Disability, gender, and hiring discrimination: a field experiment

Abstract

This article examines disability discrimination in the hiring process and explores variation in how the intersection of disability and gender shapes employers’ hiring behavior. We use data from a field experiment in which 2,048 job applications with randomly assigned information about disability were sent to Swedish employers with vacancies. Nondisabled applicants received 33% more callbacks than similarly qualified wheelchair users despite applying for jobs for which the impairment should not interfere with performance. The results indicate no heterogeneity in disability discrimination against men and women on average across occupations or by occupational gender segregation. However, discrimination rates differ considerably among occupations, varying from no evidence of disability discrimination to discrimination against both disabled men and disabled women as well as cases in which disability discrimination is found only against women or only against men. The results indicate that discrimination based on disability, and the intersection between disability and gender, is highly occupation specific.