The context of discrimination: workplace conditions, institutional environments, and sex and race discrimination charges

This article explores the organizational conditions under which discrimination charges occur. Drawing on structural and organizational theories of the workplace, the authors demonstrate how organizational conditions affect workers' and regulatory agents' understandings of unlawful discrimination. Using a national sample of work establishments, matched to discrimination-charge data obtained from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the authors examine how characteristics of the workplace and institutional environment affect variation in the incidence of workers' charges of sex and race discrimination and in the subset of discrimination claims that are verified by EEOC investigators. The findings indicate that workplace conditions, including size, composition, and minority management, affect workers' charges as well as verified claims; the latter are also affected by institutional factors, such as affirmative action requirements, subsidiary status, and industrial sector. These results suggest that internal workplace conditions affect both workers' and regulatory agents' interpretations of potentially discriminatory experiences, while institutional conditions matter only for regulatory agents' interpretations of those events.     

African American Men and the Experience of Employment Discrimination

The economic marginalization of African American men has been studied in a variety of contexts, from trade union exclusion, to joblessness, to disparate wages and mobility. Discrimination is often inferred as an influential mechanism, yet seldom directly examined in its own right. Drawing on a unique sample of verified workplace discrimination cases, this article analyzes forms and processes of discrimination that African American men face in employment. Our results denote the prevalence of discriminatory firing, with on-going racial harassment and discriminatory promotional and hiring practices also quite evident. In-depth immersion into case materials highlights the centrality of racial stereotyping and significant discretion on the part of gatekeepers within organizational environments-discretion in the use of “soft skills” criteria to exclude and debilitate mobility, and in selective (or even targeted) use of seemingly neutral organizational policies and sanctions. Moreover, harassment on the job—something that conventional workplace inequality research has overlooked—is quite problematic and well-represented in these data. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for the conceptualization of inequality reproduction and that pertaining to race, status, and the workplace in particular.     

Understanding Employment Discrimination: A Multilevel Approach

This paper reviews recent research on employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, and ethnicity in US work establishments. Unlike blatant discrimination of the past, contemporary discrimination is typically more subtle, often unintentional, and develops in relationship to the social context in which it is embedded. Focusing on this covert and dynamic nature of discrimination, we review recent research that identifies factors at the individual, workplace, and societal level that contribute to variation in sex and race discrimination across employment contexts. At each level, we conceptually distinguish between factors that influence employers’ sex and race biases and factors that affect potential victims’ capacity to identify discriminatory experiences at work.     

The Social Dynamics Channelling Latina College Graduates into the Teaching Profession

Sociologists examine the persistence of occupational sex segregation in two primary ways, vertically (within occupations) and horizontally (across occupations). Feminist scholars analysing gender and race inequality within work organizations have used ‘glass escalator’ and ‘glass barriers’ to document men's experiences in occupations where women concentrate, falling under the vertical epistemology. These race and gender theories are crucial to our understanding of workplace inequities, but they only address privilege or discrimination once women have entered or try climbing the work organization. Based on interviews with 40 Latina teachers in Southern California, this paper examines the point of occupational entry, and explains why college‐educated Latinas, the daughters of working‐class Latino immigrants, are disproportionately entering the teaching profession in the United States. We suggest that Latinas are socially channelled into the teaching occupation, and show how collective family considerations inform agency and occupational decision‐making for these women, resulting in a type of glass ceiling shaped by family and social class. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of collective‐informed agency for future studies of upwardly mobile Latinas in the professions.     

THE ETHNIC, RACE, AND GENDER GAPS IN WORKPLACE AUTHORITY: Changes over Time in the United States

We analyze factors explaining differences in hierarchical authority between men and women within and across categories of race and ethnicity in two time periods, finding that the processes leading to authority within the workplace operate differently by gender than by race or ethnicity. The demand-side factor, percentage of women in an occupation, helps explain authority differences between men and women in most groups. Supply-side factors, and, in white–black comparisons, occupational location, contribute to differences by race and ethnicity within genders. In the later period, education is particularly important for Hispanic men reflecting, we believe, the recent surge in immigration rates.     

Race,Sex, and Perception of the Occupational Opportunity Structure among College Students*

Questionnaires were administered to 70 black female, 75 black male, 1,457 white female and 1,429 white male university freshmen. In order to test three alternative theories regarding perceptions of discrimination, analyses of variance related sex, race, and SES to total scores of perceived occupational discrimination against blacks (BDST) and against women (WDST). Blacks perceived significantly more discrimination against black people than did whites; neither sex nor SES differentialed scores on BDST. Black females and white males perceived significantly more discrimination against women than did white females; black females had the highest and white females the lowest WDST scores. A discriminant analysis on white females indicated that high WDST scorers were characterized by an “underdog syndrome” whereas low WDST scorers held internal, individualistic values. The findings indicated the greatest support for the formulation that differential anticipatory socialization into the role of “a person who is discriminated against” characterized white females who perceived more or less discrimination against women.     

Addressing gender discrimination in Vietnam's light manufacturing industry: What role for labor law?

This paper explores women workers’ experiences of gender discrimination at work in Vietnam and whether labor law might enable them to challenge discriminatory practices. Interviews with workers reveal how discrimination is generated and entrenched through seemingly neutral workplace rules and culture. The coercive and intensive nature of assembly work has deterred or prevented working mothers from enjoying fair and decent work. Survey findings on female workers’ mobilization of the law suggest that women who have experienced discrimination in the past are less inclined to choose a legal means when faced with future discrimination. In most cases, women would choose not to take any action or opt for a non-legal means to raise their voices. In conclusion, even though women workers in general do not consider law a potential tool to tackle discrimination, they have absorbed and appropriated the language of the law to make sense of unfair practices at work.     

PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION AND WORK‐TO‐LIFE CONFLICT AMONG WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

Following scholarship that highlights the importance of negative workplace relationships in predicting conflict between work and nonwork domains, this study examines whether perceptions of sex, race, and age discrimination are related to work‐to‐life conflict using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 2,335). The potential moderating role of workplace social support, including coworker support and supervisor support, is also examined. All three forms of perceived discrimination are associated with higher levels of work‐to‐life conflict even when workplace social support is controlled for. The findings indicate limited support for the moderating role of workplace social support.     

Sex Work,Office Work: Women Working Behind the Scenes in the US Adult Film Industry

Women currently working behind the scenes in the adult film industry both inform considerations of the contemporary experiences of sex work in the USA and shed some light on differential experiences of gendered workplace organizations. Based on ethnographic observations and informal interviews conducted at a typical adult film production company and on examining the industry's historical development, I have found that a diverse range of occupations and occupational opportunities are available for women in the adult film industry and women workers in the US adult film industry experience their gendered workplace in unique ways. I suggest that this is due in part to the adult film industry's wider social network, which has itself been shaped by the historical development of the adult film industry and the stigma of sex work.     

The Relationship Between Weight and Career Payoffs Among Women

The thesis that weight affects women's life chances for reaching high-status, white-collar jobs is tested with survey data gathered from a large aerospace organization (N = 306). It is hypothesized that women who are at or below their desirable weight will have higher incomes and occupational positions than women who are overweight, with human capital variables controlled. It is further hypothesized that weight will be most related to occupational position in male-dominated occupations and in occupations that involve frequent contact outside the firm. Results show that weight is related to income, but only at entry-level professional/managerial occupations. Weight is significantly related to occupational position, especially so in male-dominated occupations. Weight is not more strongly related to occupational position in jobs involving outside contact. Findings are consistent with the interpretation that discrimination based on weight in the general society extends to the inner workings of workplace organizations.     

MEN, WOMEN, AND THE CULTURE OF ENGINEERING

This study focuses on women's position in engineering. A conflict model that emphasizes the interplay of structural and interactional resources is developed to explain the occupational positions of women engineers. A central feature of this model is the "culture of engineering"—the socially defined standard of behavior and interaction among engineers. This model is used to explain the occupational experiences of a cohort of male and female engineers. Males and females with virtually identical qualifications and occupational attitudes show dissimilar current job status. It is argued that the culture of engineering, strongly identified with the male gender role, works against women. Where that culture is strongest, women do most poorly in occupational status and mobility.     

Local Labour Markets,Organizations and the Distribution of Family‐responsive Benefits in the USA

Family‐responsive benefits have important consequences for workers balancing work–family demands. Previous research on the distribution of family‐responsive benefits has focused on intra‐organizational determinants or general labour market characteristics, at the expense of local labour market factors. We address this deficiency by analysing a unique random sample of US work establishments nested in their local labour markets. Specifically, we ask whether, net of establishment and local labour market characteristics, women's local labour market standing influences the prevalence of family‐responsive benefits. The results indicate that women's labour market status, measured with a composite of occupational gender integration, aggregate educational attainment and percentage of women in managerial roles, has a strong positive net effect on the prevalence of family‐responsive workplace benefits. However, no significant interaction between women's status and establishment‐level characteristics was found. Our findings highlight the importance of local labour markets in the distribution of family‐responsive benefits across organizations.     

Gender Segregation,Size of Workplace and the Public Sector

Gender segregation is considered to be a key structuring factor in the labour market, and is central to explanations of phenomena as diverse as the everyday experience of men’s and women’s employment to the underachievement of women and the limited impact of equal pay legislation. Studies of occupational segregation by gender tend to be polarized between qualitative and quantitative extremes. At the quantitative end, a primary focus of research has been to quantify segregation to a single index, permitting simple comparisons between countries and over time. However, detailed case studies of particular occupations have often hinted at ways in which breakdowns in occupational segregation have been replaced by other forms of gender segregation. This paper will present data showing that even within occupational categories there is still significant gender segregation and concentration by public/private sector and by size of workplace. For instance, female pharmacists are very over-represented, and female gardeners very under-represented, in the public sector. And the general tendency for women to work in smaller workplaces is severe for some occupations (e.g. office managers) and reversed in other occupations (e.g. production fitters). These analyses question the usefulness of single indices which take account only of segregation or concentration by occupation and therefore underestimate the gendering of job opportunities even within mixed occupations.     

Man Up,Man Down: Race–Ethnicity and the Hierarchy of Men in Female‐Dominated Work

Scholars have largely overlooked the significance of race and socioeconomic status in determining which men traverse gender boundaries into female‐dominated, typically devalued, work. Examining the gender composition of the jobs that racial minority men occupy provides critical insights into mechanisms of broader racial disparities in the labor market—in addition to stalled occupational desegregation trends between men and women. Using nationally representative data from the three‐year American Community Survey (2010–2012), we examine racial/ethnic and educational differences in which men occupy gender‐typed jobs. We find that racial minority men are more likely than white men to occupy female‐dominated jobs at all levels of education—except highly educated Asian/Pacific Islander men—and that these patterns are more pronounced at lower levels of education. These findings have implications for broader occupational inequality patterns among men as well as between men and women.     

Getting by with a Little Help from Workplace Friends: Workplace Culture,Social Support,and Family Cohesion

Studies have shown a negative association between certain aspects of workplace culture and family functioning. Using a neo-institutional framework, we examine whether workplace social support moderates the influence of three features of workplace culture—time demands, work pressure, and work strain—on family cohesion. Analyzing survey data from 312 individuals in dual-earner relationships, we control for number of children, education, income, employment status, and occupational status. We find that workplace social support is directly associated with family cohesion but does not serve as a buffer between dimensions of workplace culture and family cohesion.     

Upgraded to Bad Jobs: Low‐Wage Black Women's Relative Status since 1970

Labor market changes complicate the analysis of black women's status relative to white women because education, occupational attainment, and race–gender are now less predictive of earnings. Low‐wage black women's relative status has improved somewhat from 1970 to 2000, contrary to the well‐documented decrease in relative status reported for all black women wage earners since 1980, but their dramatic occupational upgrading was not responsible for the trend. White‐collar occupational positions formerly responsible for white women's relative earnings advantage no longer deliver that reward, as restructuring has produced a proliferation of bad jobs across occupational groups. This study argues that increasing exposure to precarious work is crucial to understanding changes in low‐wage black women's relative economic status since 1970.     

The meaning of workplace discrimination for women with disabilities

Studies have found that persons with disabilities who are also members of other minority groups or women encounter dual discrimination. This paper describes how women with disabilities who are in the workplace experience discrimination. In order to determine whether discrimination was a viable issue, theoretical contexts of feminist theory, disability theory, and attribution theory were examined as well as literature examining employment of women with disabilities. For this study, three women with various disabilities were interviewed regarding the effect of their disability on their typical workday, their employment and job seeking history, and employment opportunities. Qualitative data were also provided through mapping by the participants and pictorial data of worksites. Data were grouped into themes of pre-conceived notions of others, attitudes of others, accommodation issues, inclusion issues and exploitation issues. From these themes definitions of discrimination, nondiscrimination in the workplace were developed. Conclusions include the need for more research on workplace experiences of other or more specific populations that experience discrimination as well as the need for ethical reflection on the part of the researcher regarding vulnerable populations.