Disadvantaged through discrimination? The role of employers in social stratification

The British Journal of Sociology
Michelle Jackson

Abstract

Sociologists have consistently demonstrated that a rather strong association exists between an individual's social class origin and their social class destination, even after controlling for educational attainment. One explanation for this persisting association which is rarely addressed in research in social stratification and mobility is the extent to which class inequalities in access to advantaged class positions are due to discrimination by employers. I set up a field experiment to test whether employers discriminate on the basis of class origin characteristics. I sent letters of job application for professional and managerial occupations to 2560 large UK companies, so as to compare the prospects of equally matched potential employees differing on a range of characteristics, some related to class of origin. The six treatment conditions in the experiment were: the name of the candidate, the type of school attended, the candidate's interests outside work, their sex, the university that they attended and their achieved degree class. Results suggest that employers do pay attention to the class origin characteristics tested here, and that candidates with a name, school type and interests associated with the social elite are mor...Continue Reading

References

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Aug 31, 2007·The British Journal of Sociology·Michelle Jackson
Dec 14, 2007·The British Journal of Sociology·John H Goldthorpe, Michelle Jackson

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Citations

Oct 24, 2014·The British Journal of Sociology·Arnfinn H Midtbøen
Dec 11, 2013·The British Journal of Sociology·Martin Hällsten
Oct 13, 2018·The British Journal of Sociology·Michelle Jackson, David B Grusky

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