Workplace sexuality as a driver of gender inequality: Evidence from the tech industry

• In Event: 2351 - Section on the Sociology of Sex and Gender Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 3. Gender Bodies at Work

Abstract

This paper examines sexual interactions in the workplace as an overlooked driver of labor market gender inequality. Although previous research on labor market gender inequality has largely ignored the role of workplace sexuality, I illustrate how unwanted sexual interactions in the workplace contribute to four known drivers of labor market gender inequality: diminished perceived competence, stereotype threat, boundary heightening, and intentional invisibility. I draw on in-depth interviews with 30 women working in the technology sector in Silicon Valley to create a typology of workplace sexual interactions that fall along two axes: explicit/implicit and distressing/not distressing. I then show how unwanted interactions that are either explicitly or implicitly sexual impede women’s ability to work, or gain recognition for their work. Ultimately, I show that unwanted sexual interactions in the workplace create substantial barriers to women’s ability to accomplish and gain recognition for their work in a male-dominated industry.

Author

• Chloe Grace Hart, Stanford University