Aging female job applicants may be the targets of employers’ age discrimination more often than aging male applicants, according to the findings of a recent study conducted by researchers at Tulane University and the University of California, Irvine.
This study1, published in October 2015, specifically focused on evaluating employers’ responses to thousands of fake job applications for both fictitious female and male applicants of various ages. While researchers were looking to evaluate the incidence (or prevalence) of age discrimination in general, they also reportedly uncovered “robust evidence of age discrimination in hiring against older women.”
To better understand the nature of age discrimination in the hiring process of U.S. employers, researchers developed about 40,000 fake job applications and resumes for three different groups of male and female applicants, including:
These fake applications were then used to apply to various job openings, including positions in administration, sales, janitorial services and the security industry. Upon analyzing the responses from employers, researchers reportedly found that:
Summing up the results of their analyses, researchers specifically concluded that:
For the occupations we study, there is unambiguous evidence of age discrimination for female job applicants, and this is true for both the middle-aged and older groups… We might, therefore, conclude that the really strong evidence from our study establishes that it is harder for older female workers to find jobs.
Some of the theories these researchers proposed to attempt to explain why older female job applicants tend to be the targets of age discrimination (more often than their male counterparts) included the following:
What do you think about these findings regarding age discrimination against older female job applicants? Do you agree with researchers’ theories about why older women are more often subjected to this form of workplace discrimination? Tell us what you think on Facebook.
If you have been the target of age discrimination at work, contact a Los Angeles age discrimination lawyer at the Azadian Law Group, PC for a free case to review to find out more about your options for recovery and justice.
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1: Study entitled Is It Harder for Older Workers to Find Jobs?