Gender and Race Sorting at the Application Interface

We document gender and race sorting of candidates into various jobs at the point of initial application to a company. At this step of the hiring process, the firm has implemented a policy whereby organizational screeners’ discretion has been eliminated such that there is no opportunity for contact b...

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Main Authors: Fernandez, Roberto M., Friedrich, Colette
Format: Working Paper
Language:en_US
Published: Cambridge, MA; Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66929
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author Fernandez, Roberto M.
Friedrich, Colette
author_facet Fernandez, Roberto M.
Friedrich, Colette
author_sort Fernandez, Roberto M.
collection MIT
description We document gender and race sorting of candidates into various jobs at the point of initial application to a company. At this step of the hiring process, the firm has implemented a policy whereby organizational screeners’ discretion has been eliminated such that there is no opportunity for contact between hiring agents and applicants. Thus, the job choices studied here offer unique insight as they are uncontaminated by screeners’ steering of candidates toward gender- or race-typed jobs. Even in the absence of steering, we find clear patterns of gendered job choices that line up with gender stereotypes of job roles. Moreover, these gendered patterns recur both within individuals and within race groups. Comparing our findings to the pattern of job sorting in the external local labor market, we find that supply-side factors do not fully account for the levels of race and gender segregation observed in the open labor market. Although probably not the entire story, it is clear that supply-side gender sorting processes cannot be ruled out as important factors contributing to job sex segregation.
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spelling mit-1721.1/669292019-04-12T20:57:38Z Gender and Race Sorting at the Application Interface Fernandez, Roberto M. Friedrich, Colette We document gender and race sorting of candidates into various jobs at the point of initial application to a company. At this step of the hiring process, the firm has implemented a policy whereby organizational screeners’ discretion has been eliminated such that there is no opportunity for contact between hiring agents and applicants. Thus, the job choices studied here offer unique insight as they are uncontaminated by screeners’ steering of candidates toward gender- or race-typed jobs. Even in the absence of steering, we find clear patterns of gendered job choices that line up with gender stereotypes of job roles. Moreover, these gendered patterns recur both within individuals and within race groups. Comparing our findings to the pattern of job sorting in the external local labor market, we find that supply-side factors do not fully account for the levels of race and gender segregation observed in the open labor market. Although probably not the entire story, it is clear that supply-side gender sorting processes cannot be ruled out as important factors contributing to job sex segregation. 2011-11-04T15:49:18Z 2011-11-04T15:49:18Z 2010-06 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66929 en_US MIT Sloan School of Management Working Paper;4781-10 application/pdf Cambridge, MA; Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Fernandez, Roberto M.
Friedrich, Colette
Gender and Race Sorting at the Application Interface
title Gender and Race Sorting at the Application Interface
title_full Gender and Race Sorting at the Application Interface
title_fullStr Gender and Race Sorting at the Application Interface
title_full_unstemmed Gender and Race Sorting at the Application Interface
title_short Gender and Race Sorting at the Application Interface
title_sort gender and race sorting at the application interface
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66929
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