| The present study was designed to examine the possible effect of sex and race on students' hiring decisions to determined whether or not women and members of minority groups continue to be hired less often than White men even when they have identical formal backgrounds and qualifications. Participants were 72 college students (36 male and 36 female). They rated the suitability of candidates for engineering (male-oriented), nursing (female-oriented) and psychology (gender-neutral) positions, and were ultimately asked to state whether or not they would hire each person. The candidates were either male or female and either Caucasian, Chinese, or East Indian. Job descriptions rendered the candidates qualified, marginally qualified or underqualified for the different jobs. A 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 3 Latin square design was employed with the following variables: sex of the participant, sex of the applicant, race of the applicant (White, Chinese, East Indian), qualification level of the applicant (qualified, marginally qualified, underqualified) and type of job (engineering, nursing, psychology). A significant 3-way interaction was found for job qualification by type of job by sex of participant, F(4,76) = 2.56, p $<$.05. Specifically, male respondents rated marginally qualified nurses higher than female respondents and female respondents rated marginally qualified engineers higher than male respondents. This findings illustrates that the men and women in this study likely expressed stereotyped attitudes toward male- and female-oriented jobs. Bias was not expressed in terms of the sex of the candidate; rather, it surfaced in regard to the sex-typing of the job for which a candidate was applying. The above finding suggests that bias has become more difficult to detect in that it will likely occur under certain complex circumstances that include the sex of the person making the hiring decisions as well as the qualification level of the person and the type of job for which he/she is applying. Discrimination that occurs in this "covert" manner is of concern because it is more difficult to prove than "overt" discrimination where one is excluded from a job on the basis of gender and/or race alone. |
