A More Proactive Approach to Addressing Gender-related Employment Disparities in the United States

Graham, Mary E. and Hotchkiss, Julie L. (2009): A More Proactive Approach to Addressing Gender-related Employment Disparities in the United States. Published in: Gender in Management: an International Journal , Vol. 24, No. 8 (2009): pp. 577-595.

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a proactive public policy approach to complement relatively reactive existing policies addressing gender-related employment disparities in the USA, and to provide an initial empirical illustration of the proposal. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a conceptual application of theories of total quality management (TQM) to the topic of gender-related employment disparities, followed by an empirical illustration using US Current Population Survey data and a gender equal employment opportunity (EEO) scorecard. Findings – Using the TQM framework, company outliers were conceptualized on the EEO scorecard as “special” causes of economy-wide equal employment variation and the industries in which companies are situated as “common” causes. The paper identifies two underperforming industries on gender-related employment outcomes: Mining and Construction, and Transportation, Communication and Utilities. Research limitations/implications – Further conceptual work on the application of TQM to gender disparities in employment is recommended. Also, the study considered broad industry categories; future research should refine these categories further. Practical implications – It is recommended that US enforcement agencies incorporate industry considerations more explicitly into their activities. Employer insights may be beneficial to improving equal employment opportunity performance at the industry level. Originality/value – The application of TQM theory to the topic of gender-related employment disparities is a novel approach that may motivate new public policies.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Gender, Equal opportunities, Sexual discrimination, Human resource management, United States of America
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J33 - Compensation Packages ; Payment Methods; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J5 - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining > J50 - General; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination > J71 - Discrimination

References

Aguinis, H., Werner, S., Abbott, J.L., Angert, C., Park, J.H. and Kohlhausen, D. (forthcoming), “Customer-centric science: reporting significant research results with rigor, relevance, and practical impact in mind”, Organizational Research Methods.

Akerlof, G.A. (1985), “Discriminatory, status-based wages among tradition-oriented, stochastically trading coconut producers”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 93 No. 2, pp. 265-76.

Allesandri, T.M. and Kahn, R.H. (2006), “Market performance and deviance from industry norms: (mis)alignment of organizational risk and industry risk”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 59 Nos 10-11, pp. 1105-15.

Anderson, J.C., Rungtusanatham, M. and Schroeder, R.G. (1994), “A theory of quality management underlying the Deming management method”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 472-509.

Ashenfelter, O. and Hannan, T. (1986), “Sex discrimination and product market competition: the case of the banking industry”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 101 No. 1, pp. 149-74.

Ashforth, B.E. and Mael, F.A. (1989), “Social identity theory and the organization”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 20-39.

Baron, J.N. and Bielby, W.T. (1980), “Bringing the firms back in: stratification, segmentation, and the organization of work”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 45, October, pp. 737-65.

Becker, B.E., Huselid, M.A. and Ulrich, D. (2001), The HR Scorecard, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA. Becker, G. (1993), Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to Education, 3rd ed., University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

Bendick, M. (2007), “Statement of Marc Bendick, Jr, PhD, US EEOC Meeting of February 28, 2007, Washington, DC to launch E-Race Initiative”, available at: http://eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/meetings/2-28-07/bendick.html (accessed July 14, 2008).

Bendick, M. and Egan, M.L. (2000), “Changing workplace cultures to reduce employment discrimination”, paper presented at the Conference on Low Wage Workers in the New Economy, Washington, DC, May 25.

Black, S.E. and Brainerd, E. (2002), “Importing equality? The impact of globalization on gender discrimination”, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 57 No. 4, pp. 540-59.

Blau, F.D. and Kahn, L.M. (2007), “The gender pay gap: have women gone as far as they can?”, Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 7-23.

Blau, F.D., Ferber, M.A. and Winkler, A.E. (2006), The Economics of Women, Men, and Work, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Browne, I. and Misra, J. (2003), “The intersection of gender and race in the labor market”, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 487-513.

Cain, G.G. (1986), “The economic analysis of labor market discrimination: a survey”, in Ashenfelter, O. and Layard, R. (Eds), Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. I, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 204-55.

Cartwright, B. and Edwards, P.R. (2003), “Some implications of segregation research for civil rights enforcement in employment”, working paper, US EEOC, Washington, DC.

Coleman, M.G. (2004), “Racial discrimination in the workplace: does market structure make a difference?”, Industrial Relations, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 660-89.

Corbett, C.J., Montes-Sancho, M.J. and Kirsch, D.A. (2005), “The financial impact of ISO 9000 certification in the United States: an empirical analysis”, Management Science, Vol. 51 No. 7, pp. 1046-59.

Deming, W.E. (1986), Out of the Crisis, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

DiMaggio, P.J. and Powell, W.W. (1983), “The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 147-60.

Duncan, O.D. and Duncan, B. (1955), “A methodological analysis of segregation indexes”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 210-17.

Federal Register (2006), Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination Obligations of Contractors and Subcontractors: Equal Opportunity Survey, 41 CFR Part 60-2 RIN 1215-AB53, 71, 53032-53042, US Department of Labor, Washington, DC, September 8.

Field, J.M. and Sinha, K.K. (2005), “Applying process knowledge for yield variation reduction: a longitudinal field study”, Decision Sciences, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 159-86.

Fields, J. and Wolff, E.N. (1995), “Interindustry wage differentials and the gender wage gap”, Industrial & Labor Relations Review, Vol. 49 No. 1, pp. 105-20.

Gersen, J.E. (2007), “Markets and discrimination”, New York University Law Review, Vol. 82 No. 3, pp. 689-737.

Gilliland, D.I. and Hoffman, K.D. (2004), “Examining a key aspect of agency-to-business relationships: the effects of regulatory control on the satisfaction of regulated firms”, Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 75-102.

Goldman, B.M. (2003), “The application of referent cognitions theory to legal-claiming by terminated workers: the role of organizational justice and anger”, Journal of Management, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 705-28.

Grabov, P. (1998), “SPC’s effectiveness prediction and analysis”, ASQ’s Annual Quality Congress Proceedings, Vol. 52, pp. 688-96.

Graham, M.E. and Hotchkiss, J.L. (2002), “A systemic assessment of employer equal employment opportunity efforts as a means of reducing the gender earnings gap”, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 169-201.

Graham, M.E., Hotchkiss, J.L. and Gerhart, B. (2000), “Discrimination by parts: a fixed effects analysis of starting pay differences across gender”, Eastern Economic Journal, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 9-27.

Greene, W.H. (1981), “Sample selection bias as a specification error: comment”, Econometrica, Vol. 49 No. 3, pp. 795-8.

Heckman, J. (1979), “Sample selection bias as a specification error”, Econometrica, Vol. 47 No. 1, pp. 153-61.

Heckman, J.J. and Wolpin, K.I. (1976), “Does the contract compliance program work? An analysis of Chicago data”, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 544-64.

Heywood, J.S. and Peoples, J.H. (Eds) (2006), Product Market Structure and Labor Market Discrimination, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY.

Hirsh, C.E. (2008), “Settling for less? Organizational determinants of discrimination-charge outcomes”, Law & Society Review, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 239-74.

Hodgson, M.D. and Cooper, R.S. (2000), “OFCCP contractor survey; new worker economic opportunity law; EEOC compliance manual revisions and charge statistics for 1999”, Employment Relations Today, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 81-8.

Hubbard, E.E. (2004), The Diversity Scorecard, Elsevier, Burlington, MA.

Johnson, G. and Solon, G. (1986), “Estimates of the direct effects of comparable worth policy”, American Economic Review, Vol. 76 No. 5, pp. 1117-25.

Kolesar, P.J. (1993), “The relevance of research on statistical process control to the total quality movement”, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, Vol. 10 No. 4, pp. 317-38.

Krieger, L.H. and Fiske, S.T. (2006), “Behavioral realism in employment discrimination law:

implicit bias and disparate treatment”, California Law Review, Vol. 94 No. 4, pp. 997-1062.

Krueger, A.B. and Summers, L.H. (1988), “Efficiency wages and the inter-industry wage structure”, Econometrica, Vol. 56 No. 2, pp. 259-93.

Latzko, W.J. and Saunders, D.M. (1995), Four Days with Dr Deming, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.

Leonard, J.S. (1985), “Affirmative action as earnings redistribution: the targeting of compliance reviews”, Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 363-84.

Leonard, J.S. (1990), “The impact of affirmative action regulation and equal employment law on Black employment”, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 47-63.

McAdams, R.H. (1995), “Cooperation and conflict: the economics of group status production and race discrimination”, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 108, pp. 1003-84.

MacCarthy, B.L. and Wasusri, T. (2002), “A review of non-standard applications of statistical process control (SPC) charts”, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 295-320.

McGahan, A.M. and Porter, M.E. (2002), “What do we know about variance in accounting profitability?”, Management Science, Vol. 48 No. 7, pp. 834-51.

Mehri, C., Giampetro-Meyer, A. and Runnels, M.B. (2004), “One nation indivisible: the use of diversity report cards to promote transparency, accountability, and workplace fairness”, Fordham Journal of Financial and Corporate Law, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 395-448.

MinorityLawJournal.com (2006), “Diversity scorecard – 2006”, available at: www.law.com/jsp/mlj/diversityScorecard.jsp (accessed August 31, 2006).

Petersen, T. and Saporta, I. (2004), “The opportunity structure for discrimination”, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 109 No. 4, pp. 852-901.

Rath and Strong/Aon Management Consulting (2003), Six Sigma Leadership Handbook, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.

Reskin, B.F. (2000), “The proximate causes of employment discrimination”, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 319-29.

Rose, S.J. and Hartmann, H.I. (2004), Still a Man’s Labor Market: The Long-term Earnings Gap, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Washington, DC.

Selmi, M. (2006), “Was the disparate impact theory a mistake?”, UCLA Law Review, Vol. 53 No. 3, pp. 701-82.

Shewhart, W.A. (1939), Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control, Dover, New York, NY.

Short, J.C., Ketchen, D.J., Palmer, T.B. and Hult, G.T.M. (2007), “Firm, strategic group, and industry influences on performance”, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 147-67.

Silverman, L. (2006), Systemic Task Force Report to the Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, US EEOC, Washington, DC.

Stangor, C., Swim, J.K., Van Allen, K. and Sechrist, G. (2002), “Reporting discrimination in public and private contexts”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 82 No. 1, pp. 69-74.

Tomaskovic-Devey, D., Zimmer, C., Stainback, K., Robinson, C., Taylor, T. and McTague, T. (2006), “Documenting desegregation: segregation in American workplaces by race, ethnicity, and sex, 1966-2003”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 71 No. 4, pp. 565-88.

US Census Bureau (2009), “Current population survey”, available at: www.census.gov/cps/(accessed June 1, 2009). US Department of Labor (2007), “Median weekly earnings by detailed occupation and sex, 2007 annual average”, available at: www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat39.pdf (accessed August 29, 2008).

US Department of Labor (2008a), “Improvements at OFCCP produce record financial recoveries for record number of American workers in FY07”, available at: www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/enforc07.pdf (accessed March 28, 2008).

US Department of Labor (2008b), Facts on Executive Order 11246, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), Washington, DC, available at: http://dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/ofccp/aa.htm (accessed March 28, 2008).

US Department of Labor (2008c), “Federal Contractor Selection System (FCSS) – questions and answers”, available at: www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/ofccp/faqs/fcssfaqs.html (accessed March 28, 2008).

US Department of Labor (2008d), “OFCCP’s enforcement procedures”, available at: www.gov/esa/ofccp/aboutof.html (accessed July 15, 2008).

US Department of Labor (2008e), “Facts on Executive Order 11246 – affirmative action”, available at: www.dol.gov/esa/OFCCP/regs/compliance/aa.htm

US EEOC (2006), “Strategic plan for fiscal years 2007-2012 [modified]”, available at: www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/plan/strategic_plan_07to12_mod.pdf (accessed June 1, 2009).

US EEOC (2007), “Equal Employment Opportunity Commission consolidated statements of net cost for the years ended September 30, 2007 and 2006”, available at: www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/plan/par/2007/financial_statements.html (accessed July 15, 2008).

US General Services Administration (2008), “Excluded parties list system”, available at: www.epls.gov/ (accessed March 28, 2008).

US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (US OSHA) (2008a), “Local emphasis programs”, available at: www.osha.gov/dep/local_emphasis_programs.html (accessed July 29, 2008).

US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (US OSHA) (2008b), “Cooperative programs”, available at: www.osha.gov/dcsp/compliance_assistance/index_programs.html (accessed July 29, 2008).

Weichselbaumer, D. and Winter-Ebmer, R. (2006), “Rhetoric in economic research: the case of gender wage differentials”, Industrial Relations, Vol. 45 No. 3, pp. 416-36.

White, H.C. (1981), “Where do markets come from?”, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 87 No. 3, pp. 517-47.

Wooten, L.P. and James, E.H. (2004), “When firms fail to learn: the perpetuation of discrimination in the workplace”, Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 23-33.