Marina Gorsuch - Duke University
"Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Backlash in the Labor Market"
Date: 10/23/2014 (Thu)
Time: 3:30pm- 5:00pm
Location: Seminar will be held on-site: Gross Hall - 103
Organizer: Seth Sanders
Meeting Schedule: (Not currently open for scheduling. Please contact the seminar organizer listed above.)
All meetings will be held in the same location as the seminar unless otherwise noted.
3:30pm - Seminar Presentation (3:30pm to 5:00pm)
Additional Comments: ABSTRACT: A broad literature in social psychology has established that respondents react negatively when women engage in traditionally masculine actions in the workplace (Heilman and Chen 2005; Heilman, Wallen, Fuchs, and Tamkins 2004; Rudman and Glick 1999; Rudman 1998; Rudman and Glick 2001; Bowles, Babcock, and Lai 2006; Amanatullah and Morris 2010). This negative reaction is described as a “backlash effect.” In this study, I test two hypotheses. First, I examine if resumes that use masculine adjectives inspire backlash against female job applicants in a laboratory setting and if this backlash varies by the sexual orientation of the applicant. Second, I take the question of backlash outside of a laboratory environment to see if real employers have the same response as respondents in a laboratory to traditionally masculine actions. I created resumes that were manipulated on sex, sexual orientation, and whether they used traditionally masculine or feminine adjectives. In a laboratory setting, I find that men evaluated perceived-heterosexual women who used masculine adjectives more negatively than when they used feminine adjectives. The resumes of perceived-heterosexual men and perceived-gay women were both immune to this effect. That is, the laboratory results replicate the backlash effect and also show that it only affects perceived-heterosexual women. To examine if the backlash effect impacts a real-world job search, I used experimentally manipulated resumes to apply for 1,300 jobs publicly advertised in multiple cities and towns. I find that employers call back women who use traditionally masculine adjectives more than when they use traditionally feminine adjectives. Heterosexual men are called back less when they use traditionally masculine adjectives compared to when they use traditionally feminine adjectives. That is, employers do not have a backlash effect when viewing the same resumes that inspired a backlash effect among laboratory respondents. In fact, they prefer women with traditionally masculine adjectives and heterosexual men with traditionally feminine adjectives: the reverse of a backlash effect.