use of econometric models shows that there is no statistically significant evidence that employers engage in discrimination at the call-back stage of the recruitment process. Furthermore, during this distribution period, no particular age class was favoured or discriminated against, a finding that contradicts the idea that young female workers are discriminated against due to their maternal responsibilities. Such a study contributes to the growing literature on the subject, by being the first study done in Malta to scientifically test whether the significant gender employment gap present in various industries in Malta is attributed to negative discrimination against women or mothers with young children.