Deck 11: Workplace Diversity and Discrimination

Question 1

Select the statement that emphasizes the startling contrast between gains made by women in professional careers and women in business careers.

A)Women in general hold less than 5 percent of all senior-level positions in major corporations.
B)Between 1973 and 1993, the percentage of women lawyers and judges increased from 5.8 to 22.7 percent.
C)White men comprise 65 percent of managerial positions in industry, while women hold 25 percent of them.
D)Forty percent of native-born working women fill positions classified as "administrative support" and "service," while only 16 percent of male workers fill such jobs.

Answer 1

Between 1973 and 1993, the percentage of women lawyers and judges increased from 5.8 to 22.7 percent.

Question 2

Choose the statements that correctly reflect the likely utilitarian view of preferential treatment in hiring.

A)Managerial discretion should be given great latitude in hiring decisions.
B)Hiring decisions should be based on the ability of the candidate to perform the job efficiently and skillfully.
C)Property rights should prevail in hiring decisions.
D)Consequences like the goodwill of long-term employees whose families are given preference in hiring must be considered.
E)A and B.
F)B and D.

Answer 2

B and D.

Question 3

Choose the action that exemplifies affirmative action-that is, taking extra steps that move beyond passive nondiscrimination.

A)Advertising jobs in media that appeal to women or minorities
B)Taking steps to provide greater security for women than what is offered to men
C)Deliberately recruiting qualified women and minority candidates
D)Providing special support through the human resources office for women or people of color who are hired
E)All of the answers are correct.
F)None of the answers are correct.

Answer 3

All of the answers are correct.

Question 4

Select the preferential treatment policy that is likely to raise the least serious ethical challenge.

A)Giving preference to otherwise qualified but previously disadvantaged candidates
B)Identifying members of previously disadvantaged groups in the pool of qualified candidates and giving them preference in the hiring decision
C)Identifying members of previously disadvantaged groups in the pool of candidates who are less qualified than white males and giving them preference in the hiring decision
D)Hiring members of disadvantaged groups with only minimal consideration given to their qualifications

Question 5

Identify the arguments that have not been used to support or refute the ethical legitimacy of preferential hiring policies.

A)These policies violate the rights of white males.
B)These policies are obligatory means for compensating people for harms they have suffered.
C)Such policies should be rejected because they may create more discrimination as a backlash against gender or racial preferences.
D)Preferential hiring is a means of providing more role models for young women and people of color.
E)All of the answers are correct.
F)None of the answers are correct.

Question 6

Select the statement or situation that would likely not challenge the merit argument that the most qualified candidate for a position has earned or deserves it and the denial of this dessert is unjust.

A)Candidates for a job do not necessarily have a legitimate expectation that hiring decisions will always be based solely on qualifications.
B)The son or daughter of a high-level executive in a publicly traded company receives preferential hiring treatment.
C)The candidate from one's own alma mater receives preferential hiring treatment.
D)The public advertising for a position expressly states its qualifications.

Question 7

Choose the statement that does not support the claim that justice requires preferential hiring and promotion to compensate people for the harms they have suffered.

A)Preferential treatment equalizes the situation of unfair discrimination after the fact and returns it to the point that it would have been had discrimination not occurred.
B)Young white males will lose their undeserved competitive advantage if society simply adopts equal opportunity policies.
C)Compensation is not being paid by young white males but by private business or society. These white males are only being denied the competitive advantage they previously enjoyed-something they did not deserve.
D)The only means to compensate for overall discrimination (e.g., in pay treatment) is to grant individual women preferential consideration in hiring and promotion.

Question 8

Identify the reason for not believing that it would be correct to shift from the reasonable "man" or reasonable "person" standard to the reasonable "women" standard for identifying conduct that unreasonably interferes with work.

A)The shift from reasonable man to reasonable "person" should alert us to the possibility that "person" is simply a disguised version of "man."
B)This shift can reinforce the unacceptable sexual and paternalistic stereotype of women as more sensitive, fragile, and delicate than men and that, therefore, women need extra protection from the rough and tough workplace.
C)Unless, as one judge has ruled, the outlook of the reasonable women is adopted, defendants and courts are permitted to sustain ingrained notions of reasonable behavior as fashioned by male offenders.
D)The reasonable "person" standard can have the effect of simply maintaining the status quo in a workplace that remains very male-oriented.

Question 9

Which of the following is true of black men in the workforce?

A)In 2017, the unemployment rate of black men was twice that of white men.
B)Real wages of black men overall have risen steeply since 1975.
C)The unemployment rate of black men in 2011 was half that of white men.
D)In 1990, black men earned on average 40 cents for every dollar earned by white men.

Question 10

Which of the following is an argument in support of preferential hiring?

A)Preferential hiring is an ethically legitimate means for compensating people for the harms that they have suffered.
B)Preferential hiring policies are unlikely to create more discrimination as a backlash against gender or racial preferences.
C)Preferential hiring is unlikely to interfere with the right to equal treatment of white males as it is reparative in nature.
D)Preferential hiring is based on the concept that the most qualified candidate has earned or deserves the job.

Question 11

Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 required significant changes throughout American society, especially in the workplace and commerce, it was, politically speaking, only mildly controversial.

Question 12

Discrimination, in itself, does not give rise to ethical problems unless the criteria for making it are unethical or unfair.

Question 13

Legal access alone is usually sufficient to give a woman or person of color a really fair chance to succeed in a predominantly male or white workplace.

Question 14

When an employer seeks to increase the applicant pool for its positions, no white male's rights are violated because no white male has been denied anything to which he had a legitimate ethical claim.

Question 15

To conclude that the most qualified candidate has a legitimate ethical claim on a job is to treat jobs as the private property of business owners to be distributed as they see fit, not as social goods that should be distributed on grounds of fairness.

Question 16

One response made to young white males who claim that they did not cause the harm done by past discrimination and, therefore, are being unfairly harmed by being denied equal access is that they are simply being denied something they did not deserve-that is, an unfair competitive advantage.

Question 17

One of the major arguments for preferential treatment in hiring is that such policies are a legitimate means for compensating people for harms they have suffered. To fail to compensate continues a practice of undeserved advantages for white males having to compete in an unfairly restricted job pool and undeserved disadvantages for victims of discrimination.

Question 18

Even though the principle of equality in its most basic sense requires us to treat likes alike, ignoring the effects of undeserved and unfair disadvantages is not treating unlikes alike as long as it is done for the sake of some formal principle of equal or identical treatment.

Question 19

The word "sex" can mean sex as gender or sex as sexuality. Even though the treatment a woman receives in a case of quid pro quo sexual harassment is unequal, it only involves sexuality and, as a result, cannot be a case of gender discrimination as well.

Question 20

The "reasonable person" standard for judging the severity of workplace sexual harassment may mean what the average person considers reasonable, and that understanding may simply ingrain notions of reasonable behavior fashioned by the male offenders and may fail to adequately address injustice.

Question 21

The most effective way to create a diverse workplace is to use categories of sex, race, or ethnicity as a criterion for hiring or promotion, but it violates equality by denying equal opportunity for white males.

Question 22

In spite of significant gains in many professional careers, women remain clustered in lower-paid and lower-status jobs, are relatively absent from higher-paying, blue-collar, and management positions, and continue to be paid lower wages than men.

Question 23

Quid pro quo harassment cases that involve trading sexual realties with workplace benefits are forms of coercion or extortion.

Question 24

In the context of what constitutes unreasonable conduct of a sexual nature, a shift to a reasonable woman standard from the traditional concept of the reasonable man standard will discourage sexual stereotyping and paternalistic behaviors.