June 15th Readings

Although the reading by Bertrand and Mullainathan was not surprising, there were some interesting points made. When discussing the weaknesses of the study, I agreed that the number of call backs did not necessarily suggest that the applicant, either White or African-American, would ultimately get hired: “One cares about whether the applicant gets the job and about the wage offered conditional on getting the job. Our procedures, however, simply measures callbacks for interviews” (997). It is possible that although African-American applicants were less likely to get called back for an interview than White applicants, once the interview was completed, the African-American could’ve ultimately gotten hired instead of the White applicant. While reading some of the changes made to resumes to fit job descriptions, African-Americans face resource inequality in comparison to other applicants with more resources: “ About 44 percent of ads mention some computer knowledge requirement, which can range from Excel to Word to more esoteric software programs” (1004-1005). Since African-Americans usually have fewer resources in comparison to whites, although there are exceptions, African-Americans lack experience with computer programs lowering their possibility to get called back. Therefore, altering resumes to fit job descriptions can be a weakening factor to real life situations African-Americans experience. Lastly, I was left wondering why a better off neighborhood did not affect African-Americans possibilities to get callback: while employers value ‘better’ addresses, African-American are not helped more than Whites by living in Whiter or more educated neighbors” (1007).

Correll, Bernard, and Paik’s reading made me wonder whether “applicants who were fathers were rated significantly more committed to their job than nonfathers” (1317) has to do with the assumption that fathers are the bread winners of the home and have to stay committed to their job in order to take care of the family or whether it is another factor. This reading also made me wonder whether motherhood differs from being White or African-Americans: are similar trends also seen with Hispanics and/or Asians?