Work

Do Female–Owned Employment Agencies Mitigate Discrimination and Expand Opportunity for Women?

Year: 2024

Type: report

Abstract: We create a dataset of 14,000 help-wanted advertisements placed by U.S. employment agencies in 1950 and 1960, when help-wanted advertisements specified gender, and collect information on agency ownership.Female-owned agencies specialized in vacancies for women, expanding access of female job-seekers to agency services.They also advertised more skilled occupations to women than did male-owned agencies, leading to 5% higher wages for women.But they advertised more clerical jobs to men, contributing to 17% lower male wages.However, the gender wage gap within agency was the same for female-and male-owned agencies, suggesting no mitigation of discrimination.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research

DOI: 10.3386/w32383

Authors: Jennifer Hunt, Carolyn Moehling

Institutions: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, National Bureau of Economic Research

Language: English

Topic: Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Decent work and economic growth, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W4396238568

Cites:

Cited by: 3

Related to: 10