Handbook of employment discrimination research

About this book

Thisvolume containsacollection of original papers by leading legal scholars and social scientists that develop new perspectivesonanti-discrimination law, with an emphasisonemployment discrimination. Thearticles were written for a conference held at Stanford Law Schoolin Spring 2003 that was sponsoredbythe American Bar Foundation and Stanford Law School. The purpose of that conference, thisvolume, and ongoing workbytheDiscrimination Research Group based at the American Bar FoundationandtheCenterforAdvancedStudyintheBehavioralSciencesistoadvance the social scienti?cunderstanding of employment discrimination and the operation of employment discrimination law as a social system, and to consider the legal and policy implications of this emerging bodyof social science. Now isapivotal moment for an attempt at a deeper understanding ofdiscrimi- tion andlaw. After three decades of theoreticaldevelopment and empirical research onemploymentdiscriminationanditstreatmentinlaw,itiscrucialthatlawyers,social scientists,andpolicymakersassesswhatweknowanddonotknowaboutemployment discrimination andits treatment by law. To date, there are several streams of active research that only occasionally engage with each other. Economists and sociologists continue to debate the extent to which women, minorities, and other traditionally disadvantagedgroupsfacediscriminationinlabormarketsandorganizations. Orga- zation scholars andlegal scholars have begun to map theeffect of anti-discrimination law on organizational structures and processes, and to raise questions about the extent to which the legalization of organizational employment systems represents symbolic or substantive changes in employment practices. Psychologists continue to develop and test theories about implicit bias and stereotyping by decision-makers in organi- tions, as well as the effects of differential treatment on groups which may be the target of such treatment.