IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mcm/cilnwp/07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is Discrimination Against Women Really Declining? The Puzzle of Survey Reports

Author

Listed:
  • Heather Antecol

    (McMaster University)

  • Peter Kuhn

    (McMaster University)

Abstract

This paper seeks to explain why young women are much more likely to report being harmed by gender discrimination than older women. Using a recent sample of job seekers, we conclude that the answer does not lie in higher "objective" discrimination, as usually measured by economists, since measured discrimination is not higher against young women on any dimension we can measure. Because young women are also more likely to report that they were the beneficiaries of labor market discrimination than older women, and because young men are more likely than older men to report that they were harmed by discrimination, we conclude that the answer is also unlikely to lie in a higher overall level of unmeasured discrimination against young women. Using a formal model of the reporting decision, we conclude that the most likely cause of young women's higher reports is a difference in reporting behavior between young and old workers of both sexes: young workers are more willing to interpret departures in either direction from gender-neutral treatment as discriminatory than older workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Heather Antecol & Peter Kuhn, "undated". "Is Discrimination Against Women Really Declining? The Puzzle of Survey Reports," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 07, McMaster University.
    • Handle: RePEc:mcm:cilnwp:07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/rsrch/papers/CILN/cilnwp07.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Richard W. Johnson & David Neumark, 1997. "Age Discrimination, Job Separations, and Employment Status of Older Workers: Evidence from Self-Reports," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 32(4), pages 779-811.
    2. David N. Laband & Bernard F. Lentz, 1998. "The Effects of Sexual Harassment on Job Satisfaction, Earnings, and Turnover among Female Lawyers," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(4), pages 594-607, July.
    3. David N. Laband & DBernard F. Lentz, 1993. "Is There Sex Discrimination in the Legal Profession? Further Evidence on Tangible and Intangible Margins," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 28(2), pages 230-258.
    4. Johnson, George & Solon, Gary, 1986. "Estimates of the Direct Effects of Comparable Worth Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1117-1125, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kevin F. Hallock & Wallace Hendricks & Emer Broadbent, 1998. "Discrimination by Gender and Disability Status: Do Worker Perceptions Match Statistical Measures?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(2), pages 245-263, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antecol, Heather & Barcus, Vanessa E. & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., 2007. "Gender-Biased Behavior at Work: What Can Surveys Tell Us About the Link Between Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination?," IZA Discussion Papers 2647, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Heather Antecol & Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Eric Helland, 2014. "Bias in the Legal Profession: Self-Assessed versus Statistical Measures of Discrimination," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(2), pages 323-357.
    3. Heather Antecol & Deborah Cobb-Clark, 2009. "Racial harassment, job satisfaction, and intentions to remain in the military," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 713-738, July.
    4. Antecol, Heather & Barcus, Vanessa E. & Cobb-Clark, Deborah, 2009. "Gender-biased behavior at work: Exploring the relationship between sexual harassment and sex discrimination," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 782-792, October.
    5. Antecol, Heather & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A., 2008. "Identity and racial harassment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 66(3-4), pages 529-557, June.
    6. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence Kahn, 1995. "The Gender Earnings Gap: Some International Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 105-144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Chiswick, Barry R & Miller, Paul M, 1996. "Ethnic Networks and Language Proficiency among Immigrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 19-35, February.
    8. Card, David E. & De la Rica Goiricelaya, Sara, 2004. "The effect of firm-level contracts on the structure of wages: evidence from matched employer-employee data," DFAEII Working Papers 1988-088X, University of the Basque Country - Department of Foundations of Economic Analysis II.
    9. Roger Wilkins & Markus Hahn, 2013. "Perceived Job Discrimination in Australia - Its Correlates and Consequences," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(1), pages 43-64.
    10. Michael A. Shields & Melanie E. Ward, "undated". "Improving Nurse Retention in the British National Health Service: The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Intentions to Quit," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 00/3, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    11. Patricia Carral & Carlos-María Alcover, 2019. "Measuring Age Discrimination at Work: Spanish Adaptation and Preliminary Validation of the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale (NADS)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-14, April.
    12. Pilar González & Maria Clementina Santos & Luís Delfim Santos, 2005. "The Gender Wage Gap in Portugal: Recent Evolution and Decomposition," CEF.UP Working Papers 0505, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    13. Mark Wooden, 1999. "Gender Pay Equity and Comparable Worth in Australia: A Reassessment," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 32(2), pages 157-171, June.
    14. Michael Baker & Nicole M. Fortin, 2001. "Occupational gender composition and wages in Canada, 1987–1988," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(2), pages 345-376, May.
    15. Brown, Charles & Corcoran, Mary, 1997. "Sex-Based Differences in School Content and the Male-Female Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(3), pages 431-465, July.
    16. Antecol, Heather & Cobb-Clark, Deborah, 2006. "The sexual harassment of female active-duty personnel: Effects on job satisfaction and intentions to remain in the military," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 55-80, September.
    17. Leontaridi, Rannia & Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie E., 2002. "Work-Related Stress, Quitting Intentions and Absenteeism," IZA Discussion Papers 493, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. William J. Carrington & Kenneth R. Troske, 1998. "Sex Segregation in U.S. Manufacturing," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(3), pages 445-464, April.
    19. Jaume Garcia Villar & Pedro J. Hernández & Ángel López-Nicolás, 2002. "An investigation of the relationship between job characteristics and the gender wage gap," Economics Working Papers 627, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    20. Disney, Richard & Whitehouse, Edward, 1999. "Pension plans and retirement incentives," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 20851, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mcm:cilnwp:07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demcmca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.