Making Opportunity
Discriminating Palates: Evaluation and Ethnoracial Inequality in American Fine Dining
Gillian Gualtieri
Social Problems, November 2022, Pages 903–927
Abstract:
Elite cultural fields are often not diverse. Existing studies have examined how marginalized cultural producers are actively discriminated against or excluded from positions of prestige, but less is known about how ethnoracial inequality affects the evaluative processes used to assess products in fields of cultural production. This article analyzes 120 in-depth interviews with critically-recognized chefs in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area and 1,380 Michelin restaurant reviews to uncover the system of insidious racial inequality that shapes evaluation in the American fine dining field. I find that there are three logics of evaluation -- of (1) technique, (2) creativity, and (3) authenticity -- that are differentially enacted for distinct ethnoracial categories of restaurants in the field. I show how these different, racialized evaluative processes result in the systematic devaluation of culinary products categorically associated with non-whiteness, what I call Ethnic restaurants, and disproportionate consecration of products associated with whiteness, which I term Classic and Flexible restaurants. I bring the race/ethnicity and sociology of culture literatures together to illuminate the ways in which inequality infiltrates the logics that organize systems of value in fields of cultural production.
The Task Bind: Explaining Gender Differences in Managerial Tasks and Performance
Alexandra Feldberg
Administrative Science Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
This multi-method study of managers in a grocery chain identifies a novel mechanism by which threats of gender stereotypes undermine women’s ability to be effective managers. I find that women managers face a task bind, a dilemma that managers experience as they try to disprove a negative group stereotype by doubling down on one set of tasks at the expense of other essential tasks. My analysis of interview, observational, and archival data reveals that, compared to men, women do more tasks in front of subordinates — in this setting, supervisory tasks “on the floor” of the store — in order to showcase their qualifications as managers. In doing so, they forgo attention to other tasks that are less public but no less important to being effective managers — in this setting, planning tasks in the office of the store. Neglecting office tasks ultimately undermines the profitability of women managers’ departments. This study’s identification of the task bind has implications for theory and practice related to stereotype threat and women leaders, showing how the threat of negative gender stereotypes, prompted here by concern about subordinates’ perceptions, can affect managers’ behaviors in ways that detract from the performance of managers themselves and that of their organizations.
The Black-White Recognition Gap in Award Nominations
Nayoung Rim et al.
Journal of Labor Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
There is evidence showing racial bias in firms’ hiring decisions, but less is known about bias in career recognition. We construct a dataset from the second largest US police department to estimate the Black-white gap in award nominations. Leveraging institutional features, we find white supervisors are less likely to nominate Black officers conditional on work performance. This appears to be driven by supervisor bias in advocacy decisions rather than statistical discrimination. Given the reliance on subjective evaluations for promotions in many organizations, our findings have important implications for the Black-white promotion gap and the lack of diversity in upper-management positions.
Stepping Up to the Mic: Gender Gaps in Participation in Live Question-and-Answer Sessions at Academic Conferences
Shoshana Jarvis et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Question-and-answer (Q&A) sessions following research talks provide key opportunities for the audience to engage in scientific discourse. Gender inequities persist in academia, where women are underrepresented as faculty and their contributions are less valued than men’s. In the present research, we tested how this gender difference translates to face-to-face Q&A-session participation and its psychological correlates. Across two studies examining participation in three conferences, men disproportionately participated in Q&A sessions in a live, recorded conference (N = 189 Q&A interactions), and women were less comfortable participating in Q&A sessions and more likely to fear backlash for their participation (N = 234 conference attendees). Additionally, women were more likely to hold back questions because of anxiety, whereas men were more likely to hold back questions to make space for others to participate. To the extent that men engage more than women in Q&A sessions, men may continue to have more influence over the direction of science.
Social Media Alleviates Venture Capital Funding Inequality for Women and Less Connected Entrepreneurs
Xiaoning (Gavin) Wang, Lynn Wu & Lorin Hitt
University of Pennsylvania Working Paper, July 2022
Abstract:
Startups are increasingly using social media to signal quality and provide information to potential investors. However, the effectiveness of social media on VC financing is likely to be heterogeneous, differing by demographic and network characteristics of the venture management team. In this paper, we examine whether social media use can improve funding outcomes for firms founded by women and by other people also lacking connections to the investor network, two groups who face greater difficulties in securing VC financing. Using Twitter data and data on VC investment in startups from Crunchbase, we explore the interaction effect between Twitter usage and gender, and between Twitter usage and the network constraint measure. Overall, we show that social media can mitigate some disparities in financing experienced by these firms through improving information access. We find this effect is stronger for first-time entrepreneurs than for experienced ones, stronger for attracting new investors than repeat ones, and stronger in more competitive markets. Collectively, these results suggest that social media could primarily help women and less-connected individuals obtain financing by alleviating information asymmetry between founders and investors.
Gender Differences in Persistence in a Field of Study: This Isn’t All about Grades
Michael Kaganovich, Morgan Taylor & Ruli Xiao
Indiana University Working Paper, April 2022
Abstract:
Weaker retention of women in quantitatively oriented fields, particularly STEM2 is widely seen in US higher education. Focusing particularly on STEM, the literature documents the fact of less generous grading practices in these fields compared to most other disciplines, as well as the phenomenon of gender gap in student persistence in these fields in response to their grade performance there. We examine student persistence in a wide spectrum of academic fields using a rich Indiana University Learning Analytics dataset. To explore the mechanisms that underlie the gender gaps in persistence in different fields we explicitly decompose them into components attributable to the tastes for a field and for the grades in it. We demonstrate that these differences vary in magnitude as well as direction across disciplines. We find that it is women’s (or men’s) weaker preference for a field of study, rather than their possible lower tolerance for bad grades per se, that is predominantly responsible for making them relatively more responsive to bad grades received in it; in fact, we find that men have stronger taste for grades than do women in each of the major academic categories at the University. In particular, we estimate that STEM-starting women are less averse to low grades there than men but have weaker taste for STEM, resulting in their overall lower retention there. Finally, we undertake a counterfactual experiment of relaxing grading standards in STEM and find that, depending on specific structure of students’ taste for grades, this will have at best little effect on women’s inferior retention, and may exacerbate it.
Do Diverse Directors Influence DEI Outcomes?
Wei Cai et al.
Harvard Working Paper, September 2022
Abstract:
We examine whether greater board diversity is associated with more diverse workforce hiring, more equitable pay practices, and more inclusive corporate cultures. Using a variety of quasi-experimental designs, we document increases in managerial and staff diversity in the years following a diverse director's appointment, consistent with diversity initiatives ``trickling down'' within a firm. We also find that employees perceive improvements in the culture, stronger community-building norms, and approve more of senior management. We, however, see limited real effects in terms of gender and racial pay gaps. Additional findings show board diversity works through allyship, homophily, and cognitive diversity channels. Finally, we examine the extent to which environmental, social, governance (ESG) ratings capture these within-firm social gains and document discrepancies.
Female Role Models and Labor Force Participation: The Case of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
Margo Beck & Sara LaLumia
Eastern Economic Journal, October 2022, Pages 488–517
Abstract:
This paper investigates how social influences have contributed to growth in female labor force participation, documenting how the role models of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League impacted female labor market outcomes between 1940 and 1950. Using a difference-in-difference strategy, comparing cities with teams to geographically nearby cities without teams, we find that female labor force participation in cities with an AAGPBL team increased by 1.8% points relative to otherwise similar cities without a team, and female employment rates increased by a similar amount.
Patient Use of Physicians’ First (Given) Name in Direct Patient Electronic Messaging
Jamison Harvey et al.
JAMA Network Open, October 2022
Methods: After approval by the Mayo Clinic institutional review board with waiver of participant consent because of exempt status, a retrospective review was conducted of patient messaging to physicians through the Mayo Clinic electronic medical record from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2021. This cohort study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline. Messages were evaluated using a natural language processing algorithm to identify the greeting and/or closing salutation used by patients and to classify these greetings based on formality. We defined a formal greeting as “Dr. (or Doctor) Last-name” or “Dr. (or Doctor) First-name Last-name.” Available demographics of patients (age and gender) and physicians (age, gender, degree, training level, and specialty) were determined. Use of formal greeting was compared between women and men physicians using χ2 test. Multilevel logistic regression analysis of first name greeting with patients nested within physicians was performed for available patient and physician demographic variables univariately and in a multivariable framework. Two-tailed P < .05 was considered statistically significant. All analyses were performed in SAS version 9.4.
Results: A total of 90 830 messages from 34 829 patients were identified. Of those, 29 498 messages (32.5%) from 14 958 patients included the physician’s name in the greeting or closing salutation. There were messages to 1092 physicians (568 [52.0%] female). Women physicians had more than twice the odds as men to be called by their first name after adjusting for patient gender; physician age, degree, level, and specialty; and for messages sent on behalf of the patient (odds ratio [OR], 2.15; 95% CI, 1.68-2.74; P < .001). Physicians holding a doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO) degree had nearly twice the odds (OR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.20-2.88; P = .006) and primary care physicians had approximately 50% greater odds to be called by their first name (OR, 1.48; 1.16-1.89; P = .002). Women patients had approximately 40% lower odds to address their physicians by first name (OR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.50-0.65; P < .001). There was no difference based on patient or physician age or whether the physician was in training (resident or fellow).
Empowerment Mitigates Gender Differences in Tertius Iungens Brokering
Nicos Nicolaou & Martin Kilduff
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Tertius iungens brokering that brings together people who might not otherwise meet is crucial for organizational effectiveness. But we know little about whether and why women and men differ in their propensity to engage in this brokering. Our paper focuses on the origins and mitigation of gender differences in the propensity to bring people together. In study 1, we showed that the Totterdell et al. [Totterdell P, Holman D, Hukin A (2008) Social networkers: Measuring and examining individual differences in propensity to connect with others. Soc. Networks 30(4):283–296] propensity-to-join-others scale that we used in study 2 and the Obstfeld [Obstfeld D (2005) Social networks, the tertius iungens orientation, and involvement in innovation. Admin. Sci. Quart. 50(1):100–130] tertius iungens scale overlapped not only conceptually, but also empirically, and that these measures of tertius iungens were distinct from mediation- and separation-brokering propensities [Grosser TJ, Obstfeld D, Labianca G, Borgatti SP (2019) Measuring mediation and separation brokerage orientations: A further step toward studying the social network brokerage process. Acad. Management Discoveries 5(2):114–136]. In study 2, we used a natural experiment to examine the tertius iungens brokering propensities of 876 identical and 625 fraternal same-sex twins. We found that brokering propensity was lower for women than for men, although the propensity toward sociability in terms of making friends and acquaintances was lower for men. We also found that for women, relative to men, tertius iungens brokering propensity was largely affected by environmental influences, such as the experience of stereotyping and discrimination, rather than representing an inherited disposition. Moreover, the differences between men and women with respect to brokering were mitigated for empowered samples, such as well-educated or entrepreneurial individuals. Our research asks new questions about how environmental pressures and empowerment affect social networking. Gender differences in brokering may be amenable to mitigation through empowering practices that include education and entrepreneurial experience.
Transgender Adults Have Higher Rates Of Disability Than Their Cisgender Counterparts
Madeline Smith-Johnson
Health Affairs, October 2022, Pages 1470-1476
Abstract:
In the US population, the burden of disability among transgender adults compared with their cisgender peers is largely unknown. This study used seven years of pooled cross-sectional data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to examine how disability varies by gender across age groups. I present a series of nested logistic regression models to show the adjusted probability of disability among adults. Transgender adults have a higher probability of reporting a disability compared with cisgender men and women. After confounders are controlled for, transgender adults have a 27 percent chance of having at least one disability at age twenty and a 39 percent chance at age fifty-five, which is nearly twice the rate of their cisgender counterparts at both ages. The findings show the importance of considering disability from a life-course perspective, the effect of intersectional identities on disability risk, and the urgency of targeted health interventions for transgender people in the US.