Do employment chances for academics differ based on the gender or race/ethnicity of the job seeker? We use data from a sample of positions in sociologyfilled during the 1991-92 school year to determine whether European-American women, minority women, and minority men are advantaged, disadvantaged, or similarly placed in relation to European-American men. Wefind no evidence suggesting that European-American men are significantly disadvantaged, or disadvantaged in systematic or serious ways, vis-a-vis these groups. Among our most interestingfindings is the discovery that minority men and women tend to be hired in positions newly created by the university while European-American women are significantly more likely to be hired in positions created when someone has been denied tenure. We conclude that disadvantages are beginning to level off, but they still existfor European-American women, minority men, and most especially minority women.
Many employers assess their workforces with gendered and racialized imagery that can put groups of workers and applicants at a disadvantage in the labor market. Based on 78 interviews with white employers in Atlanta, the author reveals that some employers use a complex but widely shared stereo-type of Black working-class women as single mothers to typify members of this group. These employers use this single-mother image to explain why they think Black women are poor workers, why they think Black women are reliable workers, and why they think Blacks are poorly prepared for the labor market. In focusing on these white employers' claims, the author concentrates not on the well-documented out-comes of labor market discrimination, such as differential rates of pay and promotion, but on how employers construct and use the images that may from the basis of it. This is especially relevant amid current attacks on affirmative action programs.
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