4 ms·

I'd like to see a study of response rates on resume's that are nearly the same, except for the gender, and race implied by the name. I feel like that would prov

by etler 13y ago

I'd like to see a study of response rates on resume's that are nearly the same, except for the gender, and race implied by the name. I feel like that would provide a pretty good measure to figure out how discriminatory our jobs system is.

anologwintermut 13y ago
They've done them, the results strongly imply discrimination. There's been some criticism of the methodology though. I believe there was a chapter in Freakonomics criticizing the "black name" resume studies (though I cannot remember the criticism). With some of the gender ones the claim is that the career trajectories were gender atypical when the names were switched and hence looked odd. I.e. that if you took a resume of a women and a man and swapped the names, the male named female resume would get lower responses. A more salient question is why there is discrimination on gender in hiring. Is it outright sexism or is it discounting for the fact that a women is far more likely to exit her career to have kids or reduce her hours. The answer radically effect how you fix the problem.
- whiterabbit2 13y ago
  Women "more likely" to drop out to provide childcare doesn't make it "100% women". But without fixing problems of families with small children (lack of affordable childcare, culture of long hours and such), anti-discrimination laws only create more discrimination and stereotyping... All women would be stereotyped as risky. I've known quite a few men providing childcare and needing flex hours, while their wives are too busy at work. Yet, such men are stereotyped as an exception. Because asking questions and deciding on a case by case basis is illegal, so it's a breeding ground for stereotyping.
- anologwintermut 13y ago
  Note, the part about criticism was incorrect. The criticism was that if you handed someone a gender inverted resume, it would score lower period. So of course, if you took a "male" looking resume and gave it to someone with a female name on it, they'd find it odd just as they would if they got a female looking resume with a male name on it. The claim was the study failed to account for this. The study in question: http://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474.full.pdf http://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474.full.pdf
jennyinc 13y ago
There are 'blind audition' studies that clearly show gender bias: "A recent study by two economists finds that chances of women making it past preliminary auditioning rounds increase by 50 percent if they audition ``behind a heavy cloth suspended from the ceiling so judges can't see their gender.'' http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-04-28/business/9704250139_1_vienna-philharmonic-orchestra-auditions-harpist http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-04-28/business/9704250...

by etler 13y ago

anologwintermut 13y ago

They've done them, the results strongly imply discrimination. There's been some criticism of the methodology though. I believe there was a chapter in Freakonomics criticizing the "black name" resume studies (though I cannot remember the criticism). With some of the gender ones the claim is that the career trajectories were gender atypical when the names were switched and hence looked odd. I.e. that if you took a resume of a women and a man and swapped the names, the male named female resume would get lower responses. A more salient question is why there is discrimination on gender in hiring. Is it outright sexism or is it discounting for the fact that a women is far more likely to exit her career to have kids or reduce her hours. The answer radically effect how you fix the problem.

whiterabbit2 13y ago
Women "more likely" to drop out to provide childcare doesn't make it "100% women". But without fixing problems of families with small children (lack of affordable childcare, culture of long hours and such), anti-discrimination laws only create more discrimination and stereotyping... All women would be stereotyped as risky. I've known quite a few men providing childcare and needing flex hours, while their wives are too busy at work. Yet, such men are stereotyped as an exception. Because asking questions and deciding on a case by case basis is illegal, so it's a breeding ground for stereotyping.
anologwintermut 13y ago
Note, the part about criticism was incorrect. The criticism was that if you handed someone a gender inverted resume, it would score lower period. So of course, if you took a "male" looking resume and gave it to someone with a female name on it, they'd find it odd just as they would if they got a female looking resume with a male name on it. The claim was the study failed to account for this. The study in question: http://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474.full.pdf http://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474.full.pdf

jennyinc 13y ago

There are 'blind audition' studies that clearly show gender bias: "A recent study by two economists finds that chances of women making it past preliminary auditioning rounds increase by 50 percent if they audition ``behind a heavy cloth suspended from the ceiling so judges can't see their gender.'' http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-04-28/business/9704250139_1_vienna-philharmonic-orchestra-auditions-harpist http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1997-04-28/business/9704250...