Gender Prejudice Incidence and Student Exposure in the United States

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. Gender Gaps: Session II

Abstract

Some contend discrimination plays a neglible role in womens’ socioeconomic outcomes (e.g., Summers 2005). And, some evidence suggests the incidence of anti-female prejudice has declined over the preceeding seven decades (e.g., Spitze and Huber 1980; Cherlin and Walters 1981; Brewster and Padavic 2000). Traditional surveys are vulnerable to social desirability bias; analysts employing new methods find higher levels of anti-female prejudice (e.g., Streb, Burrell, Frederick, and Genovese 2008). This paper, however, observes that prejudice incidence and prejudice exposure are distinct phenomena. While both traditional and new methods measure prejudice incidence, it is exposure that connects most directly to whether discrimination is relevant for womens’ achievement. Using knowledge about social organization, and tools drawn from introductory statistics, I estimate prejudice exposure. Even using data likely to under-state prejudice incidence owing to social desirability bias, I still find that girls and boys are virtually certain to encounter multiple prejudiced authorities. I briefly sketch some implications of this finding for the maintenance of sex inequality and the likelihood that discrimination still matters for womens’ achievements.

Author

• Samuel R. Lucas, University of California - Berkeley