Gender, ethnicity, and power

Group-based power is generally associated with three types of group distinc tions: adult-child, gender, and ethnicity. We argue that gender-based power is not comparable to ethnic-based power, in part because the forms and deg ree of institutional discrimination experienced by men and women of subordi nate ethnic groups are not similar to one another, and in part because ster eotypes and categorization processes pertaining to gender are not comparabl e across ethnic groups. Finally, in experiments using college students as p articipants, we show that whether applicants are placed into occupations th at would enhance or attenuate group-based inequality depends jointly on job applicants' ethnicity and gender. Implications for theories of inequality based on gender and ethnicity and the relationship of gendered power to oth er group-based forms of power are discussed.