Class Advantage, Commitment Penalty
The Gendered Effect of Social Class Signals in an Elite Labor Market
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4522348 |
|---|---|
| Authors | L A Rivera (0000-0003-2733-3641, Northwestern University, corresponding author), András Tilcsik (0000-0002-8420-8946, University of Toronto) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 81 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1097-1131 |
| Publication date | 2016-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Sociological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0003122416668154 |
| OpenAlex | W2401807756 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 174 |
| References cited | 118 |
Research on the mechanisms that reproduce social class advantages in the United States focuses primarily on formal schooling and pays less attention to social class discrimination in labor markets. We conducted a résumé audit study to examine the effect of social class signals on entry into large U.S. law firms. We sent applications from fictitious students at selective but non-elite law schools to 316 law firm offices in 14 cities, randomly assigning signals of social class background and gender to otherwise identical résumés. Higher-class male applicants received significantly more callbacks than did higher-class women, lower-class women, and lower-class men. A survey experiment and interviews with lawyers at large firms suggest that, relative to lower-class applicants, higher-class candidates are seen as better fits with the elite culture and clientele of large law firms. But, although higher-class men receive a corresponding overall boost in evaluations, higher-class women do not, because they face a competing, negative stereotype that portrays them as less committed to full-time, intensive careers. This commitment penalty faced by higher-class women offsets class-based advantages these applicants may receive in evaluations. Consequently, signals of higher-class origin provide an advantage for men but not for women in this elite labor market
Audit · Class (philosophy · Demographic economics · Economics · Elite · Labour economics · Political science · Politics · Social class · Accounting · Computer Science · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality · Law · Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research · Psychology · Social Psychology
You are where you eat
Cultural capital and the social origin pay gap in the UK
Cultural Consumption
How social-class stereotypes maintain inequality
The Organizational Reproduction of Inequality
An Introduction to Audit Studies in the Social Sciences
Signs of Social Class
To bridge, link or bond
The Gendered Intergenerational Transmission of Managerial Status
Do college graduates from lower-income families earn lower wages than their peers? It depends on the major
Developing an understanding of the labour market
Divided paths
The diversity gap in leadership
Does Combining Work and Study ‘Pay Off’? Investigating Intersectional Effects of Term‐Time Employment, First‐Generation Status and Gender on Graduate Outcomes
Socioeconomic Differences in the Transition From Higher Education to the Labour Market
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Time Divide, Gender Divide
Cultural Capital Signaling and Class-Related Selection Biases in Employment and Education
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From Precollege to Career
Intersectional income inequality
Workforce diversity, diversity training and ethnic minorities
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Gender, Race, and Class in an Intersectional Framework
Gender Discrimination in Hiring Decisions
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Workplace Productivity
Coaching for ‘fitting in’
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Tell Me Your Story
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Presenting Their Gendered Selves? How Women and Men Describe Who They Are, What They Have Done, and Why They Want the Job in Their Written Applications
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The Racialized and Gendered Workplace
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Barriers in the Transition From School to Work
When family interrupted work
The visibility of social class from facial cues
Development and Initial Validation of the Perceived Classism Experiences Scale
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Status Characteristics and Social Interaction
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Theoretical Research Programs
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Tales from the Field
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Liquidated
Creating a Class
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Pedigree
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Closing the Social-Class Achievement Gap
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Social class disparities in health and education
Universal dimensions of social cognition
Sensitivity of Goodness of Fit Indexes to Lack of Measurement Invariance
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Description and Prescription
Distinction
Warmth and Competence as Universal Dimensions of Social Perception
The son also rises
Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination
The Dignity of Working Men
The Game of Life
Whitened Résumés
Aversive Racism and Selection Decisions
Top Incomes in the Long Run of History
Intergenerational Continuity of Taste
Comparing Data Characteristics and Results of an Online Factorial Survey between a Population-Based and a Crowdsource-Recruited Sample
Cultural Consumption in the Fine and Popular Arts Realms
Racial stereotypes and interracial attraction
Class, Culture, and Participation in the Collegiate Extra‐Curriculum
The Positive Consequences of Negative Stereotypes
Gender and Double Standards in the Assessment of Job Applicants
Extra‐credential experiences and social closure
Reconfigurations of Class and Gender
Assessing Reliability and Stability in Panel Models
Inequality by Design
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The Chosen
The Use of Field Experiments for Studies of Employment Discrimination
Gender, Black Feminism, and Black Political Economy
Law and Inequality
Gender Stereotypes, Same-Gender Preferences, and Organizational Variation in the Hiring of Women
Cultural Capital and School Success
The American occupational structure
Self-promotion as a risk factor for women
A model of (often mixed) stereotype content
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Sex Differences in the Educational Attainment Process
Disadvantaged through discrimination? The role of employers in social stratification1
Anything But Heavy Metal
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Status Distinctions in Interaction
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Hiring as Cultural Matching
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Normative Discrimination and the Motherhood Penalty
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The Production of Culture Perspective
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Pride and Prejudice
Hierarchical Rank and Women's Organizational Mobility
Getting a Job
The Mark of a Criminal Record
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Sex, Schooling, and Occupational Status
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| Unique citing works | 174 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 19,33 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2026 (10) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 172 |