Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics: A New Report on Sex Discrimination in the Workplace

If you want to read an interesting review of sex discrimination in the workplace, you have got to go and get this report and read it. Put out by the National Partnernship for Women and Families, the report makes some interesting points about the prevalence of workplace discrimination in general, and sex discrimination in specific.

I present just two selected highlights of the report:

1. The report indicates that in employment discrimination plaintiffs won only about 19% of judge trials and 38% of jury trials (these numbers suggest that juries are more sympathetic to plaintiffs, or it could be that juries hear cases that reflect more serious or obvious discrimination). The key point of this report is that plaintiffs suing for other reasons (not clear from the report what other types of lawsuits are included)won in 46% of judge trials and 45% of jury trials, which suggests that “close scrutiny” is needed of discrimination trials.

2. A study is described, which examined California discrimination and wrongful discharge cases, which conluded that women and plaintiffs of color bringing such cases don’t fare well in federal court. For example, in race discrimination cases brought by non-Whites, plaintiffs prevailed in 36% of the cases. By contrast, there were four (4) cases brought by Whites alleging race discrimination, and in all four cases, they prevailed. Women charged age discrimination lost every case they tried (no number is provided in the report), while men charging age discrimination won 36% of the time. The report argues that these differential numbers may be due to “biases of juries and judges.” There are other possible explanations, which deserve serious consideration, too.

In sum, this report provides some interesting information, and even more interesting recommendations. It is sure to stir some controversy!

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