Between a Cross and a Hard Place: Religious Identifiers and Employability

Sonia Ghumman
Linda Jackson

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DOI: 10.2190/WR.13.3.d

Abstract

Unfair hiring practices in the form of differential treatment are forbidden by law (e.g., in the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964). Our experimental research examines whether differential treatment occurs based on the wearing of religious identifiers. Mainly, this study explores whether applicants who wear Muslim and Jewish religious identifiers are considered less employable than applicants who do not wear religious identifiers, and whether the job status and gender of the evaluator influence these ratings. Our findings revealed that applicants who wore Muslim religious identifiers were rated the most employable for low status jobs and least employable for high status jobs. Additionally, female applicants who wore Muslim religious identifiers received the highest employability ratings of all groups, but male applicants who wore Muslim religious identifiers received the lowest employability ratings of all groups. The implications of these findings for discrimination in the workplace are discussed.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.