Gay male job-seekers more likely to receive fewer callbacks

October 07, 2011

 Openly gay men are less likely to get a call back for job interviews according to an American study.

The study, published Tuesday in the American Journal of Sociology, found that callbacks were less frequent in the country’s conservative South and Midwest, strongholds Evangelical Christianity, a brand of Christianity that has proven itself hostile to homosexuality.

The study found that resumes which indicate an applicant is gay are 40 per cent less likely to be called back than those resumes that have no indication.

Andras Tilcsik, a Harvard researcher, sent to kinds of VCs to 1,700 white collar job openings.

One CV listed the job-seeker as having experience as a gay society university treasurer. The other listed experience in the ‘Progressive and Socialist Alliance’ – with no mention of ‘gay’ anywhere.

States like Florida, Ohio and Texas – hotbeds of conservatism, particularly Texas – had the largest differences in callback rates, while minimal differences were found in traditionally liberal states in the West and North-Eastern states, including California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, New York and the New England states.

“The results indicate that gay men encounter significant barriers in the hiring process because, at the initial point of contact, employers more readily disqualify openly gay applicants than equally qualified heterosexual applicants,” said Tilcsik.

The fictitious gay job-seeker had an especially lower callback rate when the employer listed “assertive,” “aggressive,” or “decisive” as key traits for the job.

“It seems, therefore, that the discrimination documented in this study is partly rooted in specific stereotypes and cannot be completely reduced to a general antipathy against gay employees,” Mr Tilcsik wrote.
 

Image by CSD2006