Intersectionality and employment barriers: analyzing age and gender bias in job advertisements

Different forms of discrimination occur within phases of the employment process (attraction, selection, retention), with an estimated 20-40% of employers influenced by bias in their hiring decisions. Sexism and ageism are among the most prevalent forms; however, detecting hiring discrimination is complex and often unreported. The current study focused on the attraction phase to examine how age and gender intersect to create employment barriers and opportunities. A sample of 800 job ads were collected from white-collar, blue-collar, female-and-male-dominated occupations across the U.S. Using a mixed methods approach, data were analyzed through an exploratory, content analysis to identify previous and nuanced gendered and age biased language to develop a repository for LIWC to conduct a series of 2x2 factorial ANOVAs. A significant interaction was found between job industry and gender dominance in the gendered age language bias to indicate a young man candidate. Limitations, future directions, and implications are discussed.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Carl, Ciara

Contributors dc:contributor

• Walker, Ruth V.
• Shelton, Jill A.; Ross, David F.; Black, Kristen J.
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Age discrimination in employment--United States
• Glass ceiling (Employment discrimination)
• Occupational segregation
• Sex discrimination in employment--Investigation--United States

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/867

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2048