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Falling Between the Cracks: Discrimination Laws and Older Women

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  • Joanne Song McLaughlin

Abstract

Theories and evidence suggest that older women may experience unique discrimination for being both old and female in the workplace. To provide a remedy for this type of discrimination — known as intersectional discrimination — legal scholars argue that age and sex discrimination laws must be used jointly and acknowledge intersectional discrimination (age‐plus‐sex or sex‐plus‐age discrimination) as a separate cause of action. Nonetheless, in general, courts have declined to do so even though older women are protected under both age and sex discrimination laws. This raises a concern that age discrimination laws may be ineffective, or less effective in protecting older women. I test this implication by estimating the differential effect of age discrimination laws on labor market outcomes between older women and older men. My findings show that age discrimination laws did far less to improve labor market outcomes for older women than for older men. These results may explain the persistent findings of discrimination against older women in the existing literature and support the legal scholars' argument that older women's intersectional discrimination must be recognized as a separate cause of action.

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  • Joanne Song McLaughlin, 2020. "Falling Between the Cracks: Discrimination Laws and Older Women," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 34(2), pages 215-238, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:34:y:2020:i:2:p:215-238
    DOI: 10.1111/labr.12175
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. David Neumark & Patrick Button, 2014. "Did Age Discrimination Protections Help Older Workers Weather the Great Recession?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 566-601, June.
    2. Gordon B. Dahl & Matthew Knepper, 2023. "Age Discrimination across the Business Cycle," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 75-112, November.
    3. Kamal, Mustafa & Blacklow, Paul, 2021. "Australian age, period, cohort effects in the gender wage gap - 2001 to 2018," Working Papers 2021-02, University of Tasmania, Tasmanian School of Business and Economics.
    4. Button, Patrick & Khan, Mashfiqur R. & Penn, Mary, 2022. "Do stronger employment discrimination protections decrease reliance on Social Security Disability Insurance? Evidence from the U.S. Social Security reforms," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 22(C).
    5. David Neumark, 2016. "Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination," NBER Working Papers 22022, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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