ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION AND THE DETECTION OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION

This report examines several factors that influence the detection of g ender discrimination in organizations. We presented subjects with info rmation about the qualifications and salaries of women and men in 10 d epartments of a hypothetical company. The information was created so t hat one or the other gender was undercompensated relative to its quali fications. Subjects rated the fairness of salaries and recalled the av erage qualifications of the women and men. Ordinal inequity, which occ urred when the gender with the better qualifications received a lower salary within a department, was easily defected. Discrimination that d id not violate ordinal equity within a department was more difficult t o detect. The results indicate that the way information is presented t o subjects influences the processing of the information and the ease w ith which unfairness is perceived. In addition, subjects judged the di scrimination to be more unfair when women, rather than men, were disad vantaged.