Discrimination against women has been alleged in hiring practices for many occupations. Female musicians in the top five symphony orchestras in the United States were less than 5% of all players in 1970. To overcome possible biases in hiring, most orchestras revised their audition policies in the 1970s and 1980s. A major change involved the use of blind auditions with a screen to conceal the identity of the candidate from the jury. Using data from actual auditions in an individual fixed-effects framework, the screen increases by 50% the probability a woman will be advanced out of certain preliminary rounds. The screen also enhances, by severalfold, the likelihood a female contestant will be the winner in the final round. Using data on orchestra personnel, the switch to blind auditions can explain between 30% and 55% of the increase in the proportion female among new hires and between 25% and 46% of the increase in the percentage female in the orchestras since 1970.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 02:12:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015