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Gender Equality pp 1–8Cite as

Gender Discrimination in the Labor Market

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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

Definitions

Gender refers to the socially constructed norms and expectations traditionally associated with a person’s biological sex (West and Zimmerman 1987). This association also suggests that the terms “male” and “female” refer to both biological sex and the socially constructed behaviors and expectations men and women face in their daily lives. This is especially true in the workplace.

Discrimination refers to negative outcomes for a particular group of people often based on an ascribed characteristic and stereotypes attached to that characteristic. There are two types of discrimination. In the context of hiring, overt discrimination is a blatant display of unwillingness to hire a person based on a protected status, including gender and pregnancy, under the United State Civil Rights Act of 1964. In today’s labor market, overt discrimination is the least prominent form of discrimination due in part to gender discrimination policies (Kelly and Dobbin 1999; Tomaskovic-Devey and...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Albright College, Reading, PA, USA

    Elizabeth Kiester

Authors
  1. Elizabeth Kiester
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Correspondence to Elizabeth Kiester .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. FTZ-ALS, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences FTZ-ALS, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Ctr Neurosci & Cell Biology, 1 Floor, Univ Coimbra, Edf Fac Medicina, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  4. Istinye University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Pinar Gökcin Özuyar

  5. International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tony Wall

Section Editor information

  1. Environmental Science and Management, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA

    Melissa Haeffner

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Kiester, E. (2019). Gender Discrimination in the Labor Market. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Özuyar, P., Wall, T. (eds) Gender Equality. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_8-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70060-1_8-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70060-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70060-1

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