Discrimination & employment?

1- Are you more likely to be discriminated based on race or gender when applying for a job?

2- Are you more likely to be discriminated based on race or gender when being considered for promotion?

For 1 and 2: Race. Race is a much more likely cause, because it has to do with culture and sometimes class.

Here's why:

Consider a hiring (or promoting) manager and two candidates. With one the manager and the candidate are from similar backgrounds, listen to similar music, have similar political views, went to similar colleges, eat similar food, find similar things funny, and have similar hair texture and skin color BUT who are different genders. The second candidate is of the same gender, but is from a a very different background, listens to different music, has different political views, and has different hair texture and color.

Who is more likely to be *perceived* as the best suited for the job if all else is equal?

Discrimination is not always intentional.

The manager may simply perceive the person with a similar background to be a better fit because s/he is more comfortable with them as a person. And possibly *unintentionally* favor the person with whom s/he has more commonalities, even though they are of a different gender.

I asked a similar question a few months ago:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

If the wage gaps are any indication, race, but I don't know what is the most appropriate metric for determining this.

The wage gap is greater for black men than white women and greater still for black women.

But there are so many factors to consider here.

EDIT should be noted, speaking of factors, that between blacks and whites, the wage gap actually INCREASES with education level, i.e. there is a bigger gap between what an educated black earns and an educated white. For the wage gap between men and women, the opposite is the case, i.e. there is a greater discrepancy in wages for less educated women and men.

EDIT

ProfC, the plural of "anecdote" isn't "data".

And I can cite reports from black females I know of being disrespected by white women. That doesn't answer the question.

And I have CERTAINLY experienced discrimination as a black man at the hands of white women.

Oh wait. I forgot. Racism is just a by-product of patriarchy, therefore women can't be racist.

OK Lioness,here goes. You may not beleive it but YES,the Discimination Monster still exists today in the job market.
Say you're applying for a Customer Service job,but you're overweight,and bucktoothed with a protruding forehead and Coke bottle glasses.You may have a degree and better educated than the other applicants,but in a case like this the company wants an attractive person on that job.
Now,your second question.It may seem like discrimination but this is the double-edged sword called Affirmative Action. Now in the event of several people of different cultures applying for the job,not only is experience one of the factors but also how many women,Asians,Latinos,African Americans are going for the job.Your employer has to make a decision based on all of this info so nobody with start trying to play the Race Card and scream ,DISCRIMINATION!

A few years ago (I don't remember how many, around 15?) there was a Black female reporter for the Washington Post. She wrote a book based upon her experiences. She felt she had far more discrimination type experiences based upon her gender than on her race. She said even the Black males at the Post would demean her as a female. She said she expected it from the white males but when it came from her own race she was astonished.

Based on personal experience for a promotion, it was due to favoritism. Being as the Job Description was within my line of work and added duties for Management, the Individual that didn't meet the qualifications, was promoted. A grievance was filed due to the fact that the Individual who was promoted, was the Individual I trained. End result, I was automatically given a higher promotion and the Director who promoted the Individual was demoted.

Discrimination is hard to prove by the injured Party, unless the injured Party has hard evidence, other than that? Favoritism is most likely the culprit of Employment advancement. It's an unethical practice by Employers. But most Employers who's unethical practice involves Discrimination are more likely to get away with it, than it is with favoritism.

But then again, if discrimination were to include Education and/or Experience, then, I would have to say, yes. Unfortunately, it does not fall within the Laws definition of Discrimination. Oh well.

Race hands down. I know people are discriminated against based on race when applying for a job, and when being considered for promotions. I've worked around so many racist people in my career, I can't believe it. The location I'm working at now is pretty good, but I know it still goes on all around me.

Next, gender. I know based on the way many people talk about women, that they are not as respected as men. People still make assumptions about women's commitments to their careers, that they don't make about men (whether they are single or married, have kids or not).

When my manager was promised a promotion, a few of the men we all worked with complained that she didn't need the money, since her husband made a lot of money. Didn't matter if she deserved it or not (she did, she had over 15 years of experience, unlike the men around her), or that they weren't in direct competition with her for the job, they just didn't like seeing her get more money.

And I'm aware homophobia is alive and well. I know of people who were not hired because they were perceived to be gay. When asked why someone wasn't hired, managers have told their other staff they didn't want a gay or lesbian on their staff. They didn't bother to hide the reasons, since it's legal in my state to discriminate in hiring and promotion against people who are gay or lesbian.