Sociology of Gender Discrimination and Work

These vocabulary flashcards cover the definitions, sociological research methods, and specific case study findings regarding gender and class discrimination in the workforce.

Overt Discrimination

Discriminating against a person or group in an open and transparent way, such as writing an email stating women are not wanted in a workspace or posting job ads for a specific type.

Covert Discrimination

Discrimination that is subtle or only detectable by assessing outcomes, such as passing over a woman for a management promotion or withholding mentorship compared to male colleagues.

General Social Survey

A dataset used by researchers to identify rates of gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Status Differential in Reporting

A finding where higher status women report more sexual harassment and gender discrimination ($12\%$) compared to low status women ($4\%$) because they are more attuned to laws and statutes.

Audit method

The gold standard to detect discrimination where researchers use fictional job applications with specific queries to observe the covert reactions of companies.

Motherhood Penalty Finding

Research showing mothers received call-backs only $3\%$ of the time compared to $7\%$ for childless women, representing a significant parental status gap not found in men.

Class Advantage, Commitment Penalty

A study focusing on how signals of social class and gender are evaluated when students apply for elite law firms.

Anticipatory Motherhood Penalty

The bias where upper-class women are seen as less committed to a job because they are perceived as potentially becoming mothers or not needing the job.

Orchestrating Impartiality

A study investigating if "Blind" auditions helped increase the number of women hired to perform in orchestras through the use of blind screening.