Gender Sorting at the Application Interface
Author(s)
Fernandez, Roberto; Friedrich, Colette
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We document gender sorting of candidates into gender-typed jobs at the point of initial
application to a company. At this step of the hiring process, the firm has implemented a policy
whereby organizational screeners’ discretion has been eliminated such that there is no
opportunity for contact between hiring agents and applicants. Thus, the job choices studied here
offer unique insight as they are uncontaminated by screeners’ steering of candidates toward
gender-typed jobs. Even in the absence of steering, we find clear patterns of gendered job
choices that line up with gender stereotypes of job roles. Moreover, these gendered patterns recur
both within individuals and within race groups. Comparing our findings to the pattern of job
sorting in the external local labor market, we find that supply-side factors do not fully account
for the levels job sex segregation observed in the open labor market. Although probably not the
entire story, we show clear evidence that supply-side sorting processes are important factors
contributing to job sex segregation.
Date issued
2011-03Department
Sloan School of ManagementJournal
Industrial Relations
Publisher
Regents of the University of California
Citation
Fernandez, Roberto and Colette Freidrich. "Gender Sorting at the Application Interface." Industrial Relations, Volume 50, Issue 4, October 2011, Pages: 591–609.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0019-8676
1468-232X