The Context of Workplace Sex Discrimination: Sex Composition, Workplace Culture and Relative Power

Building on prior work surrounding negative workplace experiences, such as bullying and sexual harassment, we examine the extent to which organizational context is meaningful for the subjective experience of sex discrimination. Data draw on the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, which provides a key indicator of individuals ’ sex discrimination experiences as well as arguably influential dimensions of organizational context – i.e., sex composition, workplace culture and relative power – suggested by prior research. Results indicate that the experience of sex discrimination is reduced for both women and men when they are part of the numerical majority of their work group. Although supportive workplace cultures mitigate the likelihood of sex discrimination, relative power in the workplace seems to matter little. We conclude by revisiting these results relative to perspectives surrounding hierarchy maintenance, group competition and internal cultural dynamics. Organizations, and workplaces in particular, are fundamental to the allocation of societal rewards and stratification among social groups. The pioneering work of Baron and Bielby (1980) made this point explicitly, laying the foundation for contemporary scholars inter-ested in how organizational context influences inequality. Classical theoretical formula-tions are likewise informative, offering predictions regarding group composition, threat dynamics and their likely implications for discrimination and inequality (e.g., Kanter 1977; Blalock 1967). Drawing from this work, researchers have analyzed sex-specific inequalities including segregation (Huffman, Cohen and Pearlman 2010; Kmec 2005), earnings disparities (Castilla 2008; Huffman and Velasco 1997), and access to authorit