"An Investigation of Discrimination Against Pregnant Women in the Job Application Process"

Student Author(s) Isabella Barker   Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Catherine Middlebrooks Forum Gender Studies Showcase  ~ 4:30 to 5:30 pm ~ Heth Lobby

This is a hypothetical study; no data was actually gathered. An effect of discrimination has been observed on women during the job application process. The researcher’s hypothesized that women are discriminated against more during the application process when their social media indicates that they are pregnant, as opposed to men whose social media indicates they are expecting a child. To test this hypothesis, researcher’s created fake applicant resumes with corresponding social media accounts for these applicants. Applicants’ resumes indicated similar information, such as college education level and work experience, to help counterbalance the experiment. Social media pages clearly indicated pregnancy for both men and women applicants. In this experiment, researcher’s recruited 60 hiring managers (30 female, 30 male) to rank the applicants in order of who they would hire first to last. Results indicated that the hypothesis was supported. This suggests that pregnant women are discriminated more so than their expecting male counterparts."1   Keywords: job applicants, sex discrimination, sexism, pregnancy, discrimination in employment

Isabella Barker

1Page 101   2019 Annual Student Engagement Forum   Gender Studies Showcase:.Pages 99-103

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