Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-fv566 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T16:02:51.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multiple Disadvantages: An Empirical Test of Intersectionality Theory in EEO Litigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Rachel Kahn Best ,
Lauren B. Edelman ,
Linda Hamilton Krieger  and
Scott R. Eliason
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A rich theoretical literature describes the disadvantages facing plaintiffs who suffer multiple, or intersecting, axes of discrimination. This article extends extant literature by distinguishing two forms of intersectionality: demographic intersectionality, in which overlapping demographic characteristics produce disadvantages that are more than the sum of their parts, and claim intersectionality, in which plaintiffs who allege discrimination on the basis of intersecting ascriptive characteristics (e.g., race and sex) are unlikely to win their cases. To date, there has been virtually no empirical research on the effects of either type of intersectionality on litigation outcomes. This article addresses that lacuna with an empirical analysis of a representative sample of judicial opinions in equal employment opportunity (EEO) cases in the U.S. federal courts from 1965 through 1999. Using generalized ordered logistic regression and controlling for numerous variables, we find that both intersectional demographic characteristics and legal claims are associated with dramatically reduced odds of plaintiff victory. Strikingly, plaintiffs who make intersectional claims are only half as likely to win their cases as plaintiffs who allege a single basis of discrimination. Our findings support and elaborate predictions about the sociolegal effects of intersectionality.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 991 - 1025
Copyright
© 2011 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We thank the National Science Foundation (SES 0651870), the University of California Committee on Research, the UC Berkeley School of Law, and the Berkeley Empirical Legal Studies Fellowship for providing funds for data collection and analysis. We also thank the participants in the Berkeley Sociology Department's Race Workshop and the Center for the Study of Law and Society Speaker Series for discussions that influenced many of the ideas in this article. In addition, we would like to thank Catherine Albiston, Hana Brown, Lani Guinier, Mike Hout, Laura Mangels, Joy Milligan, Calvin Morrill, Sandra Smith, and three anonymous reviewers for extremely helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

References

References

Abrams, Kathryn (1994) “Title VII and the Complex Female Subject,” 92 Michigan Law Rev. 2479–2540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albiston, Catherine (1999) “The Rule of Law and the Litigation Process: The Paradox of Losing by Winning,” 33 Law & Society Rev. 869–910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albiston, Catherine R. (2005) “Bargaining in the Shadow of Social Institutions: Competing Discourses and Social Change in Workplace Mobilization of Civil Rights,” 39 Law & Society Rev. 11–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, Regina (1989) “Sapphire Bound!” 1989 Wisconsin Law Rev. 539–578.Google Scholar
Babcock, Barbara Allen (1993) “Report of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force: Introduction: Gender Bias in the Courts and Civic and Legal Education,” 45 Stanford Law Rev. 2143–2152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldus, David C., Woodworth, George, & Pulaski, Charles A. (1990) Equal Justice and the Death Penalty: A Legal and Empirical Analysis. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Beller, Andrea (1982) “The Impact of Equal Opportunity Policy on Sex Differentials in Earnings and Occupations,” 72 American Economic Rev. 171–175.Google Scholar
Bisom-Rapp, Susan (1999) “Bulletproofing the Workplace: Symbol and Substance in Employment Discrimination Law Practice,” 26 Florida State Univ. Law Review 959–1038.Google Scholar
Bisom-Rapp, Susan (2001) “Fixing Watches with Sledgehammers: The Questionable Embrace of Employee Sexual Harassment Training by the Legal Profession,” 24 University of Arkansas Little Rock Law Rev. 147–168.Google Scholar
Bodenhausen, Galen V. (2010) “Diversity in the Person, Diversity in the Group: Challenges of Identity Complexity for Social Perception and Social Interaction,” 40(1) European J. of Social Psychology 1–16.Google Scholar
Brant, Rollin (1990) “Assessing Proportionality in the Proportional Odds Model for Ordinal Logistic Regression,” 46 Biometrics 1171–1178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Browne, Irene, & Misra, Joya (2003) “The Intersection of Gender and Race in the Labor Market,” 29 Annual Rev. of Sociology 487–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bumiller, Kristin (1987) “Victims in the Shadow of the Law: A Critique of the Model of Legal Protection,” 12 Signs 421–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bumiller, Kristin (1988) The Civil Rights Society: The Social Construction of Victims. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Burstein, Paul, & Edwards, Mark Evan (1994) “The Impact of Employment Discrimination Litigation on Racial Disparity in Earnings: Evidence and Unresolved Issues,” 28 Law & Society Rev. 79–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burstein, Paul & Monaghan, Kathleen (1986) “Equal Employment Opportunity and the Mobilization of Law,” Law & Society Rev. 20 355–388.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, Paulette (1991) “A Hair Piece: Perspectives on the Intersection of Race and Gender,” 1991 Duke Law J. 365–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carbado, Devon W., & Gulati, Mitu (2001) “The Fifth Black Woman,” 11 J. of Contemporary Legal Issues 701–729.Google Scholar
Chang, Robert S., & Culp, Jerome McCristal Jr (2002) “After Intersectionality,” 71 University of Missouri Kansas City Law Rev. 485–491.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill (1990) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams (1989) “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Policies,” The Univ. of Chicago Legal Forum 139–167.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams (1991) “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” 43 Stanford Law Rev. 1241–1299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams (1992) “Race, Gender, and Sexual Harassment,” 65 Southern California Law Rev. 1467–1476.Google Scholar
Cunningham, E. Christi (1998) “The Rise of Identity Politics I: The Myth of the Protected Class in Title VII Disparate Treatment Cases,” 30 Connecticut Law Rev. 441–501.Google Scholar
Davis, Kathy (2008) “Intersectionality as Buzzword: A Sociology of Science Perspective on What Makes a Feminist Theory Successful,” 9 Feminist Theory 67–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delgado, Richard, ed. (1995) Critical Race Theory: The Cutting Edge. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Eberts, Randall W., & Stone, Joe A. (1985) “Male-Female Differences in Promotions: EEO in Public Education,” 20 J. of Human Resources 504–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. (1992) “Legal Ambiguity and Symbolic Structures: Organizational Mediation of Civil Rights Law,” 97 American J. of Sociology 1531–1576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. (2005) “Law at Work: The Endogenous Construction of Civil Rights,” in Nelson, Robert L., & Nielsen, Laura Beth, eds., Handbook on Employment Discrimination Research: Rights and Realities. Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Press. pp. 337–352Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. (2007) “Overlapping Fields and Constructed Legalities: The Endogeneity of Law,” in O'Brien, Justin, ed., Private Equity, Corporate Governance, and the Dynamics of Capital Market Regulation. London: World Scientific. pp. 55–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., et al. (1993) “Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation of Civil Rights in the Workplace,” 27 Law & Society Rev. 497–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., et al. (1999) “The Endogeneity of Legal Regulation: Grievance Procedures as Rational Myth,” 105 American Journal of Sociology 406–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., et al. (2011) “When Organizations Rule: Judicial Deference to Institutionalized Organizational Structures,” 117 American J. of Sociology (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felstiner, William L.F., et al. (1980/1981) “The Emergence and Transformation of Disputes: Naming Blaming, Claiming,” 15 Law & Society Rev. 631–654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law & Society Rev. 95–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerken, Joseph L. (2004) “A Librarian's Guide to Unpublished Judicial Opinions,” 96 Law Library J. 475–502.Google Scholar
Giles, Michael W., et al. (2001) “Picking Federal Judges: A Note on Policy and Partisan Selection Agendas,” 64 Political Research Q. 623–641.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gomez, Laura E. (2004) “A Tale of Two Genres: On the Real and Ideal Links Between Law and Society and Critical Race Theory,” in Sarat, Austin, ed., Blackwell Companion to Law and Society. New York: 454–470. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Guthrie, Chris, Rachlinski, Jeffrey J., & Wistrich, Andrew J. (2007) “Blinking on the Bench: How Judges Decide Cases,” 93 Cornell Law Rev. 1–44.Google Scholar
Haney Lopez, Ian F. (2000) “Institutional Racism: Judicial Conduct and a New Theory of Racial Discrimination,” 109 Yale Law Rev. 1717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Angela (1990) “Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory,” 42 Stanford Law Rev. 581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Cheryl (1997) “Finding Sojourner's Truth: Race, Gender and the Institution of Property,” 18 Cardozo Law Rev. 309.Google Scholar
Harvey, Adia M. (2005) “Becoming Entrepreneurs: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender at the Black Beauty Salon,” 19 Gender and Society 789–808.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckman, James J., & Verkerke, J. Hoult (1990) “Racial Disparity and Employment Discrimination Law: An Economic Perspective,” 8 Yale Law and Policy Rev. 276–299.Google Scholar
Hondagneu-Sotelo, Pierrette (2001) Domestica: Immigrant Workers Cleaning and Caring in the Shadows of Affluence. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Hutter, Russell R. C., & Crisp, Richard J. (2005) “The Composition of Category Conjunctions,” 31 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 647–657.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kalev, Alexandra, et al. (2006) “Best Practices or Best Guesses? Assessing the Efficacy of Corporate Affirmative Action and Diversity Policies,” 71 American Sociological Rev. 589–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Robert L. (2002) “Assessing Alternative Perspectives on Race and Sex Employment Segregation,” 67 American Sociological Rev. 547–572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennelly, Ivy (1999) “That Single Mother Element: How White Employers Typify Black Women,” 13 Gender and Society 168–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Deborah K. (1988) “Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology,” 14 Signs 42–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirschenman, Joleen, & Neckerman, Kathryn M. (1991) “We'd Love to Hire Them But…: The Meaning of Race to Employers,” in Jencks, Christopher, & Peterson, Paul, eds., The Urban Underclass. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Kluegel, James R., & Smith, Eliot R. (1986) Beliefs about Inequality: Americans' Views of What Is and What Ought to Be. New York: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Kotkin, Minna (2009) “Diversity and Discrimination: A Look at Complex Bias,” 50 William and Mary Law Rev. 1439–1500.Google Scholar
Krieger, Linda (1995) “The Content of Our Categories: A Cognitive Bias Approach to Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity,” 47 Stanford Law Rev. 1161–1248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunda, Ziva, & Thagard, Paul (1996) “Forming Impressions from Stereotypes, Traits, and Behaviors: A Parallel-Constraint-Satisfaction Theory,” 103 Psychological Rev. 284–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwan, Peter (1996) “Jeffrey Dahmer and the Cosynthesis of Categories,” 48 Hastings Law J. 1257–1292.Google Scholar
Leonard, Jonathan S. (1984) “The Impact of Affirmative Action on Employment,” 2 J. of Labor Economics 439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonard, Jonathan S. (1986) “The Effectiveness of Equal Employment Law and Affirmative Action Regulation,” 8 Research in Labor Economics 319.Google Scholar
Long, J. Scott (1997) Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.Google Scholar
Marshall, Anna-Maria (2005) “Idle Rights: Employees' Rights Consciousness and the Construction of Sexual Harassment Policies,” 39 Law & Society Rev. 83–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCall, Leslie (2001) “Sources of Racial Wage Inequality in Metropolitan Labor Markets: Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Differences,” 66 American Sociological Rev. 520–541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCall, Leslie (2005) “The Complexity of Intersectionality,” 30 Signs: J. of Women in Culture and Society 1771–1800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Richard E., & Sarat, Austin (1980) “Grievances, Claims, and Disputes: Assessing the Adversary Culture,” 15 Law & Society Rev. 525–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moss, Philip I., & Tilly, Chris (2001) Stories Employers Tell: Race, Skills, and Hiring in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Nakao, Keiko, & Treas, Judith (1992) “The 1989 Socioeconomic Index of Occupations: Construction from the 1989 Occupational Prestige Scores,” 74 General Social Survey Methodological Reports 1–32.Google Scholar
Nash, Jennifer C. (2008) “re-thinking intersectionality,” 89 Feminist Rev. 115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Dorothy W. (1994) “Introduction to the Effects of Gender in the Federal Courts: The Final Report of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force,” 67 Southern California Law Rev. 731–738.Google Scholar
Nelson, Robert L., & Bridges, William (1999) Legalizing Gender Inequality: Courts, Markets and Unequal Pay for Women. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, Laura Beth (2004a) “The Power of Place: Public Space and Rights Consciousness,” in Fleury-Steiner, Ben, & Nielsen, Laura Beth, eds., New Civil Rights Research: A Constitutive Approach. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press. pp. 217–232.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Laura Beth (2004b) “The Work of Rights and the Work That Rights Do,” in Sarat, Austin, ed., Blackwell Companion to Law and Society. New York: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Laura Beth, et al. (2010) “Individual Justice or Collective Legal Mobilization? Employment Discrimination Litigation in the Post-Civil Rights United States,” 7 J. of Empirical Legal Studies 175–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oppenheimer, David B. (2003) “Verdicts Matter: An Empirical Study of California Employment Discrimination and Wrongful Discharge Jury Verdicts Reveals Low Success Rates for Women and Minorities,” 37 Univ. of California, Davis Law Rev. 511–566.Google Scholar
Ransford, H. Edward (1980) “The Prediction of Social Behavior and Attitudes: The Correlates Tradition,” in Jeffries, Vincent, & Ransford, H. Edward, eds., Social Stratification: A Multiple Hierarchies Approach. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Resnik, Judith (1991) “ ‘Naturally’ Without Gender: Women, Jurisdiction, and the Federal Courts,” 66 New York Univ. Law Rev. 1682–1673.Google Scholar
Richards, Zoee, & Hewstone, Miles (2001) “Subtyping and Subgrouping: Processes for the Prevention and Promotion of Stereotype Change,” 5 Personality and Social Psychology Rev. 52–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ridgeway, Cecilia L. (1997) “Interaction and conservation of gender inequality: considering employment,” 62 American Sociological Rev. 218–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, Dorothy (1991) “Punishing Drug Addicts Who Have Babies: Women of Color, Equality and the Right of Privacy,” 104 Harvard Law Rev. 1419–1482.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roccas, Sonia, & Brewer, Marilynn B. (2002) “Social Identity Complexity,” 6 Personality and Social Psychology Rev. 88–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scales-Trent, Judy (1989) “Black Women and the Constitution: Finding Our Place, Asserting Our Rights,” 24 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Rev. 9–44.Google Scholar
Schafran, Lynn Hecht (1998) “Will Inquiry Produce Action? Studying the Effects of Gender in the Federal Courts,” 32 Univ. of Richmond Law Rev. 615–646.Google Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart (1974) The Politics of Rights. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Schultz, Vicki (1990) “Telling Stories about Women and Work: Judicial Interpretations of Sex Segregation in the Workplace in Title VII Cases Raising the Lack of Interest Argument,” 103 Harvard Law Rev. 1750–1843.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, Vicki & Petterson, Stephen (1992) “Race, Gender, Work, and Choice: An Empirical Study of the Lack of Interest Defense in Title VII Cases Challenging Job Segregation,” 59 Univ. of Chicago Law Rev. 1073–1181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selby, Myra C. (1999) “Examining Race and Gender Bias in the Courts: A Legacy of Indifference or Opportunity?” 32 Indiana Law Rev. 1167–1186.Google Scholar
Shih, Johanna (2002) “ ‘Yeah, I could hire this one, but I know it's gonna be a problem’: How Race, Nativity and Gender Affect Employers' Perceptions of the Manageability of Job Seekers,” 25 Ethnic and Racial Studies 99–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegelman, Peter, & Donohue, John J. III (1990) “Studying the Iceberg From Its Tip: A Comparison of Published and Unpublished Employment Discrimination Cases,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 1133–1170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skaggs, Sheryl (2008) “Producing Change or Bagging Opportunity? The Effects of Discrimination Litigation on Women in Supermarket Management,” 113 American J. of Sociology 1148–1182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skaggs, Sheryl (2009) “Legal-Political Pressures and African American Access to Managerial Jobs,” 74 American Sociological Rev. 225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Peggie R. (1991) “Separate Identities: Black Women, Work, and Title VII,” 14 Harvard Women's Law J. 21–75.Google Scholar
Stangor, Charles, et al. (1992) “Categorization of Individuals on the Basis of Multiple Social Features,” 62 J. of Personality and Social Psychology 207–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturm, Susan (2001) “Second Generation Employment Discrimination: A Structural Approach,” 101 Columbia Law Rev. 458–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturm, Susan & Guinier, Lani (1996) “The Future of Affirmative Action: Reclaiming the Innovative Ideal,” 84 California Law Rev. 953–1036.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Margery Austin, et al. (1991) Opportunities Denied, Opportunities Diminished: Racial Discrimination in Hiring. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.Google Scholar
Wald, Patricia (1998) “Summary Judgment at 60,” 76 Texas Law Rev. 1897.Google Scholar
Weber, Lynn (2001) Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality: A Conceptual Framework. Boston: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Wei, Virginia W. (1996) “Asian Women and Employment Discrimination: Using Intersectionality Theory to Address Title VII Claims Based on Combined Factors of Race, Gender and National Origin,” 37 Boston College Law Rev. 771–812.Google Scholar
West, Candace, & Fenstermaker, Sarah (1995) “Doing Difference,” 9 Gender and Society 8–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Patricia J. (1991) The Alchemy of Race and Rights. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Wolfe, Rory, & Gould, William (1998) “An Approximate Likelihood-Ratio Test for Ordinal Response Models,” 42 Stata Technical Bulletin 24–27.Google Scholar
Yuval-Davis, Nira (2006) “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics,” 13 European J. of Women's Studies 193–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zack, Naomi (2005) Inclusive Feminism: A Third Wave Theory of Women's Commonality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242 (1984).Google Scholar
Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986).Google Scholar
DeGraffenreid v. General Motors, 413 F. Supp. 142 (E.D. Mo. 1976).Google Scholar
Jefferies v. Harris County Community Action Association (615 F.2d 1025 (5th Cir. 1980).Google Scholar
Jewel C. Rich v. Martin Marietta, 522 F.2d 333 (10th Cir. 1975).Google Scholar
Judge v. Marsh, 649 F. Supp. 770 (D.D.C. 1986).Google Scholar
Lam v. University of Hawai'i, 40 F.3d 1551 (9th Cir. 1994).Google Scholar
Logan v. St. Luke's Hospital Center, 428 F. Supp. 127 (S.D.N.Y 1977).Google Scholar
Love v. Alamance County Board of Education, 581 F. Supp. 1079 (M.D.N.C. 1984).Google Scholar
Matsushita Electric Industries Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574 (1986).Google Scholar
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986).Google Scholar
Richardson v. Steak 'N Shake, Inc., 36,990 (E.D. Mo. 1987).Google Scholar