The project’s aim is to use an intersectional approach to investigate the role of employer hiring discrimination in the reproduction of ethnic and gender segregation, and inequality in the labor market. We carry out a field experiment where a large number of equally merited job applications are sent to job openings in the labor market. We signal the applicants’ gender and ethnicity through their names. Gender identity and ethnic identity are signaled with stereotypical personal characteristics and leisure activities. We send applications to jobs where the applicants are typical or atypical depending on character of the job.
Based on the reactions we receive from the employers, we will be able to draw conclusions about whether employers are ‘reinforcers’ or ‘counteractors’ in the reproduction of segregation and inequality in the labor market. We will also be able to draw conclusions about mechanisms by analyzing how combinations of gender and ethnic signaling affect employer reactions.
The results of this project speak to several fields of research. The design combines high internal validity with high external validity, and provides the research community with a highly credible test of the way gender, ethnicity and their combination interacts in discrimination processes.
IFFS is a project partner in this project, and below are listed people at IFFS who participate in the project. The project is based at Stockholm University.
