Employment Equity Programs and the Job Search Outcomes of Unemployed Men and Women: Actual and Perceived Effects

Using a new survey of Canadian job searchers, this paper attempts to measure the effect of employment equity law on job search outcomes, and on perceptions of discrimination by both men and women. We find some evidence that employment equity coverage in a pre-separation job reduces the relative amount of time it takes women, versus men, to become re-employed. This effect operates largely through highly significant differences in the rate at which women and men are recalled to the pre-separation employer. We also find that employment equity coverage reduces the gender gap in the extent to which workers feel harmed by gender discrimination. Perhaps unfortunately, this effect primarily occurs via an increase in men’s perceptions of being harmed, rather than a reduction in women’s