Lauren Rivera's new study on hiring for summer law associateships

Graduate School Law School
1

http://asr.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/10/08/0003122416668154.abstract?rss=1
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/10/privilege-helps-men-not-women-get-lucrative-jobs/504497/

The resumes sent differed in gender and signals of social class background. For the latter, types of sports and other extracurriculars were used as the signals (e.g. polo, sailing, and classical music to signal high social class background, versus track and field sports and country music to signal low social class background).

Resumes purporting to be from men from high social class backgrounds got callbacks four times the rate of others. On the other hand, signaling a high social class background was associated with a lower callback rate for women.

2

And they got all that from just 22 responses? (not sure this amount even qualifies for “data”)

I’d love to see the hard stats in a nice table parsed by all 22 and the standard error.

That being said, the conclusions (of bias in hiring) may not be wrong.

3

Interesting conclusions, but 22 responses is not a suitable sample size for this type of study.

4

It would surprise me not at all to learn there is bias in law firm hiring. In fact, I’m fairly certain there is. I’m not sure this “study” really tells us anything one way or the other.

5

Male rednecks should thus not include redneck activities on their resumes, but rather should try to avoid redneck activities. Problem solved. It’s that simple.