Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender and the Evaluation of Job Applicants in Interactive Settings

康奈尔大学的研究人员认为，只有在收集了关于自然环境(Biernat&amp；Fuegen，2001)和男女互动的非脚本环境(Ridgeway&amp；Correll，2004)的详细数据之后，才能完全理解职业性隔离。互动网站对于维护和复制霸权的性别信仰至关重要，这往往会给工作场所的妇女带来微妙但累积的劣势(Ridgeway 1997)。因此，必须审查相互作用的环境，以了解和解决长期存在的男女就业不平等问题。该项目旨在通过将通过实验室实验建立的正式理论应用于实际求职者与招聘他们求职的评估员互动的现实世界背景，为这一目标作出直接贡献。尽管研究人员很少访问招聘环境，但该项目确定了一个独特的背景，允许直接观察和收集在直接互动过程中做出的真实招聘决策的数据。这项研究着眼于西班牙的考试制度，该制度用于招聘应聘者填补目前女性人数不足的重要政府职位；这些职位中约20%由女性填补。在西班牙，公务员竞赛是公开的，包括各种资格赛，求职者和评估者面对面地互动。在涉及申请者和评估者高水平互动的测试回合中观察到了重要的性别差异，但在互动最少的回合中没有观察到性别差异。该项目将审查这些互动的内容，并将确定阻止妇女被招募的具体机制。我观察、录音并转录了90个互动考试环节。对这些录音会议的分析将帮助我们理解为什么重要的性别差异只出现在互动回合中，而不出现在其他回合中。从这项研究中获得的知识将有助于产生以理论为基础的干预措施，以促进男女在不同行业和工作岗位上的平等代表权。当前的政策措施并不总是有效的，部分原因是它们脱离了社会学理论和知识。这项研究将阐明评估者和招聘者经常被迫选择男性申请者填补最佳职位的具体过程。更好地了解这一过程将指导政策建议，帮助妇女争取更高的地位。

Shelley CorrellEsther QuinteroCornell UniversityResearchers have argued that occupational sex segregation will not be fully understood until detailed data are collected on natural (Biernat & Fuegen 2001) and non-scripted settings where men and women interact (Ridgeway & Correll 2004). Interactional sites are crucial to the maintenance and reproduction of hegemonic gender beliefs which often result in subtle, but cumulative disadvantages for women in the workplace (Ridgeway 1997). Thus, it is essential to examine interactional settings to understand and address persisting inequalities between men and women in employment. This project intends to make a direct contribution to this goal by applying formal theory established via laboratory experiments to a real-world context where actual job applicants interact with evaluators who are recruiting them for jobs. Although hiring settings are rarely accessible to researchers, this project identifies a unique context that permits direct observation and data collection on real hiring decisions made in the course of direct interaction. This study looks at the Spanish exam system that is used to recruit candidates to fill important government jobs where women are currently underrepresented; about 20% of these jobs are filled by women. In Spain, civil service competitions are public and consist of various qualifying rounds of testing where job applicants and evaluators interact face-to-face. Important gender differences have been observed at testing rounds that involve a high level of applicant-evaluator interaction, but not at rounds where interaction is minimal. This project will examine the content of these interactions, and will identify the specific mechanisms that are preventing women from being recruited. I observed, voice recorded, and transcribed 90 interactive exam sessions. An analysis of these taped sessions will help us understand why important gender differences emerge only in interactive rounds but not in others. The knowledge gained from this research will serve to generate theory based interventions to promote equal representation of men and women across industries and jobs. Current policy measures are not always effective partly because they are divorced from sociological theory and knowledge. This study will shed light on the specific processes by which evaluators and recruiters are often compelled to choose male applicants to fill the best jobs. A better understanding of such processes will guide policy recommendations to help women as they seek to obtain high status positions.