Abstract
How demographics and contextual factors impact findings of discrimination of claims filed by federal employees at the EEOC is the focus of this research. A 10% random sample was drawn from the 8,000 published EEOC claims in three years and included demographic and workplace context variables. Noted are that male versus female employees view the characteristics of the charges and the HR context differently. Suggestions for research on employment discrimination include exploring both demographics and context variables and intersectionality simultaneously, salience, and mutability of protected demographic variables.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Data for this study are available upon request from the corresponding author.
Notes
This includes sex and race.
This includes national origin, age, and disability. National origin is not changeable but its salience can diminish over time. People age at different rates and that there is variation within the age range of over 40 that is protected. People have differing disabilities that have different impacts on the workplace and they vary in recoverability.
References
Alkadry, M. (1997). The feminine mystique of public administration. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 19(1), 106–112. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25611199
Andrus, M., Spitzer, E., Brown, J., & Xiang, A. (2021). What we can't measure, we can't understand: Challenges to demographic data procurement in the pursuit of fairness. Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445888
Anestaki, A., Sabharwal, M., Connelly, K., & Cayer, N. J. (2019). Race and gender representation in presidential appointments, ses, and gs levels, during clinton, bush, and obama administrations. Administration & Society, 51(2), 197–228. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399716655376
Asseburg, J., & Homberg, F. (2020). Public service motivation or sector rewards? Two studies on the determinants of sector attraction. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 40(1), 82–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X18778334
Baekgaard, M., & George, B. (2018). Equal access to the top? Representative bureaucracy and politicians’ recruitment preferences for top administrative staff. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 28(4), 535–550. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muy038
Baumle, A. K., Badgett, M. V. L., & Boutcher, S. (2020). New research on sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination: Effect of state policy on charges filed at the eeoc. Journal of Homosexuality, 67(8), 1135–1144. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2019.1603494.
Bayer, R. (1987). Homosexuality and american psychiatry: The politics of diagnosis. Princeton University Press.
Bearfield, D. A. (2009). Equity at the intersection: Public administration and the study of gender. Public Administration Review, 69(3), 383–386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.01985.x
Beatty, J. E., Baldridge, D. C., Boehm, S. A., Kulkarni, M., & Colella, A. J. (2019). On the treatment of persons with disabilities in organizations: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management, 58(2), 119–137. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21940
Beck, S. (2022). “We do not live single-issue lives”: Bostock v. Clayton county mainstreaming title vii intersectional discrimination claims. Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality, 40(2), 463.
Bell, C. M., & Khoury, C. (2016). Organizational powerlessness, dehumanization, and gendered effects of procedural justice. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 31(2), 570–585. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmp-09-2014-0267
Bernardin, J. H., Konopaske, R., & Hagan, C. M. (2012). A comparison of adverse impact levels based on top-down, multisource, and assessment center data: Promoting diversity and reducing legal challenges. Human Resource Management, 51(3), 313–341. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21472
Berrey, E., Nelson, R. L., & Nielsen, L. B. (2017). Rights on trial: How workplace discrimination law perpetuates inequality. University of Chicago Press.
Bies, R. J., & Tyler, T. R. (1993). The “litigation mentality” in organizations: A test of alternative psychological explanations. Organization Science, 4(3), 352–366. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.4.3.352
Blom, R., Kruyen, P. M., Van der Heijden, B. I., & Van Thiel, S. (2020). One hrm fits all? A meta-analysis of the effects of hrm practices in the public, semipublic, and private sector. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 40(1), 3–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X18773492
Bolitzer, B., & Godtland, E. M. (2012). Understanding the gender–pay gap in the federal workforce over the past 20 years. The American Review of Public Administration, 42(6), 730–746. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074011434801
Breslin, R. A., Pandey, S., & Riccucci, N. M. (2017). Intersectionality in public leadership research: A review and future research agenda. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 37(2), 160–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x17697118.
Brizi, A., Mannetti, L., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2016). The closing of open minds: Need for closure moderates the impact of uncertainty salience on outgroup discrimination. British Journal of Social Psychology, 55(2), 244–262. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12131
Browne, I., & Misra, J. (2003). The intersection of gender and race in the labor market. Annual Review of Sociology, 29(1), 487–513. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30036977
Bryson, A., Forth, J., & Stokes, L. (2017). How much performance pay is there in the public sector and what are its effects? Human Resource Management Journal, 27(4), 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12153
Butitova, D. (2019). Perceptions of organizational justice among state government employees: The effect of years of public service. Public Personnel Management, 48(3), 345–368. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026018816348
Cho, Y. J. (2017). Organizational justice and complaints in the us federal workplace. International Review of Public Administration, 22(2), 172–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/12294659.2017.1317948
Choi, S. (2018). Pay equity in government: Analyzing determinants of gender pay disparity in the us federal government. Administration & Society, 50(3), 346–371. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399715581623
Clark, R. C., Jr., Ochs, H. L., & Frazier, M. (2013). Representative bureaucracy: The politics of access to policy-making positions in the federal executive service. Public Personnel Management, 42(1), 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026013484570
Cohen-Charash, Y., & Spector, P. (2001). The role of justice in organizations: A meta-analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decisions Processes, 86(2), 278–321. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2001.2958
Conkel-Ziebell, J. L., Gushue, G. V., & Turner, S. L. (2019). Anticipation of racism and sexism: Factors related to setting career goals for urban youth of color. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 66(5), 588–599. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000357
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241–1299. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/stflr43&i=1257.
Deutsch, M. (1975). Equity, equality, and need: What determines which value will be used as the basis of distributive justice? Journal of Social Issues, 31(3), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1975.tb01000.x
Dover, T. L., Major, B., & Kaiser, C. R. (2014). Diversity initiatives, status, and system-justifying beliefs: When and how diversity efforts de-legitimize discrimination claims. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 17(4), 485–493. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430213502560
Eeoc releases fiscal year 2020 enforcement and litigation data. (2021). https://www.eeoc.gov/newsroom/eeoc-releases-fiscal-year-2020-enforcement-and-litigation-data Retrieved 24 August 2021.
Frontiero v. Richardson. (1973). 411 us 677 (supreme court 1973).
Greiner, D. J., & Rubin, D. B. (2011). Causal effects of perceived immutable characteristics. Review of Economics and Statistics, 93(3), 775–785. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_00110
Guul, T. S., Villadsen, A. R., & Wulff, J. N. (2019). Does good performance reduce bad behavior? Antecedents of ethnic employment discrimination in public organizations. Public Administration Review, 79(5), 666–674. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13094
Hamidullah, M. F., & Riccucci, N. M. (2017). Intersectionality and family-friendly policies in the federal government: Perceptions of women of color. Administration & Society, 49(1), 105–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399715623314
Hankivsky, O., & Jordan-Zachery, J. S. (2019). Introduction: Bringing intersectionality to public policy. In: The palgrave handbook of intersectionality in public policy (pp. 1–28). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98473-5_1
Hassan, S., & Hatmaker, D. M. (2015). Leadership and performance of public employees: Effects of the quality and characteristics of manager-employee relationships. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25(4), 1127–1155. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muu002
Hawkins, J. (2016). Generational dimensions of public service motivation. University of Oklahoma. Retrieved August 13, 2021 from https://shareok.org/bitstream/handle/11244/44872/2016_Hawkins_Jessica_Thesis.pdf?sequence=2.
Hill, F. (2020). Public service and the federal government. Brookings institute. Retrieved May 20, 2021 from https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/public-service-and-the-federal-government/#:~:text=When%20all%20of%20these%20are,produces%20a%20more%20nuanced%20picture.
Hunt, V. H., Rucker, L., & Kerr, B. (2019). You've come a long way, baby, but you still have a long way to go: Gender-based pay inequality in us state bureaucracies, 1995–2015. Public Personnel Management, On Line. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019886332https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019886332.
Hutchinson, J. R. (2001). Multigendering pa: Anti-administration, anti-blues. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 23(4), 589–604. https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2001.11643547
Juban, R., & Gardner, L. (2020). To file or not to file? How eeoc claims change with the economy. Labor Studies Journal, 45(3), 296–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449x19897403
Kaiser, C. R., Major, B., Jurcevic, I., Dover, T. L., Brady, L. M., & Shapiro, J. R. (2013). Presumed fair: Ironic effects of organizational diversity structures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(3), 504. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030838
Kennedy, A. H., & Bishu, S. G. (2022). This for that: What eeoc trends reveal about representative bureaucracy. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 42(1), 113–141. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x20942811
Kenny, E. J., & Briner, R. B. (2013). Increases in salience of ethnic identity at work: The roles of ethnic assignation and ethnic identification. Human Relations, 66(5), 725–748. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726712464075
Kim, S., & Park, S. (2017). Diversity management and fairness in public organizations. Public Organization Review, 17(2), 179–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x13486489
Klassen, S. (2021). Challenges in bringing gender equity into the workplace: Addressing common concerns women have when deciding to hold employers accountable for gender discrimination. Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity, 10(1), 5.
Kossek, E. E., & Buzzanell, P. M. (2018). Women's career equality and leadership in organizations: Creating an evidence‐based positive change. 57(4), 813–822. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21936
Latan, H., Chiappetta Jabbour, C. J., Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, A. B., Ali, M., & Pereira, V. (2022). Career satisfaction in the public sector: Implications for a more sustainable and socially responsible human resource management. Human Resource Management Journal, Ahead of Print. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12469.
LaVan, H. (2007). Public sector employee discipline: Comparing police to other public sector employees. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 19(1), 17–30. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2612502
Lee, H.-W., Robertson, P. J., & Kim, K. (2020). Determinants of job satisfaction among us federal employees: An investigation of racial and gender differences. Public Personnel Management, 49(3), 336–366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019869371
Lim, A. C., Trau, R. N. C., & Foo, M. D. (2018). Task interdependence and the discrimination of gay men and lesbians in the workplace. Human Resource Management, 57(6), 1385–1397. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21912
Martucci, W. C., & Sinatra, K. R. (2008). Caregivers in the workplace: Prohibitions against family-responsibility discrimination. Employment Relations Today, 34(4), 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.20178
McCord, M. A., Joseph, D. L., Dhanani, L. Y., & Beus, J. M. (2018). A meta-analysis of sex and race differences in perceived workplace mistreatment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(2), 137–163. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000250
Meier, K. J., Pennington, M. S., & Eller, W. S. (2005). Race, sex, and clarence thomas: Representation change in the eeoc. Public Administration Review, 65(2), 171–179. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2005.00442.x
Morgan, P., & Allington, N. (2002). Has the public sector retained its ‘model employer’ status? Public Money and Management, 22(1), 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9302.00294
Mullins, L. B., Charbonneau, É., & Riccucci, N. M. (2021). The effects of family responsibilities discrimination on public employees’ satisfaction and turnover intentions: Can flexible work arrangements help? Review of Public Personnel Administration, 41(2), 384–410. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x19894035
Nelson, A., & Piatak, J. (2021). Intersectionality, leadership, and inclusion: How do racially underrepresented women fare in the federal government? Review of Public Personnel Administration, 41(2), 294–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x19881681
Özbilgin, M. F., Beauregard, T. A., Tatli, A., & Bell, M. P. (2011). Work–life, diversity and intersectionality: A critical review and research agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews, 13(2), 177–198. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2010.00291.x
Park, S. (2021). Gender and performance in public organizations: A research synthesis and research agenda. Public Management Review, 23(6), 929–948. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2020.1730940
Park, S., & Liang, J. (2020). Merit, diversity, and performance: Does diversity management moderate the effect of merit principles on governmental performance? Public Personnel Management, 49(1), 83–110. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019848459
Pedersen, M. J., & Nielsen, V. L. (2020). Bureaucratic decision-making: A multi-method study of gender similarity bias and gender stereotype beliefs. Public Administration, 98(2), 424–440. https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12622
Peterman, D. E. (2018). Socioeconomic status discrimination. Virginia Law Review, 104(7), 1283–1357. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/valr104&i=1328
Rauhaus, B. M., & Carr, I. A. S. (2020). The invisible challenges: Gender differences among public administration faculty. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 26(1), 31–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/15236803.2018.1565040
Reese, C. C. (2019). The status of public sector pay equity for women of color in the united states. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 39(4), 594–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x18761123.
Riccucci, N. M. (2009). The pursuit of social equity in the federal government: A road less traveled? Public Administration Review, 69(3), 373–382. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.01984.x
Rosette, A. S., de Leon, R. P., Koval, C. Z., & Harrison, D. A. (2018). Intersectionality: Connecting experiences of gender with race at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 38, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2018.12.002
Rubin, E. V., & Alteri, A. M. (2019). Discrimination complaints in the us federal government: Reviewing progress under the no fear act. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 39(4), 511–522. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x17744864
Rubin, E. V., & Edwards, A. (2018). The performance of performance appraisal systems: Understanding the linkage between appraisal structure and appraisal discrimination complaints. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(15), 1938 to 1957. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1424015.
Rubin, E. V., & Pérez Chiqués, E. (2015). Where you sit is where you stand: Evaluating manager and employee differences in procedural justice perceptions in the us federal government. Administration & Society, 47(5), 549–573. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399714555755
Ryan, M. K., & Haslam, S. A. (2005). The glass cliff: Evidence that women are over-represented in precarious leadership positions. British Journal of Management, 16(2), 81–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2005.00433.x
Sabharwal, M. (2015). From glass ceiling to glass cliff: Women in senior executive service. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25(2), 399–426. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mut030
Sabharwal, M., Levine, H., & D’Agostino, M. (2018). A conceptual content analysis of 75 years of diversity research in public administration. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 38(2), 248–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x16671368
Sen, M., & Wasow, O. (2016). Race as a bundle of sticks: Designs that estimate effects of seemingly immutable characteristics. Annual Review of Political Science, 19(-), 499–522. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-032015-010015.
Sherk, J. (2021). Center for American freedom. Retrieved November 16, 2022 from https://americafirstpolicy.com/latest/increasing-accountability-in-the-civil-service
Smith, A. E., & Monaghan, K. R. (2013). Some ceilings have more cracks: Representative bureaucracy in federal regulatory agencies. The American Review of Public Administration, 43(1), 50–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074011420997
Smith, R. A., & Hunt, M. O. (2020). White supervisor and subordinate beliefs about black/white inequality: Implications for understanding and reducing workplace racial disparities. Social Problems. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spaa014. in Press.
Stephens, R. P. (2018). The intrinsic moral worth of anti-discrimination law. Northeast Law Review, 6, 62–65. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/neastlr6&i=72
Sweeney, P. D., & McFarlin, D. B. (1997). Process and outcome: Gender differences in the assessment of justice. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 18(1), 83–98. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199701)18:1%3c83::aid-job779%3e3.0.co;2-3
Thornley, C., & Coffey, D. (2016). Model employment? The challenges ahead for public sector employers and unions in tackling the gender pay gap. In: Gower handbook of discrimination at work (pp. 83–92). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315585673-18
Tinkler, J. E., & Zhao, J. (2020). The sexual harassment of federal employees: Gender, leadership status, and organizational tolerance for abuses of power. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 30(3), 349–364. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muz037
Toossi, M., & Morisi, T. L. (2017). Bls spotlight on statistics: Women in the workforce before, during, and after the great recession. Retrieved August 11, 2021 from https://ecommons.cornell.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1813/78334/BLS_Women_in_the_Workforce_Great_Recession.pdf?sequence=1.
Triana, M. d. C., Trzebiatowski, T., & Byun, S. Y. (2017). Lowering the threshold for feeling mistreated: Perceived overqualification moderates the effects of perceived age discrimination on job withdrawal and somatic symptoms. Human Resource Management, 56(6), 979-994.https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21812.
Von Bergen, C. (2008). “The times they are a-changin”: Family responsibilities discrimination and the eeoc. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 20(3), 177–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-008-9064-4
Wynen, J., Op de Beeck, S., & Ruebens, S. (2015). The nexus between gender and perceived career opportunities: Evidence from the us federal government. Public Personnel Management, 44(3), 375–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026015588194
Young, K., Hassan, S., & Hatmaker, D. (2019). Toward understanding workplace incivility: Gender, personal control, and ethical leadership. Public Management Review, 31–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1665701.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Financial Interests
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
LaVan, H., Martin, M. Inequality, Mutability and Intersectionality Differences in Discrimination in the U.S. Federal Public Employment Sector. Employ Respons Rights J 36, 101–127 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-023-09437-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-023-09437-6