Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in Hiring
For the past three decades, scholars have conducted field experiments to examine gender-based hiring discrimination in the United States. However, these studies have produced mixed results. To further interpret these findings, we performed a meta-analysis of 37 audit studies conducted between 1990 a...
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Society for Sociological Science
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Sociological Science |
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| Online Access: | https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12-2-26/ |
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| author | So Yun Park Eunsil Oh |
| author_facet | So Yun Park Eunsil Oh |
| author_sort | So Yun Park |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | For the past three decades, scholars have conducted field experiments to examine gender-based hiring discrimination in the United States. However, these studies have produced mixed results. To further interpret these findings, we performed a meta-analysis of 37 audit studies conducted between 1990 and 2022. Using an aggregated sample of 243,202 fictitious job applications, the study finds no evidence of statistically significant gender discrimination at the study level. However, a series of more focused meta-analyses reveal important variations in the extent of discrimination by occupation type and applicant race. First, the gender composition of an occupation predicts gender bias in hiring. Second, the intersection of gender and race is critical—in female-dominated jobs, White female applicants receive more callbacks than their male counterparts, but Black female applicants experience no such benefit. The study contributes to the literature on labor market and gender (in)equality by synthesizing the findings of field experiments. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0eb5ef86547a44f7b7b97111aa3875bb |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2330-6696 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Society for Sociological Science |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sociological Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-0eb5ef86547a44f7b7b97111aa3875bb2025-08-20T02:43:12ZengSociety for Sociological ScienceSociological Science2330-66962025-01-01122265010.15195/v12.a2Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in HiringSo Yun Park0Eunsil Oh1University of Wisconsin–MadisonUniversity of Wisconsin–MadisonFor the past three decades, scholars have conducted field experiments to examine gender-based hiring discrimination in the United States. However, these studies have produced mixed results. To further interpret these findings, we performed a meta-analysis of 37 audit studies conducted between 1990 and 2022. Using an aggregated sample of 243,202 fictitious job applications, the study finds no evidence of statistically significant gender discrimination at the study level. However, a series of more focused meta-analyses reveal important variations in the extent of discrimination by occupation type and applicant race. First, the gender composition of an occupation predicts gender bias in hiring. Second, the intersection of gender and race is critical—in female-dominated jobs, White female applicants receive more callbacks than their male counterparts, but Black female applicants experience no such benefit. The study contributes to the literature on labor market and gender (in)equality by synthesizing the findings of field experiments.https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12-2-26/genderhiring discriminationfield experimentsmeta-analysis |
| spellingShingle | So Yun Park Eunsil Oh Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in Hiring Sociological Science gender hiring discrimination field experiments meta-analysis |
| title | Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in Hiring |
| title_full | Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in Hiring |
| title_fullStr | Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in Hiring |
| title_full_unstemmed | Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in Hiring |
| title_short | Getting a Foot in the Door: A Meta-Analysis of U.S. Audit Studies of Gender Bias in Hiring |
| title_sort | getting a foot in the door a meta analysis of u s audit studies of gender bias in hiring |
| topic | gender hiring discrimination field experiments meta-analysis |
| url | https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12-2-26/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT soyunpark gettingafootinthedoorametaanalysisofusauditstudiesofgenderbiasinhiring AT eunsiloh gettingafootinthedoorametaanalysisofusauditstudiesofgenderbiasinhiring |