Indiana Law Journal Indiana Law Journal

Volume 91 Issue 2 Article 5

Winter 2016

Rethinking Employment Discrimination Harms Rethinking Employment Discrimination Harms

Jessica Roberts University of Houston Law Center, jrobert6@central.uh.edu

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Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, and the

Law and Race Commons

Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Roberts, Jessica (2016) "Rethinking Employment Discrimination Harms," Indiana Law Journal: Vol. 91 : Iss. 2 , Article 5. Available at: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol91/iss2/5

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School Journals at Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Indiana Law Journal by an authorized editor of Digital Repository @ Maurer Law. For more information, please contact rvaughan@indiana.edu.

Establishing harm is essential to many legal claims. This Article urges the law to adopt a more expansive notion of the harms of employment discrimination to better reflect the cognitive functions of individuals who face discrimination. While the effect of implicit bias on the mental state of potential discriminators is well-worn territory in antidiscrimination scholarship, little has been written about a sister theory: stereotype threat. More than a decade’s worth of social psychology research indicates that when a person is conscious of her membership in a particular group and the group is the subject of a widely recognized stereotype, that awareness can directly affect her performance of stereotype-related tasks, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, a common gender stereotype holds that women are not as good at math as their male counterparts. Thus, when asked to indicate sex before a math test, women tend to perform worse. As a result, if an employer draws attention to an employee’s protected status, that seemingly harmless act could impact the employee’s mental state and, in turn, her job performance. Despite the well-known effects of stereotype threat, this Article is the first to systematically apply that theory to employment discrimination law.

Indiana Law Journal

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See, e.g. AALS Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act Civil Rights and Civil Justice: 50 Years Later The Civil Rights Act at Fifty The Civil Rights Act at Fifty: Past, Present, Future The Meaning of the Civil Rights Revolution Title VII at Fifty Years: A Symposium

The 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Written Symposium

See, e.g. “A Stone of Hope”: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Its Impact on the Economic Status of Black Americans

Beyond the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Confronting Structural Racism in the Workplace

See, e.g. Second Generation Employment Discrimination: A Structural Approach

Id.

Id. See The Content of Our Categories: A Cognitive Bias

Approach to Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunitysee also infra

See Seeing Through Colorblindness: Implicit Bias and the Law

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

See, e.g. February 2015 Workshop—Implicit Bias in the Workplace

The Impact of Implicit Bias

See, e.g. Recognize Your Bias to Reduce Your Missteps in Connecting

White People Are More Racist Than They Realize

Exposing Hidden Bias at Google

infra

Contending with Stereotype Threat at Work: A Model of Long-Term Responses

infraStereotype Threat and Feedback Seeking in the Workplace

infra

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infra

See, e.g. Asian American Exceptionalism and “Stereotype Promise ”

See, e.g.

See

See supra see also Behavior Realism in Employment

See, e.g. Implicit Bias, “Science,” and Antidiscrimination Law

Racial Emotion in the Workplace

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

A. Federal Employment Discrimination Protections

supra

Trojan Horses of Race

supra

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Sex, Race, and Ethnic Inequality in United States Workplaces in

See

See

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

see also

See

See infra See generally

infra

Compare with

Smith v. City of Jackson

See

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See

See

See

id.

See

see also Subordination, Stigma, and “Disability ”

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

B. Second-Generation Discrimination & Cognitive Function

Id. Id. See supra cf. Discrimination in Workplace

Dynamics: Toward a Structural Account of Disparate Treatment Theory

See supra see also id.

See Rethinking Discrimination Law

supra Id.

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The Content of Our Categories: A Cognitive Bias Approach to Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity

See 1 in 3 Women in the U.S. Hover Between Poverty and the Middle Class,

See id.See

Diverging Doctrine, Converging Outcomes: Evaluating Age Discrimination Law in the United Kingdom and the United States

See The Limitations of Disability Antidiscrimination Legislation: Policymaking and the Economic Well-Being of People with Disabilities

supra See id.Id. See supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

Id.See id.

The Law of Implicit Bias

supraSee

see also The Trouble with : The Latest Effort to Summarily Adjudicate Employment Discrimination Cases

supra

See supra Cf. Subjective Decisionmaking and Unconscious Discrimination

supra See supra supra See supra

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Symposium on Behavioral Realism

supraSee supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

A. Introduction to Stereotype Threat

See, e.g. Problems in the Pipeline: Stereotype Threat and Women’s Achievement in High-Level Math Courses

Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans

Contending with Group Image: The Psychology of Stereotype and Social Identity Threat

See, e.g. id.See

supra

see also supraSee supra supra

see also supra supra

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perceived

others

See Stereotype Threat at Work,

see also supra supra supra

supra See, e.g. supra

supra Id.

supra

supra see also supra supra supra

See supra see also supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

supra

infra See supra See id. See id. supra See supra Id. See id.

Id.supra

See supra

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See supra E.g. supra See supra supra

supra E.g. supra See supra See supra Id.

When White Men Can’t Do Math: Necessary and Sufficient Factors in Stereotype Threat

IdStereotype Threat

See generally The Space Between Us: Stereotype Threat and Distance in Interracial Contexts

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

B. Stereotype Threat and Job Performance

supra

supra

Id.See supra Id.

See supra

Id. Id.

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and

Id. Id. See supra Id.

supra

Id. Reversing the Gender Gap in Negotiations: An Exploration of Stereotype

RegenerationId.Id.

Id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

See The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act as an Antidiscrimination Law

Id. See

Id. See

Preplacement Examinations and Job-Relatedness: How to Enhance Privacy and Diminish Discrimination in the Workplace

see supra

supra

supra

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Id.See id.See Covering

see also supra

supra

See id.See id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

supra Id.

supra See supra Id.Id.Id. Id. Id.

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See supra Id. Id.Id. See id. Id. Id.

supra supra

Id.

supra Id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

disengage disidentify

valid basis

See supra supra See supra

supra Id.

supra see also The

Effects of Sexual Harassment on Job Satisfaction, Earnings, and Turnover Among Female Lawyers

supra See id.

supra

Id.

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supra supra

See See The History of Utilitarianism in

available at

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

A. The Role of Harm in Law

See infra

Id.; see also Liberty, Mill & the Framework of Public Health Ethics

On Liberty

The Harm Principle

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Second Treatise on Government

The Collapse of the Harm Principlesupra

See supra

Id.

See, e.g. Liberals and Unlawful Discrimination

See, e.g.The Harm Principle—And How It Grew

supra Beyond the Harm Principle

See supra see also supra

supra supra See The Liberal Critique of the Harm Principle

supra

See supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

supra supra

IdSee supra

supra Id. See supra

supra

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Id.

See, e.g.supra

supra Id. Id. Id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

quantity

supra

Id.On Equality: The Anti-Interference Principle

sic utereSee supra

supra

supra supra

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supra Id. Id.

supra See supra

See

See supra supra

supra

Id.

he

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

B. Current Antidiscrimination Harms

The Constitutional Status of Morals LegislationSee supra

see also supra

See, e.g.

See generally supra

See, e.g. From Outlaws to Ingroup: , ,and the Inevitable Normativity of Group Recognition

Criminal LawMill, and Same-Sex Relationships: On Values, Valuing, and the Constitution

See, e.g. supra see also

See, e.g. supra

See, e.g.

See e.g. supra

id.

see also supra

See id

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supra Id. See supra

See, e.g. supra

See supra See

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

someone

In Defense of the Antidiscrimination Principle

See infra See supra

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In Defense of the Antidiscrimination Principle

supra supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

supra

See supra See Human Rights and Economic Policy Discourse: Taking Economic

and Social Rights Seriously

See supra

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C. Stereotype Threat Triggers as Harmful

What is an adverse employment action

Id.Id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

prohibitingrequiring

See supra See, e.g. Balancing Public Health Against Individual Liberty:

The Ethics of Smoking RegulationsSee supra See supra

supra

See supra

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a definite risk of damage

A Taxonomy of Privacy

Id. Id. See, e.g. supra

supra Id. Id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

See supraSee, e.g. supra Id.See, e.g.

see also Genetic Secrets: A Policy Framework in

What Is in GINA’s Genes? The Curious Case of the Mutant-Hybrid Employment Law

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See infra

supra Id.

SeeSee supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

supra Id.Id.

supra

See : Does It Herald an ‘Evil Day,’ or Does It Lack Staying Power?

See, e.g. supra

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see also supra

critical principle

See supraSee, e.g. supra supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

A. Why Expand Employment Discrimination Harms

See supra

supra

See Id.See, e.g.

see also supraPrice Waterhouse

v. Hopkins

superseded by statute

See supra supra

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Id.supra

See Legitimizing Racial Discrimination Through Antidiscrimination Law:

A Critical Review of Supreme Court DoctrineSee supra Id. supra See supra

supra

supra Id. See supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

Id. See

Compare Gross with

See suprasupra

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B. Beyond the Adverse Employment Action

See supra

supra

Id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

See see also

see also supra

Burlington Indus.Id.

Id.

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See infra

See, e.g.See supra See

See

See id.

See

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

See

See

See available at

Id.Id. Id.

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B. Tensions

See supra See supra

see also supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

Id. See The BFOQ Defense: Title VII’s Concession to Gender

Discrimination

See, e.g. But see

See

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see also

see alsosee also

See id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

See, e.g.

GINA, the ADA, and Genetic Discrimination in Employment

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See Preplacement Examinations and Job-Relatedness: How to Enhance Privacy and Diminish Discrimination in the Workplace

See supra

See

see also

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

See

Affirmative Action Guidelines

Id.

See supra

See EEO Reports/Surveys

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C. Role of Law in Decreasing Stereotype Threat

Affirmative Action and Stereotype Threatavailable at

supra supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

supra supra

Id.Id.

Id.See

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Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins

supra supra

supra Id.Id

Supply Side or Discrimination? Assessing the Role of Unconscious Bias

Id.Id.Id.

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

Id.supra

Id.supra

supra Id. Id.Id. Id.

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increase

Id. supra

supra supra see also supra

See supra see also supra

See supra

EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION HARMS

See supra

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