A factorial survey experiment to examine how the class background and perceived gender of job applicants influences shortlisting decisions for entry‐level academic posts in higher education in England.

Abstract

Previous research on the mechanisms that reproduce class advantage and disadvantage in higher education (HE) has focused on students, with limited attention paid to class discrimination in the academic labour market. Whilst numerous studies have explored the effect of applicant gender on hiring decisions for academic positions, little is known about the influence of applicant class background, or its intersection with applicant gender. Understanding this is important, considering the increasing focus on universities as engines of social mobility. Using Bourdieu as the theoretical framework, this study examined the effect of applicants’ class background, gender, and their intersection on entry to the academic profession in elite and non‐ elite universities in England. A between‐subjects factorial survey experiment was conducted with 166 participants from 57 universities to examine how hypothetical applications, which were identical except for markers of class and gender, were evaluated as part of a shortlisting process. The study found that, in both elite and non‐elite universities, higher‐class male applicants were significantly more likely to be invited to interview than higher‐class females, lower‐class males, and lower‐class females. In non‐elite universities, class background was a more dominant variable than gender, indicating that recruitment practices may act as a strategy for growing institutional capital to gain advantage in the highly stratified HE field. However, in elite universities, gender was a more dominant variable than class, indicating that the male‐ dominated historical formation of these universities still creates barriers to women’s entry to the academic profession. This study provides evidence of the role of class, and its intersection with gender, in shaping life opportunities and outcomes, thereby contributing to the growing body of research that repositions class as important in thinking about contemporary issues such as increasing social inequalities. The findings support the case for implementing the socio‐ economic duty in England.