Young Women at Risk: Harassment by Race, Age, and Gender in the Gig Economy

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 18: Precarious and Nonstandard Work

Abstract

Gig workers often lack the institutional and legal protections that shield conventional employees from harassment. It is thus not surprising that harassment is a serious problem in the gig economy, and research indicates that women and minorities experience especially high levels of harassment when doing gig work. Few studies, however, have examined harassment in the gig economy from an intersectional perspective. Using 2021 data from Pew’s American Trends Panel (ATP), we examine harassment among gig workers at the intersections of race, age, and gender. We find that Hispanics are more likely than whites to report harassment, regardless of gender or age. The effects of gender and age, however, are interdependent. Although women do not report more harassment than men on average, young women report significantly more harassment than young men. In fact, young women report more harassment than any other age-gender group. Young men report especially low levels of harassment. For young women, gig work is thus not only economically precarious, it is also associated with a comparatively high level of harassment.

Authors

• Jeremy E. Reynolds, Purdue University

• Julieta Aguilar, Purdue University