It’s All in the Name: Employment Discrimination Against Arab Americans1

Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Arab Americans faced increased discrimination that permeated almost every aspect of their lives. Previous research has documented the negative attention toward Arab Americans after 9/11 and the effect it has had on this community. However, less research has focused on discrimination against Arab Americans during the process of obtaining employment in the United States. To address this gap in the current literature, we conducted a correspondence study in which we randomly assigned a typical white‐sounding name or a typical Arab‐sounding name to two similar fictitious résumés. We sent résumés to 265 jobs over a 15‐month period. We found that an Arab male applicant needed to send two résumés to every one résumé sent by a white male applicant to receive a callback for an interview by the hiring personnel. Our findings suggest that the difference in callbacks may be the result of discrimination against the perceived race/ethnicity of the applicant by the hiring personnel.     

Gender bias in job referrals: An experimental test

Employee referral programs, while efficient for the employer, have been shown to amplify sex-based occupational segregation in labor markets because of the tendency of workers to refer people of the same gender. We implement a controlled laboratory experiment that precludes any concern for network composition or reputation effects in referral choice. In this way, our experimental design allows us to disentangle statistical discrimination, preferences, and implicit same-gender bias. Our data suggest that women tend to favor women when choosing a candidate, whereas men do not attach much importance to the gender of potential candidates. We deduce from our various treatments that same-gender referrals are mainly driven by preferences in competitive environments and implicit same-gender bias in cooperative environments. Our findings add to the existing literature by highlighting that gendered networks alone fail to explain the observed gender homophily in referred-referrer pairs.     

Exploring Attitudes Toward Older Workers Among Australian Employers

Abstract

Research suggests that negative stereotyping is at the heart of age discrimination in not hiring older workers. As the aging of the population creates pressures to maintain older adults in the work force, it is important to gain knowledge of such stereotyping. A random sample of 128 hiring decision-makers across Australian industries responded to a questionnaire that was specifically developed to assess attitudes toward older workers. Results showed systematic negative stereotyping: Respondents indicated that they were unlikely to hire older workers. The likelihood of hiring significantly correlated with employers' attitudes. Specific attributes for which older workers were seen as inferior compared to younger workers included trainability, adaptability, creativity, and interest in new technology. The findings could inform policymakers and be utilized to develop interventions aimed to reduce hiring discrimination.     

Gay Men

Summary

This report presents the findings from four ethnographic studies of older gay men (Brown, 1997; Brown, Sarosy, Cook & Quarto, 1997; Cook, 1991; Quarto, 1996; Sarosy, 1996). There were 69 total participants who ranged in age from 36 to 79 years; most were from 50 to 65 years of age. The purpose of these studies was to examine how older gay men have adjusted, psychologically and socially, to their sexual orientation and aging process. Participants reported that they spend 50% time or more with gay friends within their own age cohorts. Many reported being involved with the gay community in some capacity, while about 15% had no involvement with the gay community. Most participants were in regular contact with their families. Most stated that their families were aware of their sexual orientation. Most of the participants reported experiencing discrimination due to sexual orientation, and one third had experienced discrimination within the gay community based on age or ethnicity. With regard to sex life, the studies found an overall lowered frequency of sexual activity. Participants felt that HIV/AIDS has had a devastating impact on older gay men, interrupting the normal aging process for those who have contracted it and prematurely aging those who care for them. The studies' findings identified the qualities of healthy adaptation to aging for older gay males: having satisfying relationship, self-acceptance as one ages, good health, an active life with a variety of interests, and financial security.     

Walking on the Edge: Towards a Sociography of Discrimination against the Buraku: Lectures on Discrimination in Letter Format

This article demonstrates a new methodological approach to recognize, analyze and write about discrimination against the buraku, which is one form of social discrimination in contemporary Japan. The structural discrimination proposed in this study is based on the concept of relational discrimination, which is derived from fundamental criticisms of the conventional concepts of material and psychological discrimination. Relational discrimination occurs when we are placed in a certain type of relationship and may become accomplices to discrimination or cause it, regardless of whether or not there is any individual prejudice or discriminatory consciousness at work. From this perspective, this article tries to fundamentally re-examine the binary thinking assumed in conventional sociology that there are minorities (those who are discriminated against) and majorities (those who discriminate against the minority). I focus on the complex ways of being human, and in particular on the transformations that accompany changes in particular relations such as from a person who does not discriminate to one who discriminates against others; from a person who is discriminated against to one who discriminates against others and from a person who is not discriminated against to one who is discriminated against. By focusing on the meaning of the deep suffering of a man who made discriminatory remarks to people living in a buraku community, and of a woman who married into a family living in a buraku community, I try to understand life ethics for people who discriminate and who at the same time are discriminated against.     

Decentering technology in discourse on discrimination*

ABSTRACT

Algorithmic discrimination has become one of the critical points in the discussion about the consequences of an intensively datafied world. While many scholars address this problem from a purely techno-centric perspective, others try to raise broader social justice concerns. In this article, we join those voices and examine norms, values, and practices among European civil society organizations in relation to the topic of data and discrimination. Our goal is to decenter technology and bring nuance into the debate about its role and place in the production of social inequalities. To accomplish this, we rely on Nancy Fraser’s theory of abnormal justice which highlights interconnections between maldistribution of economic benefits, misrecognition of marginalized communities, and their misrepresentation in political processes. Fraser’s theory helps situate technologically mediated discrimination alongside other more conventional kinds of discrimination and injustice and privileges attention to economic, social, and political conditions of marginality. Using a thematic analysis of 30 interviews with civil society representatives across Europe’s human rights sector, we bring clarity to this idea of decentering. We show how many groups prioritize the specific experiences of marginalized groups and ‘see through’ technology, acknowledging its connection to larger systems of institutionalized oppression. This decentered approach contrasts the process-oriented perspective of tech-savvy civil society groups that shy from an analysis of systematic forms of injustice.     

The Impact of Low Socioeconomic Status and Perceived Discrimination on Parental Perceptions of the Well-Being of Latino Children

This exploratory study examined the impact of low socioeconomic status (SES) and perceived discrimination on Latino parents’ perceptions of their children’s mental health issues. Anti-immigrant policies and negative public discourse lead to perceived discrimination among Latinos, which may impact mental health. Participants (106), surveyed in 2011, were Latino, predominantly female, had a mean of 14 years living in the United States, and less than 9 years of education. The results of multivariate ordinary-least-squares regressions indicated that participants with lower levels of SES had significantly greater (p < .05) perceptions that their children were angry, had separation anxiety from parents, were fearful, and avoided social situations. Higher levels of perceived discrimination were significantly related (p < .05) to participants’ perceptions of fear among their children. Social service providers must assess for possible mental health issues and develop culturally appropriate intervention strategies to effectively address these issues with parents and children.     

Never the Right Age? Gender and Age‐Based Discrimination in Employment

Although UK legislation against age discrimination is required by December 2006, little is yet known about how ageism affects different age categories of employees, and the gender dimensions of ageism have also been neglected. Both issues were investigated by questionnaire survey, producing responses from over 1000 employees of a major UK financial services enterprise. The extent and manifestations of ageism were found to vary across age categories and by sex, and evidence of gendered ageism emerged. Reported examples of ageism were highest among younger and older age categories, but all age groups were affected to some degree. Across all ages, women were more likely than men to experience ageist attitudes concerning appearance or sexuality. To be effective, legislation will need to cater for the complex nature and patterns of age discrimination revealed, though the comparator problem and other complexities are such that important aspects of age prejudice, including gender dimensions, risk being overlooked.     

Meaning of Home in Later Life as a Concept to Understand Older Adults’ Housing Needs: Results from the 7 Age-Friendly Cities Pilot Project in Québec

To support older adults’ desire to age in place, their housing needs must be well understood. However, little research has explored housing needs from older adults’ point of view. This article, based on the results of 49 focus groups (n = 392) and one case study from the Age-Friendly Cities Project in Québec, Canada, uses the concept of meaning of home in later life to explore older adults’ housing needs. An overview presents how older adults express meaning of home and what their needs are regarding housing and relocation. Finally, the implications for decision makers and stakeholders are discussed.     

Australian Mandatory Retirement Challenged

Australia experienced declines in older workers' participation in the labor force similar to that of the United States during the 1970s, but it has taken more than 10 years to enact the same policy changes in age discrimination in employment. In order to promote a considered internationalism as opposed to parochialism in policy, this paper considers two questions about this case, namely, "Why did Australia take so long to change?" and "What has been learned from the North American experience?" On the first question, it is argued that Australians are beginning to move only slowly from a European view of retirement as leisure in "old age" towards the more active notions in North America and among its Asian neighbors. Elites in government are responding to a growing political consciousness among the seed seeking a new deal in rights of a access to work and other activities. On the second question, it is argued that the North American experience leads us to moderate strong claims about age discrimination and to be less optimistic about major improvements in older workers' participation arising from legislation outlawing age discrimination. This evidence has reduced the contentiousness of the issue in Australia and allowed focus on the more practical issues of how to make the legislation work to protect the rights of older people.     

The Role of Perceived Racial Discrimination in the Marriage Gap Between Black and White People

Abstract

Many explanations offered for the gap in marriage rates between Black and White people are economic and cultural. Less often considered are how racial social psychological factors influence marriage rates. In this study, we use critical race theory and the life course perspective to investigate how perceived racial discrimination impacts the likelihood of marriage for Black and White people. Data for the study are taken from the Portraits of American Life Study (N?=?678). The results of logistic regression analyses show that among people who report perceived racial discrimination, White people generally have a higher probability of being married compared to Black people. Analyses by age demonstrate that among younger adults, Black people who perceive racial discrimination are equally likely to be married as White people and have a higher probability of being married than Black people who do not report perceptions of racial discrimination. A negative influence on the odds of marriage related to perceived racial discrimination for Black people becomes clearer as respondents age. The findings highlight the importance of considering perceptions of racial discrimination to better understand the marriage gap between Black and White people across the life course.     

Sex for soap? A contextual approach for understanding young girls’ involvement in sex in Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Tanzania has made strides to end gender discrimination and sexual exploitation, yet, studies have found that these practices continue. One distinct form of exploitation is transactional sex. Girls agree to sex – often with older men known as “sugar-daddies” – in exchange for basic needs like breakfast or soap, something that other researchers have written about it with concern. Herein, I provide an overview of the published research and then discuss my research on this issue, based on interviews with women and participant observation with girls in a remote part of Tanzania. My intention was to discover if and how girls are taken advantage of, discriminated against, or solicited for sex in and around schools. Transactional sex, a practice sometimes encouraged by family members, emerged as a pertinent theme. Ultimately, I focus on strategies for prevention using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to consider interventions at multiple levels of these girls’ lives.     

“Brown girls can’t be gay”: Racism experienced by queer South Asian women in the Toronto LGBTQ community

Abstract

The absence of scholarship on South Asian discrimination in Western queer discourse contributes to a narrative that South Asians are not subjected to racially charged forms of discrimination in the LGBTQ community, which is fundamentally untrue. This article presents narrative-based accounts of nine queer South Asian women in Toronto, Canada, to examine the ways in which they experience racial discrimination in the LGBTQ community, and the impact that this mistreatment has on identity formation and connectivity to queer spheres. It finds that queer South Asian women experience racial discrimination in the form of racially charged microaggressions, which are evidenced through expectations of assimilation to Western-normative performances of queer identity and erasure of South Asian culture in the LGBTQ community. Further, it reveals that Toronto’s LGBTQ community perpetuates a culture of White privilege that discredits the intersectional identity of queer South Asian women, and consequently invisibilizes, alienates, and revokes agency from these women who do not fit the majority’s conceptualizations about what a queer woman looks like.     

Examining Discrimination against Women,non-Han Minorities,Intellectuals, and non-Communist Members among the Current China’s Provincial Political Elites

ABSTRACT

Drawing on a new biographical database of the current provincial leaders, this article aims to test the hypothesis whether women, non-Han minorities, intellectuals, and non-Communist members are discriminated against in the Chinese political sphere. Our findings indicate that women, despite being underrepresented in leadership positions, do not suffer from discrimination in obtaining chief positions, after controlling for their capability related variables. Non-Communist members are still facing the glass ceiling, preventing their rise to the top of China’s power structure, while at the same time being underrepresented in leadership positions. However, there is no evidence showing that intellectuals (i.e., doctoral degree holders) and non-Han minorities are suffering from underrepresentation, inequality, and discrimination. Further analysis indicates that traditional prejudice, discriminatory rule manipulation, and no well-defined and legally binding quotas are fundamental causes contributing to women’s underrepresentation in power structure and non-Communist members’ political discrimination.     

‘Why Do All the Women Disappear?’ Gendering Processes in a Political Science Department

The article provides an in‐depth analysis of the gendering processes among PhD candidates in a political science department. It uses Joan Acker's theory of gendered organizations operating through four dimensions: the gendered division of labour, gendered interaction, gendered symbols and gendered interpretations of one's position in the organization. The article combines this approach with theories of hidden discrimination. The key theoretical aim is to contribute to gendered organizational theory by examining the ways in which hidden discrimination and the gendered organization work together. This generates detailed and differentiated knowledge about the mechanisms of hidden discrimination that produce gender inequalities in the department. The findings presented in this article point to the role of gendered division of labour and the lack of information about departmental practices. PhD supervision by men is a particularly strong structural barrier for women because of the gendered nature of interaction in supervision and the difficulties that female PhD students have in a male‐dominated environment. The article further contributes to debates on gendered organizations by focusing upon the gendered symbols of expertise in political science. These symbols reproduce the man as the political scientist norm and result in women interpreting their own position as marginal or as outsiders.     

Racial/ethnic disparities in US college students’ experience: Discrimination as an impediment to academic performance

ABSTRACT

Objective and Participants: Using data from 69,722 US undergraduates participating in the spring 2015 National College Health Assessment, we examine racial/ethnic differences in students’ experience of discrimination. Method: Logistic regression predicted the experience of discrimination and its reported negative effect on academics. Additional models examined the effect of attending a Minority Serving Institution (MSI). Results: Discrimination was experienced by 5–15% of students, with all racial/ethnic minority groups examined- including Black, Hispanic, Asian, AI/NA/NA, and Multiracial students- more likely to report discrimination relative to White students. Of students who experienced discrimination, 15–25% reported it had negatively impacted their academic performance, with Hispanic and Asian students more likely to report negative impacts relative to White students. Attending an MSI was associated with decreased experiences of discrimination. Conclusion: Students from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds are disproportionately affected by discrimination, with negative impacts for academic performance that are particularly marked for Hispanic and Asian students.     

Economic status: a census analysis of thirty-year-old immigrant women in Canada

Dans cette note de recherche, nous utilisons les données du recensement de 1981 pour étudier la situation économique des femmes agées de trente ans au Canada. Nous comparons la population des femmes immigrantes (N= 37000) à celle des femmes nées au Canada (N= 160000), relativement à leurs niveaux éducationnel, occupationnel et financier. Les variables contrôlées individuellement par l‘étude sont: état civil, période d'immigration, origine ethnique, et dimension de la famille. Les résultats de notre recherche montrent que les femmes qui ont immigré alors qu'elles étaient enfant (dix ans ou moins) ont plus de chances que l'ensemble de connaître le succès socio-économique à l’âge adulte; par ailleurs, les femmes arrivées au Canada entre dix et vingt ans occupent le plus bas niveau de succès socio-économique. Il faut cependant noter plusieurs exceptions à ces conclusions générales. Une discussion des résultats dans le contexte de l'hypothèse de l“assimilation‘ indique que celle-ci n'est pas suffisante pour expliquer les différences de succès socio-économique au Canada des femmes nées à l’étranger: un cadre théorique plus large s'avére nécessaire. In this research note we use 1981 Census data to examine the economic position of women thirty years of age in Canada, comparing immigrants (N= 37 000) to the native born population (N= 160 000) with respect to educational, occupational, and income attainment. Variables controlled individually in the study are marital status, period of immigration, ethnic origin, and family size. The findings show that immigrant women who came to Canada as children (ten years old or under) are more likely to have an advantaged socioeconomic standing at age thirty while immigrant females who entered the country as adolescents (ten to twenty years of age) have the lowest levels of socioeconomic achievement. However, there are several exceptions to these overall findings. The results are discussed in the context of the ‘assimilation’ hypothesis, but it would seem that a more comprehensive theoretical framework is needed to explain differences in status attainment among foreign-born women in Canada.     

Consumer Racial Profiling in U.S. Restaurants: Exploring Subtle Forms of Service Discrimination against Black Diners

In this article we advance scholarship on consumer racial profiling (CRP), in general, and the practice as it occurs in restaurant establishments, in particular, by presenting findings from a survey of restaurant consumers that was designed to ascertain the degree to which discriminate service is evident in black and white customers' perceptions and evaluations of their servers' behaviors. We found no evidence of interracial differences in subjects' perceptions of being the recipients of subtle server behaviors that are discretionally conveyed (e.g., recommend entrée, compliment food choice, joke with, etc.) or those that constitute standard markers of service quality (e.g., eye contact, smiling, expressing appreciation, etc.). We did, however, find some evidence of CRP in customers' perceptions of their servers' attentiveness/promptness. Additionally, we found that African Americans tend to subjectively appraise their servers' performance less favorably than their white counterparts and this is the case even when other indicators of service discrimination are held constant. Findings taken as a whole suggest that servers' extend similar cues of hospitality but do so in qualitatively different ways (e.g., less sincere) across racial groups. We discuss the implications of these findings and conclude by encouraging additional scholarship on the subtle nature of racial discrimination in consumer settings.     

Luck or cheating? A field experiment on honesty with children

We run an experiment to study the relationship between honesty, age and self-control. We focus on children aged between 5 and 15 as the literature suggests that self-control develops within such age range. We ask each child to toss a fair coin in private and to record the outcome (white or black) on a paper sheet. We only reward children who report white. Although we are unable to tell whether each child was honest or not, we speculate about the proportion of reported white outcomes. Children report the prize-winning outcome at rates statistically above 50% but below 100%. Moreover, the probability of cheating is uniform across groups based on child’s characteristics, in particular age. In a second treatment we explicitly tell children not to cheat. This request has a dampening effect on their tendency to over-report the prize-winning outcome, especially in girls. Furthermore, while this effect in boys is constant with age, in girls it tends to decrease with age.     

Emergence of entrepreneurial behaviour: The role of age-based self-image

This study introduces an individual’s perception of their entrepreneurial potential in terms of their age (age-based self-image) to complement chronological age as a predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour. The principal hypothesis is that a positive age-based self-image enhances the likelihood of individuals turning their intention to start a business into actual behaviour. The empirical analysis based on data collected on the general adult population of Finland in 2011 and 2012 (n = 672) supports this hypothesis. The analysis further shows that this positive effect is independent of the individual’s chronological age, and it is thus applicable to both age groups that are under-represented in entrepreneurship: ‘youngsters’ and ‘seniors’. Promoting the development of a positive age-based self-image is a prospective policy option for fostering entrepreneurship among younger and older age groups. More in-depth research, especially concerning the antecedents of positive age-based self-image, is required for the effectiveness of such policy interventions.