Indiana Law Journal Indiana Law Journal
Volume 91 Issue 2 Article 5
Winter 2016
Rethinking Employment Discrimination Harms Rethinking Employment Discrimination Harms
Jessica Roberts University of Houston Law Center, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj
Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, and the
Law and Race Commons
Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Roberts, Jessica (2016) "Rethinking Employment Discrimination Harms," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 91 : Iss. 2 , Article 5. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol91/iss2/5
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact [email protected].
Establishing harm is essential to many legal claims. This Article urges the law to adopt a more expansive notion of the harms of employment discrimination to better reflect the cognitive functions of individuals who face discrimination. While the effect of implicit bias on the mental state of potential discriminators is well-worn territory in antidiscrimination scholarship, little has been written about a sister theory: stereotype threat. More than a decade’s worth of social psychology research indicates that when a person is conscious of her membership in a particular group and the group is the subject of a widely recognized stereotype, that awareness can directly affect her performance of stereotype-related tasks, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, a common gender stereotype holds that women are not as good at math as their male counterparts. Thus, when asked to indicate sex before a math test, women tend to perform worse. As a result, if an employer draws attention to an employee’s protected status, that seemingly harmless act could impact the employee’s mental state and, in turn, her job performance. Despite the well-known effects of stereotype threat, this Article is the first to systematically apply that theory to employment discrimination law.
Indiana Law Journal
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
See, e.g. AALS Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act Civil Rights and Civil Justice: 50 Years Later The Civil Rights Act at Fifty The Civil Rights Act at Fifty: Past, Present, Future The Meaning of the Civil Rights Revolution Title VII at Fifty Years: A Symposium
The 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Written Symposium
See, e.g. “A Stone of Hope”: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Its Impact on the Economic Status of Black Americans
Beyond the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Confronting Structural Racism in the Workplace
See, e.g. Second Generation Employment Discrimination: A Structural Approach
Id.
Id. See The Content of Our Categories: A Cognitive Bias
Approach to Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunitysee also infra
See Seeing Through Colorblindness: Implicit Bias and the Law
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
See, e.g. February 2015 Workshop—Implicit Bias in the Workplace
The Impact of Implicit Bias
See, e.g. Recognize Your Bias to Reduce Your Missteps in Connecting
White People Are More Racist Than They Realize
Exposing Hidden Bias at Google
infra
Contending with Stereotype Threat at Work: A Model of Long-Term Responses
infraStereotype Threat and Feedback Seeking in the Workplace
infra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
infra
See, e.g. Asian American Exceptionalism and “Stereotype Promise ”
See, e.g.
See
See supra see also Behavior Realism in Employment
See, e.g. Implicit Bias, “Science,” and Antidiscrimination Law
Racial Emotion in the Workplace
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
A. Federal Employment Discrimination Protections
supra
Trojan Horses of Race
supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
Sex, Race, and Ethnic Inequality in United States Workplaces in
See
See
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
see also
See
See infra See generally
infra
Compare with
Smith v. City of Jackson
See
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
See
See
See
id.
See
see also Subordination, Stigma, and “Disability ”
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
B. Second-Generation Discrimination & Cognitive Function
Id. Id. See supra cf. Discrimination in Workplace
Dynamics: Toward a Structural Account of Disparate Treatment Theory
See supra see also id.
See Rethinking Discrimination Law
supra Id.
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
The Content of Our Categories: A Cognitive Bias Approach to Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity
See 1 in 3 Women in the U.S. Hover Between Poverty and the Middle Class,
See id.See
Diverging Doctrine, Converging Outcomes: Evaluating Age Discrimination Law in the United Kingdom and the United States
See The Limitations of Disability Antidiscrimination Legislation: Policymaking and the Economic Well-Being of People with Disabilities
supra See id.Id. See supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
Id.See id.
The Law of Implicit Bias
supraSee
see also The Trouble with : The Latest Effort to Summarily Adjudicate Employment Discrimination Cases
supra
See supra Cf. Subjective Decisionmaking and Unconscious Discrimination
supra See supra supra See supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
Symposium on Behavioral Realism
supraSee supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
A. Introduction to Stereotype Threat
See, e.g. Problems in the Pipeline: Stereotype Threat and Women’s Achievement in High-Level Math Courses
Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans
Contending with Group Image: The Psychology of Stereotype and Social Identity Threat
See, e.g. id.See
supra
see also supraSee supra supra
see also supra supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
perceived
others
See Stereotype Threat at Work,
see also supra supra supra
supra See, e.g. supra
supra Id.
supra
supra see also supra supra supra
See supra see also supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
supra
infra See supra See id. See id. supra See supra Id. See id.
Id.supra
See supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
See supra E.g. supra See supra supra
supra E.g. supra See supra See supra Id.
When White Men Can’t Do Math: Necessary and Sufficient Factors in Stereotype Threat
IdStereotype Threat
See generally The Space Between Us: Stereotype Threat and Distance in Interracial Contexts
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
B. Stereotype Threat and Job Performance
supra
supra
Id.See supra Id.
See supra
Id. Id.
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
and
Id. Id. See supra Id.
supra
Id. Reversing the Gender Gap in Negotiations: An Exploration of Stereotype
RegenerationId.Id.
Id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
See The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act as an Antidiscrimination Law
Id. See
Id. See
Preplacement Examinations and Job-Relatedness: How to Enhance Privacy and Diminish Discrimination in the Workplace
see supra
supra
supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
Id.See id.See Covering
see also supra
supra
See id.See id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
supra Id.
supra See supra Id.Id.Id. Id. Id.
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
See supra Id. Id.Id. See id. Id. Id.
supra supra
Id.
supra Id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
disengage disidentify
valid basis
See supra supra See supra
supra Id.
supra see also The
Effects of Sexual Harassment on Job Satisfaction, Earnings, and Turnover Among Female Lawyers
supra See id.
supra
Id.
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
supra supra
See See The History of Utilitarianism in
available at
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
A. The Role of Harm in Law
See infra
Id.; see also Liberty, Mill & the Framework of Public Health Ethics
On Liberty
The Harm Principle
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
Second Treatise on Government
The Collapse of the Harm Principlesupra
See supra
Id.
See, e.g. Liberals and Unlawful Discrimination
See, e.g.The Harm Principle—And How It Grew
supra Beyond the Harm Principle
See supra see also supra
supra supra See The Liberal Critique of the Harm Principle
supra
See supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
supra supra
IdSee supra
supra Id. See supra
supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
Id.
See, e.g.supra
supra Id. Id. Id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
quantity
supra
Id.On Equality: The Anti-Interference Principle
sic utereSee supra
supra
supra supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
supra Id. Id.
supra See supra
See
See supra supra
supra
Id.
he
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
B. Current Antidiscrimination Harms
The Constitutional Status of Morals LegislationSee supra
see also supra
See, e.g.
See generally supra
See, e.g. From Outlaws to Ingroup: , ,and the Inevitable Normativity of Group Recognition
Criminal LawMill, and Same-Sex Relationships: On Values, Valuing, and the Constitution
See, e.g. supra see also
See, e.g. supra
See, e.g.
See e.g. supra
id.
see also supra
See id
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
supra Id. See supra
See, e.g. supra
See supra See
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
someone
In Defense of the Antidiscrimination Principle
See infra See supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
In Defense of the Antidiscrimination Principle
supra supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
supra
See supra See Human Rights and Economic Policy Discourse: Taking Economic
and Social Rights Seriously
See supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
C. Stereotype Threat Triggers as Harmful
What is an adverse employment action
Id.Id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
prohibitingrequiring
See supra See, e.g. Balancing Public Health Against Individual Liberty:
The Ethics of Smoking RegulationsSee supra See supra
supra
See supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
a definite risk of damage
A Taxonomy of Privacy
Id. Id. See, e.g. supra
supra Id. Id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
See supraSee, e.g. supra Id.See, e.g.
see also Genetic Secrets: A Policy Framework in
What Is in GINA’s Genes? The Curious Case of the Mutant-Hybrid Employment Law
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
See infra
supra Id.
SeeSee supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
supra Id.Id.
supra
See : Does It Herald an ‘Evil Day,’ or Does It Lack Staying Power?
See, e.g. supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
see also supra
critical principle
See supraSee, e.g. supra supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
A. Why Expand Employment Discrimination Harms
See supra
supra
See Id.See, e.g.
see also supraPrice Waterhouse
v. Hopkins
superseded by statute
See supra supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
Id.supra
See Legitimizing Racial Discrimination Through Antidiscrimination Law:
A Critical Review of Supreme Court DoctrineSee supra Id. supra See supra
supra
supra Id. See supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
Id. See
Compare Gross with
See suprasupra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
B. Beyond the Adverse Employment Action
See supra
supra
Id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
See see also
see also supra
Burlington Indus.Id.
Id.
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
See infra
See, e.g.See supra See
See
See id.
See
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
See
See
See available at
Id.Id. Id.
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
B. Tensions
See supra See supra
see also supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
Id. See The BFOQ Defense: Title VII’s Concession to Gender
Discrimination
See, e.g. But see
See
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
see also
see alsosee also
See id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
See, e.g.
GINA, the ADA, and Genetic Discrimination in Employment
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
See Preplacement Examinations and Job-Relatedness: How to Enhance Privacy and Diminish Discrimination in the Workplace
See supra
See
see also
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
See
Affirmative Action Guidelines
Id.
See supra
See EEO Reports/Surveys
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
C. Role of Law in Decreasing Stereotype Threat
Affirmative Action and Stereotype Threatavailable at
supra supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
supra supra
Id.Id.
Id.See
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins
supra supra
supra Id.Id
Supply Side or Discrimination? Assessing the Role of Unconscious Bias
Id.Id.Id.
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
Id.supra
Id.supra
supra Id. Id.Id. Id.
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL
increase
Id. supra
supra supra see also supra
See supra see also supra
See supra
EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS
See supra
INDIANA LAW JOURNAL