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Race and Gender

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Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action

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Abstract

Ethnicity, gender, and race are hierarchical social constructs that segment societies by cultural norms and characteristics that are dynamic and underpin discrimination. As the United States becomes more diverse, identifying discrimination based on gender, race, or ethnicity will be more complexed. An increase in interracial- and intraracial-ethnic and interracial marriages will produce children who are racially ambiguous, that is, children who are difficult to categorize into racial and ethnic categories. Additionally, as society expands cultural norms around gender and gender identity, it may be challenging to discern discriminatory treatment due to gender. Kim (Intersectionality and gendered racism in the United States: a new theoretical framework. Rev Radical Polit Econ, 616–625, 2020) suggests that gendered racism – the intersection of racial and gender stereotypes about ethics, intellect, masculinities, leadership, and nurturing ascribed to race, ethnic, and gender groups – is reinforced by education, legal, and penal systems.

These stereotypes also influence how data are collected and reported (Sharpe, We’ve to build the pipeline. What’s the problem? What’s next? The Remix. Rev Black Polit Econ, 191–215, 2019), limiting data availability to identify discrimination or other biases. An inclusive and equitable society requires data collection and the disaggregation of data, so intersectional analysis can be used to explain how our complex identities underpin bias and discrimination.

Feminist and gender scholars know that gender, ethnicity, and race operate differently across and within groups. Given data limitations, scholars and policymakers must 1) start with data that allow for disaggregation by characteristics outlined in the literature to influence the outcome in question; 2) report findings with a keen eye for the nuanced differences in outcomes; and 3) interpret the findings using an intersectional approach.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality and the National Survey of Black Americans datasets provide information for each skin shade. See Darity, William, Jr.; Hamilton, Darrick and Dietrich, Jason. “Bleach in the Rainbow: Latino Preference for Whiteness.” Trans-forming Anthropology, 2005, 13(2), pp. 103–110; Goldsmith, A. H., Hamilton, D., and Darity, W. A., Jr. (2006). Shades of Discrimination: Skin Tone and Wages. The American Economic Review, 96(2)242–245; Rodriguez, Clara E. “The Effect of Race on Puerto Rican Wages,” in Edwin Melndez, Clare E. Rodriguez and Janis B. Figueroa, eds., Hispanics in the labor force: Issues and policies. New York: Plenum Press, 1991, pp. 77–96

  2. 2.

    A report by Wessel et al. fails to disaggregate women or “minority” to report a count of economist by race, ethnicity, and gender. Wessel, D., Sheiner, L., Ng, M. Gender and Racial Diversity of Federal Government Economists Hutchins Center On Fiscal And Monetary Policy, Brookings Institution, September 2019, https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Diversity-report_updated-3.pdf. The panel How Can Economics Solve Its Gender Problem? at the Allied Social Sciences Association meetings in Atlanta did not have a Black, Hispanic or Asian woman participant. January 5, 2019 Atlanta, GA, https://www.aeaweb.org/webcasts/2019/how-can-economics-solve-gender-problem, 2019. The panel How Can Economics Solve Its Race Problem? mentioned very little about the ways Asian, Black or Hispanic women are treated in the economics profession, January 3, 2020, San Diego, CA, https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2020/preliminary/2264

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race, Mechanicsville, VA, USA

    Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe

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  1. Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe
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Correspondence to Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe .

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  1. Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India

    Ashwini Deshpande

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Sharpe, R.V. (2022). Race and Gender. In: Deshpande, A. (eds) Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4016-9_29-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4016-9_29-1

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