Affirmative Action Flashcards
What is affirmative action?
Active action favouring those who tend to suffer from discrimination (eg. women in the workplace)
How did affirmative action originate?
When soldiers came back from war to no jobs, action was taken to get them back into work
Therefore people thought that they could extrapolate this onto other disadvantaged people
Women earn on average ____ less than male counterparts
20%
What does the Equality Act (2010) require?
Monitoring to identify barriers
Actions to remove barriers
Annual report to government agency
How can we address barriers to gender equality?
Positions - calculate proportion of positions/promotions earned by women
Candidates - calculate proportion of qualified women in candidate pool
Work-force - estimate proportion of qualified women in the broader work-force
Candidates < work-force
Barrier in recruitment procedure
Positions < candidates
Barrier in selection procedure
Positions < work-force
Barrier in selection or recruitment
Objections to affirmative action
- We don’t need it, everyone knows discrimination is wrong and so won’t do it
- Bias will be eliminated once it is identified, anti-discrimination laws already exist so we don’t need any action
- Things will continue to get better, so we don’t need specific affirmative action programmes
Modern prejudice is expressed in subtle ways
Defence of traditional ways - justifies maintenance
Exaggeration of differences - women can’t do this job because…
Positivity bias - low-status groups not actively prejudiced, just viewed less positively than high-status groups
Structural/institutional barriers still exist
Advertising on limited basis - excludes groups out of networks
Providing narrow category of opportunity to all - excludes groups who can’t take advantage of opportunity
Differential impact of standards and criteria - groups may be adversely affected by the status quo
Konrad & Linnehan, 1998; Reskin, 1998 - example of advertising opportunities on a limited basis
Position or promotion has to be filled quickly (internally)
Department head nominate qualified candidates
Typically nominate people they know well
Builds old boys networks
Example of narrow category of opportunities
Male professor holds prize draw for 2nd bed in hotel room at professional conference
Male students always won
Female students didn’t feel comfortable entering
Crosby, Iyer, Clayton & Downing (2003) - example of differential impacts of standards
Setting unnecessarily high standards that some groups fail to meet
Narrowly defining selection criteria so some groups are excluded (admissions tests)
Using equipment and resources that suit some groups (antigravity suits for fighter pilots didn’t fit women)
Individuals may not attribute negative outcomes to discrimination
Attribution theory - we identify cause of an outcome to internal attributions
‘I just wasn’t good enough’
Bergmann (1996)
Individuals may not file formal complaints due to a lack of knowledge or resources
Fine & Barreras (2001)
Individuals may not file formal complaints due to discomfort with confrontation
Kaiser & Miller (2001)
Individuals may not file formal complaints due to fear of derogation by colleagues
Reskin (1998)
Individuals may not file formal complaints due to fear of retaliation from authorities
Assumption: those who are not directly affected by bias are best positioned to identify and challenge it
But most observers are not in a position to notice bias because they do not have access to the information for the entire organisation
Stereotype threat - Steele & Aronson (1995)
Awareness of negative stereotype about an in-group can hurt individuals performance in that domain
(Girls told that girls perform worse at science/maths actually performed less well)
von Hippel et al (2011; 2015)
Female employees experiencing stereotype threat experience lower well-being
von Hippel et al (2011; 2013)
Female employees experiencing stereotype threat experience lower sense of belonging
Hall et al, (2015); von Hippel et al (2015)
Female employees experiencing stereotype threat experience higher burnout rate and intentions to quit the job
Members of stereotyped groups may perform ____, reinforcing the stereotype of _____
Worse, incompetence
Existence of inequality may encourage members of _____ groups to ______ from the domain
Disadvantaged, disengage
Strategies of disengagement
Discounting feedback received in the domain (becoming a rebel who doesn’t take standards seriously)
Devaluing (and then leaving) the domain entirely
Crocker & Quinn (1998); Major et al., (1998); Schmader et al. (2001)
_____ reinforces the idea that the disadvantaged group _____
Disengagement, doesn’t really belong
Affirmative action is needed because…
Policies and practices are biased
Bias may not be noticed or challenged
Left unchecked, inequality is perpetuated
Reducing bias and discrimination - recruitment procedure
Formalise advertising
Increases access and information for all groups
Increase representation of women - recruitment procedure
Expand recruitment beyond standard strategies
Offer training and mentoring programmes
Reducing bias and discrimination - selection procedure
Formalise selection criteria
Ensure no differential impact of criteria
Make process transparent and subject to review
Have different perspectives on selection committee
Increase representation of women - selection procedure
Gender as a plus factor when all other factors are equal
Positive effects of affirmative action
Increased representation of target group
AA hires typically as strong as non-AA hires
Organisation’s performance does not suffer
Negative effects of affirmative action
Representation is still too low
Stigma of being selected under AA policy
Negative views of (presumed) beneficiaries
Why is AA often not implemented properly?
- Opposition can prevent effective implementation
- Required changes are hard to sustain
- Competing demands for scarce resources
What can be done to address the fact that AA is often not implemented properly?
Reduce opposition
- educate employees about need for AA
- highlight organisation’s support for AA
Encourage sustained change
- Devote resources to oversight and enforcement
What reduces the stigma effect?
Positive feedback
Is the stigma effect replicated in surveys of real employees?
No
What can be done to address the stigma effect?
Provide positive feedback about performance
Establish support networks and programs
Highlight organisation’s support for all employees
What reduces the negative views of presumed beneficiaries?
When positive information is provided about the person
What can be done to address the negative view of beneficiaries?
Provide positive information about all employees (this group performed well on this task and all people contributed etc)
Highlight organisation’s support for all employees
Explaining opposition to affirmative action
As a function of the programme
As a function of the individual
As a function of the social context
Opposition as a function of the programme
Opposition increases as weight given to target group increases
Focus on the target group presumably reduces weight on merit
Opposition as a function of the individual
Justice concerns or principled opposition
- people that perceive the programme as violating principles of justice or fairness are more strongly opposed
Prejudice
- people with higher prejudice are more strongly opposed
- effect exists even after controlling for other explanations, such as political conservatism and principled opposition
Opposition as a function of the social context
When rationale is provided for the AA programme, opposition is lower
When leaders publicly support AA, opposition among employees is lower
