Resume Bias Gender, Names, Ethnicity [2020 Study]

Resume Bias Gender, Names, Ethnicity [2020 Study] One of the first steps during a job hunt is to submit a resume with your name at the top in big, bold letters. While your work experience and education are the qualities you hope will stand out, there is still a possibility that hiring managers hold on to some biases and mentally rate candidates based on their names alone.We surveyed hiring managers to see if there was any gender bias present when they looked over our sample resumes (which were identical in every aspect other than the applicants names), so we could pinpoint which applicants were more likely to get an interview. Lets take a look to see what we found out.By the NameFirst, we checked which names of our theoretical applicants were the likeliest to receive a callback from a hiring manager. Malik Washington had the highest percentage of hiring managers who said they were likely to call for an interview, while Destiny Washington had the lowest percentage. The name with the largest percentage of hiring managers who said the y were unlikely to call was Jose Vazquez.We looked into the reasons Destiny wouldnt get a callback. The No. 1 reason cited by our respondents was her lack of education, although everyone had the same resume except for the name.Its a Matter of SexNext, we looked at the gender of the applicants and how that affected their chances of getting a callback from a hiring manager. Our carefully chosen gender-neutral name, Casey Smith, was less likely (80 percent) to merit a call than applicants with female names (82 percent) or male names (84 percent).Those hiring managers who didnt think Casey deserved a callback said it was because the applicant lacked experience. Again, all our resumes had the same information it was just the names that differed.Does a Callback Depend on the Managers Gender?Next, we analyzed the data to see if hiring managers gender factored into the decision to call an applicant or toss their resume aside. Hiring managers seemed to prefer the opposite sex when making hi ring decisions. In other words, men were slightly more likely to call female applicants, and women were somewhat more likely to call male applicants.When we broke it down by name, there was more of a disparity in some cases, but for some applicants, it was pretty close for male and female hiring managers. For example, women were far more likely to call Malik Washington (93 percent) than men (84 percent), while both were equally likely to call Destiny Washington (79 percent of and 78 percent of men would call her back).Gender DifferencesThere were a few names that really stood out as differences among hiring managers. The most polarizing name in our job applicant pool was the gender-neutral Casey Smith. Ninety percent of female hiring managers stated they were likely to call him or her for an interview, but only 71 percent of men said the same.Some percentages were a lot closer than that, however. Seventy-eight percent of men and 79 percent of women would be likely to give Destiny a call.Eighty-three percent of male hiring managers and 84 percent of female hiring managers said theyd likely give Emily Schmitt a call.Whats in a Name?As much as wed like to think that our professional experience, education, and skill set are what pop out to hiring managers, our survey reveals this doesnt always happen. It was a little shocking to have some of our respondents say outright that they would not consider an applicant, and it was also insightful to see the biases that were present when our respondents viewed the same resumes, with the only difference being the name at the top of the document.While many people are taking strides to eliminate gender biases, it may be true that some are so ingrained people may not realize they carry these presumptions until theyre highlighted.Sourceshttps://www2.census.gov/topics/genealogy/2010surnames/surnames.pdfhttps://surnames.behindthename.com/name/schmittMethodology and LimitationsWe collected responses from 910 participants from Amaz ons Mechanical Turk. Only respondents who said one of their responsibilities at their job in the past year included hiring were allowed to take the survey. Eighty-one percent of these employees involved in hiring were white or Caucasian, 7 percent said they were black or African-American, 6 percent said they were Hispanic, and 6 percent said they were Asian or Asian-American. Fifty-three percent were men, and 47 percent were women.The first names of the fictitious job applicants were based on the most popular names in Georgias Online Analytical Statistical Information System (OASIS) in 1997. The gender-neutral name was chosen based on the BabyNames1000 listing for the most popular gender-neutral names from 1997. Last names came from the Demographic Aspects of Surnames From Census 2000 on Table 2.The survey shown to each hiring manager was done through random assignment. Every resume had an 11.12 percent chance of being shown to a hiring manager. Because it was random, resumes were n ot shown the same number of times. The breakdown was:Malik WashingtonTotal number of hiring managers: 117Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 62Women: 55Hiring managers race/ethnicity breakdown:White or Caucasian: 95Asian or Asian-American: 10Black or African-American: 7Hispanic: 5Casey SmithTotal number of hiring managers: 114Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 63Women: 51Hiring managers race/ethnicity breakdown:White or Caucasian: 84Asian or Asian-American: 9Black or African American: 11Hispanic: 7Multiracial or Biracial: 3Jose VazquezTotal number of hiring managers: 104Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 49Women: 55Hiring managers race/ethnicity breakdown:White or Caucasian: 77Asian or Asian-American: 6Black or African American: 8Hispanic: 10Multiracial or Biracial: 3William SchmittTotal number of hiring managers: 101Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 51Women: 50Hiring managers race/ethnicity breakdown:White or Caucasian: 76Asian or Asian-American: 10Black or African Amer ican: 9Hispanic: 3Multiracial or Biracial: 2American Indian or Alaskan Native: 1Gabriela VazquezTotal number of hiring managers: 95Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 51Women: 44Hiring managers race/ethnicity breakdown:White or Caucasian: 66Asian or Asian-American: 8Black or African American: 8Hispanic: 6Multiracial or Biracial: 7Emily SchmittTotal number of hiring managers: 98Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 48Women: 50Hiring managers race/ethnicity breakdown:White or Caucasian: 78Asian or Asian-American: 10Black or African American: 6Hispanic: 2Multiracial or Biracial: 1Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander: 1Tina WuTotal number of hiring managers: 99Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 45Women: 54Hiring managers race/ethnicity breakdown:White or Caucasian: 78Asian or Asian-American: 7Black or African American: 5Hispanic: 8Multiracial or Biracial: 1Destiny WashingtonTotal number of hiring managers: 92Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 47Women: 45Hiring managers race/ethni city breakdown:White or Caucasian: 62Asian or Asian-American: 12Black or African American: 8Hispanic: 7Multiracial or Biracial: 2American Indian or Alaskan Native: 1Christopher WuTotal number of hiring managers: 90Hiring managers gender breakdown:Men: 53Women: 37Hiring managers race/ethnicity breakdown:White or Caucasian: 78Asian or Asian-American: 2Black or African American: 2Hispanic: 6Multiracial or Biracial: 2Each person with hiring responsibilities saw one resume. They were presented with a job listing for which the applicant was applying.Every resume was nearly identical apart from each applicants name and email address, which only differed by the name of the job applicant.Because there was no set quota for how many hiring managers from each race or ethnicity would see each of the resumes, one resume may have been reviewed by more people than others. For example, eight Asian or Asian-American hiring managers saw Gabriela Vazquezs resume, but 12 saw Destiny Washingtons. Because the resume that each hiring manager saw was random, the total number of reviews each resume received varied.Fair Use StatementShocked to see bias in hiring managers decision-making in 2018? We are too. Perhaps making others aware of the problem will put us on the right track. Continue the dialogue with your readers by sharing this article with them, as long as its for noncommercial purposes. Please remember to link back to this page so that they can view the full breadth of our research.